An Appeal to Justice: Litigated Reform of Texas Prisons

Federal Court intervention radically transformed one prison system, the Texas Department of Corrections (TDC). While we focus on litigation as the change agent, our primary concern is with the impact of that process on prison organization, the prisoners, and the staff. As such, the book is much more about the functioning of a prison than that of a court.Our account presents what Texas prisons were like prior to reform, why and how they changed, and what they have become after years of litigation. Critical to this account, of course, is rich and accurate information about prereform TDC; without such information we could not confidently characterize the extent and nature of change.