"[W]ith the very rare exception, jails have not received any sustained scholarly attention. Welsh has changed all this. His book not only tells us a lot about the process and impact of conditions litigation on jails, he tells us a lot about how jails are administered and about the operations of county government. This is a welcome book indeed." --Malcolm Feeley, School of Law, University of California, Berkeley "...a notable addition to the literature and will serve as a useful source for investigations of institutional reform in the future." --American Political Science Review