DONNELLY'S PAPER examines the process by which elected officials develop reform measures that address racial inequalities in the U.S. adult and juvenile justice systems. It explores how politically-defined issues of racial inequality led to national policy reforms in capital punishment, racial profiling, and youth confinement.

NEWPORT'S PAPER, as part of a larger project exploring jails and the local origins of mass incarceration, this chapter addresses the tensions between federal and state jail construction agendas and local capacity to implement reforms at Chicago's Cook County Jail during the 1970s.