"Shira Birnbaum's brilliant new book, Law and Order and School, offers an insider's look at an educational institution for troubled teenagers. It is a work of careful and thoughtful scholarship, yet its ethnographic approach makes it read like a novel as the students and teachers come alive and you see inside the 'Academy' with them. While the book's strength is ... Read moreits in-depth look at this institution, it provides a recognizably authentic picture of what is being faced throughout our nation, and how, in the best of our programs, with idealistic and mostly very competent teachers, we too often still fail our troubled youth. This should be required reading for anyone studying or working with the juvenile justice system and for all of us concerned with the problem."
Steven J. Klees, University of Maryland "Law and Order and School is well written and informs readers about an institution that most of us know nothing about. It is extremely rich in detail and includes many scenes and conversations that bring the 'Academy' to life. The stories of the students and teachers are presented respectfully. With the accelerating privatization of both the educational and penal systems, this book is especially important at this time."
Doreen J. Mattingly, Associate Professor of Women's Studies and Geography, San Diego State University "Law and Order and School is a gripping and compelling story. In this ethnographic study of the 'Academy,' Birnbaum lets the story tell itself, without hand-wringing or sermonizing, without stating the obvious, and without upstaging the material. This is in every respect a model of what good writing should be: carefully conceived, theoretically informed and rich in insight, yet unburdened by pretense or jargon. The result is both a beautifully rendered, and a heart-rending, story told in page-turning style."
Robert Lake, Center for Urban Policy Research, Rutgers University Show Less