Introduction to Criminal Justice: The Essentials, Third Edition

L. Thomas Winfree

Before leaving Arizona State University and retiring from academia in 2014, Tom Winfree spent nearly 40 years studying prisons and jails in the United States and across the globe. He published extensively on inmate responses to institutional living conditions, including prisonization, suicide, and rebellion, as well as a textbook co-authored with his colleague Larry Mays on corrections that is in its fourth edition (Essentials of Corrections, 2014, Wiley Blackwell). Beyond prisons and jails, Tom also spent much of his career looking at the problems of youth in contemporary society, particularly the misuse of drugs by adolescents and the role of street gangs in youthful socialization. In this latter regard, he also expanded his vistas to look internationally at gangs in other nations, including published works about youth gangs in the Netherlands, Germany, and Bosnia-Herzegovina. He continues to collaborate with colleagues in the Eurogang Project, as that group endeavors to define and examine troublesome youth groups in Europe. Tom’s interests in the contemporary youth led him to once again partner with Larry Mays, the product being Juvenile Justice (2012, Wolters Kluwer).

The third leg of Tom Winfree’s scholarship centers on the development of criminological theory. Beyond adding to the body of criminological theory, largely by his expansion on and extension of social learning theory into youthful drug use (including American Indian youth and illicit drugs), street gangs, and terrorist groups, Tom, working with Howard Abadinsky, authored the third edition of Understanding Crime: Essentials of Criminological Theory (Wadsworth). This book is currently being revised for Waveland Press.

As a way of taking his contemporary academic scholarship back to the community, Dr. Winfree worked with local jails to redefine their jail inmate handling policies and practices. He testified as a jail expert in several jail death cases filed under 42 U.S.C. 1983 (Civil Action for Deprivation of Rights). He worked with local communities in examining their gang problems. In particular, he was a collaborator on the first National Evaluation of G.R.E.A.T., working under the supervision of Finn-Aage Esbensen, the project's principal investigator. Winfree provided the City of Las Cruces with an assessment of its Municipal DWI Drug Court using an experimental design. He supervised dozens masters theses, including ones that have directly benefited the local, state and federal criminal justice agencies employing the graduate students. According to Google Scholar(tm), his more than 100 published works—articles, books, and book chapters—have been cited nearly 3,000 citations. Winfree previously served as a member of the editorial boards for the following journals: Women and Criminal Justice, Crime & Delinquency, Youth & Society, and the Journal of Drug Issues. While a faculty member at NMSU, Tom received the Dennis Darnell Award for Excellence in Teaching, Research and Service (2003) and the International Programs Globalization Award (2006-2007). He has also been included in many Who’s Who publications over the past 30 years, but his favorite is Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers (three times), as these nominations come from students.

Leanne F. Alarid

Leanne Fiftal Alarid is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Texas-El Paso. She double majored in Psychology and Sociology at the University of Northern Colorado where she earned a B.A. in 1989. She worked in Denver as a counselor in a girls group home and as a case manager at an adult halfway house before returning to school to earn an M.A. and Ph.D. in Criminal Justice from Sam Houston State University in Huntsville, Texas. She was on the faculty at the University of Missouri-Kansas City from 1996-2006, and at the University of Texas at San Antonio from 2006-2013. Her research areas are post conviction offender behavior, issues of mentally ill offenders, and correctional policy. She has also partnered with a number of criminal justice agencies as a researcher, consultant, and program evaluator. Alarid has authored more than forty journal articles and book chapters. She has co-authored/co-edited six books and received the Fellow Award by the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences in 2011 for her outstanding contribution to criminal justice education and service.

G. Larry Mays

Dr. G. Larry Mays is a Regents Professor Emeritus in the Criminal Justice Department at New Mexico State University. From 1981 to 1990 he served as academic department head. Dr. Mays holds a Ph.D. in political science from the University of Tennessee and he has held faculty positions at East Tennessee State University and Appalachian State University as well as at New Mexico State over his 33 year teaching career. Prior to entering the academic world he served as an officer with the Knoxville, Tennessee Police Department.

Dr. Mays has won a number of teaching awards including the Carnegie Foundation Award as the New Mexico Professor of the Year in 1997. He is author or editor of 17 books and has published over 100 articles, book chapters, and encyclopedia entries. One of his books, American Jails, was recognized by the Policy Studies Organization as one of the most significant books in the area of public policy. He also serves on the editorial boards of several of the nation’s leading journals in the field of criminal justice.