Opened in the 19th and early 20th centuries, Texas’s youth prisons were once known as “reform schools.” These large facilities were in rural areas far from the urban communities that most of the youth within their walls were arriving from and operated with little funding or oversight. It was believed at that time that incarcerating delinquent youths in rural areas removed them from bad influences and ensured public safety. However, these isolated facilities quickly became notorious for abuse and brutality.

You are arrested in Caldwell County, Texas, picked up off the street, and taken to jail, where you wait to see a magistrate for your first appearance. When the time comes, as you sit in a cell, the magistrate, who may or may not have a law degree, settles into a seat in another room in the jail, readying for you to be brought in, readying to pronounce the sum you will have to pay to go free.

Barbara McDowell met Justice O’Connor initially when she began clerking for Justice White in 1987. At that time, Justice O’Connor had been a Justice for six years. They shared a somewhat common experience. Justice O’Connor would often say that when she graduated from Stanford Law School at the top of her class in 1952 (third in her class of 102), she applied to numerous law firms and never received a job offer other than for a legal secretary position.  At one job interview, she related that she was asked how well she typed.