Book Review: Caught up: Girls, surveillance, and wraparound incarceration

• DOI: 10.1177/0734016818756485
• Published date: 01 June 2020
• Author: Alison S. Burke
• Date: 01 June 2020
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Book Reviews

Flores, J. (2016).

Caught up: Girls, surveillance, and wraparound incarceration. Oakland: University of California Press.

200 pp. $29.95, ISBN 9780520284883.

Reviewed by: Alison S. Burke, Southern Oregon University, Ashland, OR, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016818756485

In the book, Caught Up: Girls, Surveillance, and Wraparound Incarceration, Dr. Jerry Flores

delivers a perceptive and thought-provoking account of the lives of girls involved in the criminal

justice system in an area 40 miles outside of Los Angeles, CA. The book offers a detailed explana-

tion of the challenges girls face while navigating in a system designed to help them but in actuality

ensnares them further into the criminal justice system by ways of increased surveillance and inad-

equate educational opportunities. With eye-opening detail, Dr. Flores transports the reader to two

separate locations: a juvenile detention facility, which he calls “El Valle,” and a transitional or

community school, which he calls “Legacy,” The result is a book spanning 2 years of ethnographic

research, comprised of interviews, participant observation, and focus groups. It is an in-depth

analysis of the intersection of race, class, gender, and crime.

The author begins his journey with a comprehensive description of his first visit to El Valle, the

people he meets, and details of the ambiance of the facility. He transports the reader into a sterile,

cinder block, fenced-in edifice, which he describes as looking like a courthouse from the outside.

It is here where the youth in his study live. The facility itself holds approximately 400 youth, 90%of

whom are male juveniles, leaving one section of the facility for the 40 or so girls housed there.

Of those 40 girls, 95%are Latina.

The purpose of the book is to explore the girls’ experiences behind bars, what leads them to be

justice involved, and how they eventually (hopefully) exit the criminal justice system. Flores utilizes

myriad theoretical perspectives (such as feminist theory, life course, and labeling) to explain the

pathways to offending. However, what makes this book stand apart from other studies on justice

involved youth is the juxtaposition of his examination of the relationship between the juvenile

detention facility and the community school. The author is able to astutely and accurately scrutinize

the consequences of the connection between these two institutions. What he unravels are individual

stories bound in the similarity of victimization, substance abuse, and criminalized survival. The girls

struggle to transition from secure detention to a probation-funded school where they are drug tested

at random, observed constantly by probation officers, and kept with same youth they were incar-

cerated with. Being under constant surveillance is part of the wraparound services provided by the

school and as Flores describes:

In theory, this well-intentioned idea provides youth with support from social service professionals at

home, at school, and in the actual detention center. In practice, however, the results are less desirable.

I argue that wraparound services more closely resemble a phenomenon I call wraparound incarceration,

where students cannot escape the surveillance associated with formal detention despite leaving the actual

detention center. (p. 7)

Criminal Justice Review

2020, Vol. 45(2) 267-273

ª2018 Georgia State University

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