Horton, David M. 1949-

PERSONAL:

Born March 27, 1949. Education: Attended college.

ADDRESSES:

Office—School of Behavioral and Social Sciences, St. Edward's University, 3001 S. Congress Ave., Austin, TX 78704.

CAREER:

Educator and writer. St. Edward's University, Austin, TX, professor and director of the Criminal Justice Program.

WRITINGS:

(Compiler, with Marjorie Kravitz) The Female Offender: A Selected Bibliography, U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, DC), 1979.

(Compiler, with Susan S. LaPerla) Criminal Justice Periodicals: A Selected Bibliography, supervising editor Marjorie Kravitz, U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, DC), 1979.

(Compiler, with Carol Klein) Bibliographies in Criminal Justice, supervising editor Marjorie Kravitz, U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, DC), 1980.

(Compiler, with Robert D. Hubbard and J.T. Skip Duncan) Rural Crime and Criminal Justice: A Selected Bibliography, supervising editor Marjorie Kravitz, U.S. Department of Justice (Washington, DC), 1980.

(With Kellus Turner) Lone Star Justice: A Comprehensive Overview of the Texas Criminal Justice System, Eakin Press (Austin, TX), 1999.

Pioneering Perspectives in Criminology: The Literature of 19th Century Criminological Positivism, Copperhouse (Incline Village, NV), 2000.

(Editor, with Katherine E. Rich) The Criminal Anthropological Articles of Cesare Lombroso Published in the English Language Periodical Literature during the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries: With Bibliographic Appendices of Books and Periodical Literature Pertaining to Lombroso and Criminal Anthropology, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 2004.

(With George R. Nielsen) Walking George: The Life of George John Beto and the Rise of the Modern Texas Prison System, University of North Texas Press (Denton, TX), 2005.

(Editor and author of introduction) Pioneers in Penology: The Reformers, the Institutions, and the Societies, 1557-1900, two volumes, foreword by Hans Toch, Edwin Mellen Press (Lewiston, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

David M. Horton is a professor who specializes in criminal justice. He is the author, with George R. Nielsen, of Walking George: The Life of George John Beto and the Rise of the Modern Texas Prison System. The book focuses on the life and contributions of Beto (1916-1991) to the criminal justice system and criminal justice education. The authors, who are Beto's former students, take readers through Beto's young life when he initially studied to become a Lutheran pastor but instead became a teacher at Concordia Lutheran College in Austin, Texas. After becoming the school's president, he developed the college into a racially integrated, coeducational junior college. Beto eventually became the head of the Texas Department of Corrections and served on the Texas Prison Board, despite having no academic training in corrections. During his term at the corrections department, he headed a strong reform program in areas such as prisoner management, education, and rehabilitation. Beto earned the nickname "Walking George" for his habit of showing up on foot both day and night in front of a Texas prison to conduct an inspection and tour. In their book, the authors include an address on prison administration made by Beto to the Valparaiso University School of Law, as well as a list of Beto's writings.

"Walking George is an interesting biography of a very talented and educated religious man who assumed control of the country's second largest state department of corrections without having worked a day inside a prison," wrote William Ey in Corrections Today. "It is also about the politics involved in the upper reaches of state government." Noting that "the authors draw on an impressive array of sources," Journal of Southern History contributor Paul M. Lucko also wrote in the same review: "In a smoothly constructed narrative, the authors effectively highlight Beto's many accomplishments as a penologist."

Horton is also the editor of the two-volume Pioneers in Penology: The Reformers, the Institutions, and the Societies, 1557-1900. The book includes thirty-eight excerpts from books and articles dating back to 1817 that focus on the thoughts and practices concerning prisons and criminal rehabilitation. The articles discuss the theories of early thinkers and reformers in penology, such as Pope Clement XI, and efforts at early experimentation in prison institutions, such as France's Maison de Force and the Walnut Street Gaol in Philadelphia. The various articles examine the histories and contributions of different societies in providing the impetus to prison reform in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Each of the chapters includes endnotes and "Suggestions for Further Reading and Inquiry" sections.

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Corrections Today, October, 2007, William Ey, review of Walking George: The Life of George John Beto and the Rise of the Modern Texas Prison System, p. 132.

Criminal Justice Review, autumn, 2001, Chester L. Britt, review of Pioneering Perspectives in Criminology: The Literature of 19th Century Criminological Positivism, pp. 303-305.

Journal of Southern History, February, 2007, Paul M. Lucko, review of Walking George, p. 229.

Journal of the West, spring, 2006, Ted McCoy, review of Walking George, p. 90.

Reference & Research Book News, November, 2004, review of The Criminal Anthropological Articles of Cesare Lombroso Published in the English Language Periodical Literature during the Late 19th and Early 20th Centuries: With Bibliographic Appendices of Books and Periodical Literature Pertaining to Lombroso and Criminal Anthropology, p. 143; November, 2005, review of Walking George; November, 2007, review of Pioneers in Penology: The Reformers, the Institutions, and the Societies, 1557-1900.

Southwestern Historical Quarterly, January, 2000, June Walters, review of Lone Star Justice: A Comprehensive Overview of the Texas Criminal Justice System, p. 389; January, 2007, Mitchel P. Roth, review of Walking George, p. 419.

Texas Bar Journal, June, 1999, Elizabeth Bain, review of Lone Star Justice, p. 576.