Professor Sexton is undeniably one of the best teachers I've had at UCLA. He takes time to remember your name and make you feel like he is there to learn something from you as well. You can see his passion for the topics he teaches while being entertaining and interactive. Something you do not see often is a professor having first-hand experience in what they are teaching, but Professor Sexton does, which gives a unique teaching perspective that helped me learn deeper. Although each class is mandatory to attend, time flies with his content that makes you think deeper about what you know about how our society views certain aspects such as the prison system and religion. I would not miss out on class because there are guest lecturers who add to the value of the class. There is a research paper due at the end of the quarter but you have more than enough time to finish it. Alongside that, we read 3 books that are fast-paced and easy to digest. His directions are straightforward and if followed you will have no problem leaving the class with a fantastic grade. Professor Sexton makes much time for his students through his office hours and quickly responds via email. There are extra credit assignments if you want an extra grade bump.

This class has broadened my mindset and allowed me to grow into a better researcher and academic. I found myself wanting to learn and investigate all that surrounds me and the systems put in place for their true origins and intentions. Dr. Sexton was a key player in these investigations, and guided me in the right directions for my research project. I am a STEM major, but his classes within the sociology discipline helped in rounding out my education and broadening my horizons. I cannot recommend this class, amongst others enough!

I really enjoyed taking this class. I am a STEM major and was concerned about writing a 10 page paper as the final ethnographic report. However, Dr. Sexton helped me so much through office hours and made it much easier and less stressful for me to write this paper. The material he teaches is fascinating and he has real experience in the prison system which makes it even more interesting listening to him teach it. He brought in a retired FBI agent to talk to us as well and a couple other guests who all had fascinating stories to tell us about. Dr. Sexton is one of the coolest professors I have had and was just so much different than my STEM professors and it was a lovely change of pace for me. I recommend taking this class if you can.

Professor Sexton is a leading academic in his respective fields of study. It's a unique opportunity to be able to learn from someone with so much contemporary knowledge of the advancements being made on a local and national level. The class is comprised of: reading three books, conducting an ethnographic research project, and a final based off of lecture content. I enjoyed the curriculum because it helped me to develop skills that are useful to a sociologist -- which not many other classes do. Additionally, Professor Sexton is a wonderful professor who is deeply committed to the success of his students, he responds to emails very quickly and is super approachable.

This professor is fine, but definetly overrated. I've taken two of his classes. He is a cool guy with direct experience with the prison system, but I found the lecture to sometimes feel disorganized. There is so much wasted potential in the class that I feel could have been amazing if structured differently. I found that I often did not learn anything useful or relevent attending lecture. The weekly assignments were creating 10 questions and answers on 1/3 of a book (3 books per quarter). That assignment was kind of odd, but the TAs graded it extremely harshly. If you went over a page they would take away points. If you did not reference a page number for every question, they would take away points. These were the most time consuming homework assignments of all of my classes this quarter. I am a really slow reader, and we have to read a whole lot in this class - about 50-100 pages a week. The books he assigned I found to be hard to get through and not that interesting. He also wanted us to interview and attend meetings at a local church to ask about their relationship to the prison. Most students struggled to find someone to talk to, and this assignment was a little too ambitious to give to students just looking for major credits. That assignment felt like dissertation research for a masters degree. Every class requires attendance for credit - which is great to get points just for showing up. Although, if you are sick or miss class under any circumstance, you will lose points for not attending lecture, even if you message the professor beforehand. He will mention that there is opportunity for extra credit if you miss lecture. I took his Sociology of Crime class the prior quarter, and he used a lot of the same slides from that class. It felt like it repeated a lot of the same ideas from that class. I am disappointed considering all of the incredible reviews for this professor. I think people like how casual and nonchalant he is, which makes it feel less intimidating. But, this class is not a walk in the park. You have to attend every class and do a ton of work every week. There is a final paper and a final exam which is online at home which makes up about half of your grade combined. There are no sections for this class, so the TAs are only there to grade your work - which they did harshly to the whole class. I personally did not really enjoy this class and its assignments.