Having spent four years as an assistant judge at the Court of Versailles, Tocqueville came to the United States not only well-trained in theory but also with the practical experience to view the American courts with a professional eye. His focus on the prison system, with which he travelled to America, brought him into direct contact with the criminal justice system and familiarized him not only with the judicial side but also with the enforcement of sentences. His travel diaries show that he questioned his interlocutors, many of whom were lawyers and judges, about the common law, the role of the jury in civil cases, the powers of the jury, the power of the judge and the relationship between judge and jury, while he discussed with prison reformers and criminal justice workers prison conditions, the integration of prisons into the local community and recidivism rates among prisoners.