1.

Record Nr.

UNISA996248223303316

Autore

McLennan Rebecca M. <1967->

Titolo

The crisis of imprisonment : protest, politics, and the making of the American penal state, 1776-1941 / / Rebecca M. McLennan [[electronic resource]]

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Cambridge : , : Cambridge University Press, , 2008

ISBN

1-107-17462-7

1-281-37045-2

9786611370459

0-511-39406-3

0-511-51172-8

0-511-39326-1

0-511-39195-1

0-511-39075-0

0-511-39471-3

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (xiii, 505 pages) : digital, PDF file(s)

Collana

Cambridge historical studies in American law and society

Disciplina

365/.97309034

Soggetti

Protest movements - United States - History

Convict labor - United States - History

Imprisonment - United States - History

Punishment - United States - History

Criminal law - United States - History

Labor movement - United States - History

United States Politics and government

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 05 Oct 2015).

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references (p. 473-484) and index.

Nota di contenuto

Introduction: The grounds of legal punishment -- Strains of servitude : legal punishment in the early republic -- Due convictions : contractual penal servitude and its discontents, 1818-1865 -- Commerce upon the throne : the business of imprisonment in Gilded Age America -- Disciplining the state, civilizing the market : the campaign to abolish contract prison labor -- A model servitude : prison reform in the early Progressive Era -- Uses of the state : the dialectics of penal reform in



early progressive New York -- American Bastille : Sing Sing and the political crisis of imprisonment -- Changing the subject : the metamorphosis of prison reform in the high Progressive Era -- Laboratory of social justice : the new penologists at Sing Sing, 1915-1917 -- Punishment without labor : towards the modern penal state -- Conclusion: On the crises of imprisonment.

Sommario/riassunto

America's prison-based system of punishment has not always enjoyed the widespread political and moral legitimacy it has today. In this groundbreaking reinterpretation of penal history, Rebecca McLennan covers the periods of deep instability, popular protest, and political crisis that characterized early American prisons. She details the debates surrounding prison reform, including the limits of state power, the influence of market forces, the role of unfree labor, and the 'just deserts' of wrongdoers. McLennan also explores the system that existed between the War of 1812 and the Civil War, where private companies relied on prisoners for labor. Finally, she discusses the rehabilitation model that has primarily characterized the penal system in the twentieth century.  Unearthing fresh evidence from prison and state archives, McLennan shows how, in each of three distinct periods of crisis, widespread dissent culminated in the dismantling of old systems of imprisonment.