The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776–1941 (Cambridge Historical Studies in American Law and Society)

In the Age of Jackson, private enterprise set up shop in the American penal system. Working hand in glove with state government, contractors in both the North and the South would go on to put more than half a million imprisoned men, women, and youth to hard, sweated toil for private gain by 1900. Held captive, stripped of their rights, and subject to lash and paddle, convict laborers churned out vast quantities of goods and revenue, in some years generating the equivalent of more than $30 billion worth of work. By the 1880s, however, a growing mass of Americans came to regard the prison labor system as immoral and unbefitting of a free republic: it fostered torture and other abuses, degraded free citizen-workers, corrupted government and the legal system, and stifled the supposedly ethical purposes of punishment. The Crisis of Imprisonment tells the remarkable story of this controversial system of penal servitude:—how it came into being, how it worked, how the popular campaigns for its abolition were ultimately victorious, and how it shaped and continues to haunt the American penal system. The author takes the reader into the morally vital world of nineteenth-century artisans, industrial workers, farmers, clergy, convicts, machine politicians, and labor leaders and shows how prisons became a lightning rod in a determined defense of republican and Christian values against the encroachments of an unbridled market capitalism. She explores the vexing ethical questions that prisons posed then and remain exigent today: What are the limits of state power over the minds, bodies, and souls of citizens and others—is torture permissible under certain circumstances? What, if anything, makes the state morally fit to deprive a person of life or liberty? Are prisoners slaves and, if so, by what right? Should prisoners work? Is the prison a morally defensible institution? The eventual abolition of prison labor contracting plunged the prisons into deep fiscal and ideological crisis. The second half of the book offers a sweeping reinterpretation of Progressive Era prison reform as, above all, a response to this crisis. It concludes with an exploration of the long-range impact of both penal servitude and the anti-prison labor movement on the modern American penal system. "In the Age of Jackson, private enterprise set up shop in the American penal system. Working hand in glove with state government, by 1900 contractors in both the North and the South would go on to put more than half a million imprisoned men, women, and youth to hard, sweated toil for private gain. Held captive, stripped of their rights, and subjected to lash and paddle, these convict laborers churned out vast quantities of goods and revenue, in some years generating the equivalent of more than $30 billion worth of work. By the 1880s, however, a growing cross-section of American society came to regard the prison labor system as morally corrupt and unbefitting of a free republic: it fostered torture and other abuses, degraded free citizen-workers, corrupted the government and the legal system, and defeated the supposedly moral purpose of punishment. The Crisis of Imprisonment tells the remarkable story of this controversial system of penal servitude - how it came into being, how it worked, how the popular campaigns for its abolition were ultimately victorious, and how it shaped and continues to haunt America's modern penal system."--Jacket 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. 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. Rebecca M. Mclennan. Includes Bibliographical References (p. 473-484) And Index. Introduction: The grounds of legal punishment Strains of servitude : legal punishment in the early republic Due convictions : contractual penal servitude and its discontents Commerce upon the throne : the business of imprisonment in Gilded Age America Disciplining the state, civilizing the market : the abolition of contract prison labor A model servitude : prison reform in the early Progressive Era Uses of the state : dialectics of 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 Punishment without labor : towards the modern penal state Conclusion: On the crises of imprisonment.