Publisher description for The crisis of imprisonment : protest, politics, and the making of the American penal state, 1776-1941 / Rebecca M. McLennan.
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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 desserts” of wrongdoers. Ultimately, she shows how, in each of three distinct periods of crisis, widespread dissent culminated in the dismantling of old systems of imprisonment.
Library of Congress subject headings for this publication:
Prisons -- United States -- History.
Imprisonment -- United States -- History.
Punishment -- United States -- History.