Mark Colvin is Associate Professor of Sociology at George Mason University.
Review
"In its attempt to delineate the ways that prisons have been shaped by broad social factors, the book has
a truly worthy and appropriate purpose."
--The Journal of American History
". . . a readable, concise history of punishment and penal institutions in the 19th-century United States."
--American Historical Review
Palgrave U.S.A. Web Site, March, 2001
Summary
Over the course of U.S. history, the very definition of punishment in America has been subject to a variety
of changes and has served as the basis for much debate. Mark Colvin examines three case studies from the 19th century
that represent shifts in the interpretation of punishment: the rise of penitentiaries in the Northeast; the changes
in treatment of women offenders in the North; and the transformation of punishment in the South after the Civil
War. In addition, he examines topics such as how punishment differs from reform, the treatment of women in reformatories,
and the notion that convict leasing and chain gangs of black prisoners in the South are a perpetuation of plantation
slave labor.
Table of Contents
Rival Theories of the Transformation of Punishment Systems and Penal Practices
Part I: Case Study One: The Rise and Consolidation of the Penitentiary in the Northeast
From Colonies to Early Republic
Market Revolution and the Consolidation of the Penitentiary in the Northeast
Applying Theories to the Rise and Consolidation of the Penitentiary in the Northeast
Part II: Case Study Two: The Transformation of Gender Roles and the Punishment of Women Offenders in the North
Before the Civil War
The Purity Crusade, Progressivism, and the Development of Women's Reformatories
Applying Theories to the Transformation of the Punishment of Women Offenders
Part III: Case Study Three: The Transformation of Criminal Punishment in the South
From Slavery to Reconstruction
Redemption and the New South
Applying Theories to the Transformation of Punishment in the South
