Citations Over Time

Abstract

The history of each state's prison system is a mixture of unique and shared experiences. The classic works on the development and use of the penitentiary in the United States (David Rothman, The Discovery of Asylum, 1971; Elmer Barnes, The Evolution of Penology in Pennsylvania, 1927; Mark Colvin, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs, 1997; David Garland, Punishment and Modern Society, 1990; Alexander Pisciotta, Benevolent Repression, 1994) are reinforcing in their descriptions of the contributions of the Jacksonian and Progressive/reform eras to punishment philosophy, architecture, and the routines of institutional life. However, it is through the more personal drama of the individual state system that we really experience the color and culture of the lives that made up early prison history in America. Most states constructed a prison early in their development, as a way of defining a capital or a business center. And most experimented with leasing and forays into profit-seeking labor arrangements, even changing their status from state run to private and back again over time. In many ways, the prison at Deer Lodge, Montana, described by Keith Edgerton shares those features. Yet it is distinct in that the prison was fairly evolved while still part of a territory. In fact, few institutions had as complex a relationship with the federal government as the Deer Lodge facility.

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