NCJ Number
176150
Date Published
1998
Length
413 pages
Annotation
This book examines the link between slavery and prisons throughout American history and how imprisonment has shaped the American experience.
Abstract
The book examines imprisonment in the United States over 500 years, illuminating the forces underlying the paradox of a country that sanctifies individual liberty yet imprisons more persons per capita than any other nation in the world with the possible exception of Russia. The book investigates why a country founded on equality imprisons mostly people of color, showing a rate of incarceration of blacks that is more than eight times that of whites. Among the many topics discussed in the book are convict transports to the colonies; the international trade in captive indentured servants, slaves and military conscripts; life under slavery; the experience of domestic prisoners of war and political prisoners; the creation of the penitentiary; the evolution of contemporary corrections; and what has gone on inside the secret world of prisons. Notes, bibliography, index