NCJ Number
76250
Editor(s)
T Platt,
P Takagi
Date Published
1980
Length
198 pages
Annotation
Designed to be used as a theoretical tool to interpret and critically evaluate conventional histories of penology, this anthology presents 16 essays on punishment which share a common Marxist perspective on the prison and the prisoner's movement.
Abstract
Taken together, the essays are intended to advance the reader's understanding of the relationship between the political economy and penal policies, and of the class nature of bourgeois justice. The essays are organized into sections focusing on political economy and punishment, the penitentiary, contemporary penal discipline, and the struggle inside the correctional institutions. A classic comparative macrosociological study of punishment links the prison system to the culture, social structure, and political system of a Nation: while one essay demonstrates the relationships between economic and prison conditions. Another essay reexamines the literature on Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail and reinterprets its transformation into a State penitentiary as a bourgeois reform to centralize the powers of the State. The development of the penitentiary system in England is analyzed as an aspect of the concentration of political power, stemming not only from a new industrial mode of production, but also from political, social, and ideological struggles. Other chapters address the forms and extent of convict labor in the 19th century, describe deteriorating prison conditions and prisoners' resistance under monopoly capitalism, and warn of the dangers and contradictions of liberal penal reform. Specific topics discussed include the Massachusetts correctional system, the San Quentin case (California), predictions of violence as social control, and a case study of prison psychiatrists and drugs. Poems supplement the text. Illustrations, data tables, chapter notes, and chapter reference lists are included.