appassionato , to bookstodon group
@appassionato@mastodon.social avatar

Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia by Mitchel P. Roth, 2006

This comprehensive encyclopedia provides a historical overview of institutions and systems around the world, as well as penal theories, prisoner culture and life, and notable prisoners and personnel.

@bookstodon





Prisons have undoubtedly changed over the years, as have penal practices in general, though more so in some countries than others. Prisons and prison systems have long been an overlooked part of criminal justice research, and as a result, limited material is available on many institutions. Readers will find a plethora of information including material on such famous prisons as the Tower of London and Alcatraz, as well as on such topics as boot camps and parole. Other entries include Devil's Island, supermaximum prisons, Nelson Mandela, Pennsylvania system, and Amnesty International. Numerous appendixes list famous prisoners, prison museums, prison slang, and more. From Booklist Prison, also known at different times and in different countries as band house, bate sohar, big house, big pasture, bit kili, calaboose, kalabus, and quod, plays a significant role in the society and history of a nation. This global encyclopedia provides a glimpse into important prisons, prison reformers, famous prisoners, prison architecture, prisoner culture, and more. According to editor Roth, "this book is dedicated to offering the most current research available on all the prison systems in the world, past and present." Because of the limitations inherent in a one-volume encyclopedia, larger ethical issues such as the death penalty were purposely excluded, as were war-related prisons such as POW camps, concentration camps, and internment camps.
ALT
  • Reply
    • appassionato , (edited ) to bookstodon group
    @appassionato@mastodon.social avatar

    The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society by Norval Morris & David J. Rothman, 1995

    A rich history that reveals how our ideas of crime and practices of punishment have changed over time.

    @bookstodon






    Penalties other than incarceration were once much more common, from such bizarre death sentences as the Roman practice of drowning convicts in sacks filled with animals to a frequent reliance on the scaffold and on to forms of public shaming (such as the classic stocks of colonial America). The first decades of the nineteenth century saw the rise of the full-blown prison system--and along with it, the idea of prison reform. Alexis de Tocqueville originally came to America to write a report on its widely acclaimed prison system. The authors trace the persistent tension between the desire to punish and the hope for rehabilitation, recounting the institution's evolution from the rowdy and squalid English jails of the 1700s, in which prisoners and visitors ate and drank together; to the sober and stark nineteenth-century penitentiaries, whose inmates were forbidden to speak or even to see one another; and finally to the "big houses" of the current American prison system, in which prisoners are as overwhelmed by intense boredom as by the threat of violence. The text also provides a gripping and personal look at the social world of prisoners and their keepers over the centuries. In addition, thematic chapters explore in-depth a variety of special institutions and other important aspects of prison history, including the jail, the reform school, the women's prison, political imprisonment, and prison and literature. Fascinating, provocative, and authoritative.
    ALT
  • Reply
  • All
  • Subscribed
  • Moderated
  • Favorites
  • •
  • random
  • test
  • worldmews
  • mews
  • All magazines
    •