Benevolent repression: social control and the American reformatory-prison movement

Abstract

The opening, in 1876, of Elmira Reformatory marked birth of American adult reformatory movement and introduction of a new approach to crime and treatment of criminals. Hailed as a reform panacea and humane solution to America's ongoing crisis of crime and social disorder, Elmira sparked an ideological revolution. Repression and punishment were supposedly out. Academic and vocational education, military drill, indeterminate sentencing and parole--benevolent reform--were now considered instrumental to instilling in prisoners a respect for God, law, and capitalism. Not so, says Al Pisciotta, in this highly original, startling, and revealing work. Drawing upon previously unexamined sources from over a half-dozen states and a decade of research, Pisciotta explodes myth that Elmira and other institutions of the new represented a significant advance in treatment of criminals and youthful offenders. The much-touted programs failed to achieve their goals; instead, prisoners, under Superintendent Zebulon Brockway, considered Father of American Corrections, were whipped with rubber hoses and two-foot leather straps, restricted to bread and water in dark dungeons during months of solitary confinement, and brutally subjected to a wide range of other draconian psychological and physical abuses intended to pound them into submission. Escapes, riots, violence, drugs, suicide, arson, and rape were order of day in these prisons, hardly conducive to transformation of dangerous criminal classes into Christian gentleman, as was claimed. Reflecting racism and sexism in social order in general, new penology also legitimized repression of lower classes. Highlighting disparity between promise and practice in America's prisons, Pisciotta draws on seven inmate case histories to illustrate convincingly that March of Progress was nothing more than a reversion to ways of old. In short, adult reformatory movement promised benevolent reform but delivered benevolent repression--a pattern that continues to this day. A vital contribution to history of crime, corrections, and criminal justice, this book will also have a major impact on our thinking about contemporary corrections and issues surrounding crime, punishment, and social control.