Prison reform from below: London, c .1780–1830

Reviewed by: Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China, 1895-1949 Thomas Buoye (bio) Frank Dikötter. Crime, Punishment and the Prison in Modern China, 1895-1949. New York: Columbia University Press, 2002. v, 441 pp. Hardcover $38.00, ISBN 0-231-12508-9. The subject of prison reform in late Qing and republican China has often been overlooked in English-language scholarship. As Frank Dikötter's research demonstrates, the topic of prison reform can serve as a springboard for a multifaceted study of the cultural and intellectual history of this important period in modern Chinese history. According to Dikötter, prison reform combined the "local appropriation of global ideas" with distinctly Chinese "moral and cognitive traditions." Characterizing the history of prison reform as a global history, the author notes that "internationally circulated discourses and practices of punishment intersected locally with concrete ideological and political configurations" and "engendered new varieties of incarceration" (p. 6). The author convincingly argues that prison reform was not simply a case of Chinese reformers imitating the West but also a shared goal of modernizing elites worldwide. In China the abolition of extraterritoriality was an important motivation for reform but the goal of obtaining "moral parity" with advanced nations around the globe was equally important. Similarly, the complete reform of criminals through education resonated with [End Page 136] Chinese tradition, and the use of model prisons as a "dominant pedagogical strategy" had roots in imperial China. The centerpiece of Chinese prison reform that provided the link between Chinese tradition and contemporary prison reform was the concept of ganhua, which "referred to moral reformation by an emotional appeal to the feelings of a criminal" (p. 48). The fact that education was central to the task of moral transformation leads Dikötter to observe that modern prison reform in China was both "radically new and remarkably traditional." Utilizing previously unexploited sources, including the Beijing municipal, Liaoning and Jiangsu provincial, and national archives, the author examines prison rules and administration and reconstructs fascinating tales of life inside Chinese prisons. The tenor of the introduction suggests a theoretical approach to the topic, but ensuing chapters include concrete explorations of prison administration as well as examinations of discursive fields. The book is divided into three parts. Part 1 examines the movement for prison reform during the late Qing, in chapter 2, and civilian prisons during the early republic, in chapter 3. An examination of the diaries of Qing officials who traveled abroad and the writings of late-Qing reformers in chapter 2 demonstrates that an interest in prison reform and Western models arose soon after the Opium War. This interest was clearly related to the desire to eliminate one of the pretexts for extraterritoriality, but it was also a goal of modernization and thus represented the desire to achieve "moral parity" with advanced nations. Chapter 3 reconstructs the early history of model prisons in Beijing and in Fengtian and Jiangsu Provinces, relying on archival sources that cover a broad range of topics. Generated by the judicial bureaucracy, these sources are richly descriptive, but an analysis of them is lacking. For example, there is mention of a wide array of religious materials introduced to facilitate ganhua but little discussion of their content, efficacy, or impact. Some of the archival materials consist of rules and regulations. In the case of the Beijing prison the author can corroborate the archival sources using Sidney Gamble's contemporaneous field research, but often the reader is presented a welter of information without means to evaluate it. Part 2 contains a study of penology, in chapter 4, and criminology, in chapter 5, under the Guomindang. In these chapters the author discusses the writings of some of the leading Chinese experts in the fields of criminology and penology in the republican period. Chinese experts were clearly conversant with the latest research on prison reform—although, as the author notes, Chinese experts often held opinions that were at odds with the received wisdom. For example, there was an abiding concern with the reformative power of education in China even when the idea had lost favor among international experts. Part 3 returns to an exploration of prison administration under...

<i>Prisons in the Late Ottoman Empire: Microcosms of Modernity</i>. By Kent F. Schull. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, 2014. Pp. xiii + 226. £70.

OBSERVATIONS concerning English prison reform in the latter part of the eighteenth century have generally focused upon the activities of John Howard.' Howard's dramatic exposes of prison conditions throughout Great Britain, the Continent, and America won him a reputation as Philanthropist. Biographers of Howard have tended to accept the panegyrics of his contemporaries without seriously evaluating the nature of his achievement.2 Howard was an efficient propagandist, but was not himself in a position to put his ideas into effect. Reforms could come only from the efforts of those who had the power, the English magistracy. This paper examines the relationship between John Howard and the Gloucestershire magistrate Sir George Onesiphorus Paul. Howard made prison reform a national issue, but it was Paul who achieved practical results. Howard described the ideal prison, but 1 There are no books on eighteenth-century prison reform to compare with the admirable study of the criminal law in Leon Radzinowicz, A History of the Criminal Law and Its Administration from 1750: The Movement for Reform 17501833 (New York, 1948). In fact, of the general studies of prison reform (and there are no studies specifically of eighteenth-century prisons) Sidney and Beatrice Webb, English Prisons Under Local Government (1922; rpt. Hamden, Conn., 1963) is the only attempt to consider the problem within the context of local administrative realities, and it is often distorted and inaccurate. Esther Moir, The Justice of the Peace (London, 1969) indicates the direction that studies of eighteenth-century administration should take. In order to understand eighteenth-century prison reform we must first comprehend the prison reformers' relationship to the man who turned ideas into reality, the Justice of the Peace.

Illustrating Progressive-Era Reform in Pennsylvania: The Anna Wharton Morris Papers Celia Caust-Ellenbogen (bio) Keywords prison reform, Progressive era, Quakers, Eastern State Penitentiary, Thomas Mott Osborne, women social reformers “As we stood out on the pavement in the cool air, the smell that came from the jail door really frightened me.” Anna Wharton Morris gamely entered the jail at Scranton, Pennsylvania, on October 22, 1915. What she found inside confirmed her fears: a “young man lying on his bunk, blood-spattered & feverish, but receiving no attention. Each cell had a double bed for two prisoners; horrible!!”1 One of the most active Progressive-era prison reformers in the state of Pennsylvania, Anna Wharton Morris (1868–1957) was described by a contemporary newspaper article as a “tall, forceful woman” who was “keenly interested” in prison reform and well-informed, articulate, and outspoken on the issue.2 Hailing from Philadelphia’s social and cultural elite, she seems an unlikely person to have had an intimate knowledge of prisons. Her father, Joseph Wharton, was the prominent industrialist who founded the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania. Her husband, Harrison S. Morris, was an author, magazine editor, and managing director at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts. She traveled to Europe, won horticultural awards, and rubbed shoulders with such artists as Violet Oakley. However, she was also an active member of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), a sect noted for its members’ engagement in social reform movements and a history of imprisonment for their religious convictions.3 Much of Morris’s early prison work was done within the context of Quaker communities.4 [End Page 387] Morris served in leadership roles for such organizations as the National Society of Penal Information, Pennsylvania Prison Society, Pennsylvania Committee on Penal Affairs, Prison Reform Committee of the Public Charities Association of Philadelphia, and the Thomas Mott Osborne Memorial Fund.5 In about a twenty-year period, she spent nearly $100,000 on prison work.6 She published articles and letters and spoke on prison issues on dozens of occasions.7 Thomas Mott Osborne, one of the most influential prison reformers of the twentieth century, told her in 1921, “You are the only person I can trust in [Pennsylvania]!”8 The Anna Wharton Morris Papers at the Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College is a wellspring of uncommonly well-organized sources on the Progressive-era prison reform movement. Morris kept diaries throughout most of her life, with mentions of prisons helpfully indexed and extracted into a “Journal of Prison Work” covering the first two decades of her efforts. The “Journal of Prison Work” features a list of nearly fifty prisons and jails Morris visited, with reports on the physical facilities as well as comments on the demeanor of guards, administrators, and inmates. Her visits were concentrated in Philadelphia but ranged across the country from San Quentin (California) to Sing Sing (New York) and beyond. These first-hand observations offer glimpses into a wide variety of carceral institutions. Morris was also a prolific letter-writer, and her prison-related missives are conveniently sorted together. She corresponded with a vast network ranging from local activists and nationally significant reformers to current inmates. Her letters are rich in discussions of goals and strategy. Her most extensive correspondence was with Thomas Mott Osborne, a renowned prison activist from New York who counted Morris as a fierce supporter, key collaborator, and trusted confidant.9 A highlight of the collection is a series of fourteen cartoons drawn by Eastern State Penitentiary inmate Frederick Funk while incarcerated in the 1920s (cover image, figs. 1–2).10 There are drawings illustrating the unsanitary and cruel conditions of prison life, as well as incisive political cartoons dramatizing the investigations into warden Robert J. McKenty. These [End Page 388] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 1. Frederick Funk, “Boast-full Bob’s Defiance,” ca. 1920, Convicts and Ex-convicts correspondence, Anna Wharton Morris Papers, SFHL-RG5-106, Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College (FHL). [End Page 389] Click for larger view View full resolution Fig. 2. Frederick Funk “He is no doctor. He is a ‘Nut’ Doctor,” ca. 1920, Convicts and Ex...

In 1756, the young John Howard set out for Portugal. His ship was taken by a privateer, and Howard became a prisoner of war in France. Twenty years later, he launched the movement for prison reform in Britain. Renaud Morieux challenges historians to more fully connect war imprisonment and the debates it engendered about prisoners’ rights to the emergence of prison reform in the 1770s and 1780s (p. 92). In this article, I take up that challenge. I suggest, however, that the connections are complex and twisted. Concerns about prisoners of war may have inspired prison reform, but they also made the project more confusing.

This paper uses data collected for an MA Thesis on effects of prison reforms on reformation of inmates in Nyandarua County prisons, Kenya. This study has been necessitated by the need to make the penal system fair and effective. As has been revealed by this study, despite undertaking prison reforms, the attempt to improve the harsh prison conditions has created other problems that negate the reformation and rehabilitation of offenders.&#x0D; The study sought to investigate the effects of prison reforms on reformation of inmates in prisons with a focus on examining the existing prison reforms that have been undertaken in prisons since 2001, the effects of prison reforms on the reformation of prisoners, how Prison reforms have negated the reformation of prisoners, and mechanisms that were in place in prisons to control the negative effects of prison reforms.&#x0D; Major research findings obtained revealed that, though reforms have been implemented, a good portion of the reforms remained un-implemented. This may be explained by the fact that the prison authorities themselves did not put in place deliberate measures to rehabilitate inmates. Besides, there were gaps in the marketability of the skills that the prisoners acquired while in prison.&#x0D; The study noted the upsurge of prison crimes such as substances and drug abuse, rape and sodomy, and prisoner violence/assaults against other prisoners. The study recommends promotion of prison staff because they are the first line of defense in terms of government reformation efforts. Their stronger good will counts in any prisons reformation agenda.&#x0D; The study recommends constant review of prison education and training programmes to conform them to current job market skills for smooth re-integration of prisoners back into the society.

Editor’s Introduction Arthur Versluis For this issue, we have chosen articles that concentrate primarily on the history of radicalism from the eighteenth through the mid-twentieth centuries. Of course, the question remains how one defines “radicalism.” In general, we have kept to the idea with which we began the journal: radicalism applies to those who seek sudden social transformation, often, though not always, through violent means. But of course there are also those who question the very basis of a society, as well as those who can be described as reactionary. All of these are visible in this issue’s rich lode of articles. Our first article, by Rowland Weston, takes us back to the seminal period of the French Revolution and its aftermath, and asks us to consider more carefully what we mean by terms like the “Enlightenment,” or “the radical Enlightenment.” What are the philosophical presuppositions that underlie “modernity” or “anti-modernism”? Weston does not rest with the figure of William Godwin or his circle, but extends his inquiry to contemporary philosophical assumptions as well to consider what makes Godwin a radical thinker in ways that challenge conventional notions of what constitutes the “Enlightenment,” or “modernity”—that is, what is included in and what is excluded by those terms. Our second article, by Michael J. Turner, looks back to British history, and in particular to the seminal movement of the Chartists. Turner gives us the history of James Bronterre O’Brien, an important figure in this [End Page v] movement for dramatic political reform, but he also offers an analysis of what O’Brien can teach us about how a radical leader develops and maintains his political reputation, and what this can teach us about the reception of ideas and the development of political influence. The third article, by David Struthers, takes us across the Atlantic and all the way to Los Angeles in the early twentieth century. Struthers offers a detailed history of the radical labor movement in California during a turbulent period of immigration and, sometimes, conflict. Italian, Hispanic, Asian, African American, Anglo, and other ethnicities all converged in Los Angeles during this time. Struthers concentrates on issues of race in a period and place where multiple population groups intersected, the points of intersection often being the labor movements. But Struthers also includes anarchists and others whose radicalism is self-evident. Our fourth article is by Stephen J. Whitfield, and concentrates on a single figure, Frank Tannenbaum, whose life chronicle takes us from labor movements (he was a Wobbly) through social and prison reform, through the history of race relations in North America, to the development of the academic study of Latin America. Tannenbaum eventually became an influential professor at Columbia University, but, Whitfield maintains, his anarcho-syndicalist inclinations continued throughout his life. Through this examination of Tannenbaum’s life, we can see the interconnections between the Jewish community and the larger history of radicalism in the twentieth century. And our fifth article, Benjamin T. Smith’s examination of the political significances of narcotrafficking in Mexico during the middle of the twentieth century, presents a groundbreaking analysis of how narcotrafficking and state violence intersect to produce some unexpected political and social consequences. Smith shows that, contrary to what one might think, especially from the 1970s onwards, governmental agencies and drug traffickers aligned not only for reasons of financial self-interest, but also in a joint attempt to suppress radical groups in the Sinaloa region of Mexico. While this is a very detailed historical study, it also offers broader conclusions about the political and social results of “narcopopulism.” This issue also includes five book reviews, chosen to link with some of the themes discussed in our articles. We did not include a conversation in this issue, but we have several conversations with some interesting and [End Page vi] unexpected contemporary figures that we are preparing for coming issues—you may be surprised at some of them. One purpose for including conversations with primary figures from across the political spectrum is to challenge conventional notions about some of these figures and what they represent, and to do this by allowing them to speak for themselves. As you...

The dilapidation state of the Nigeria prisons demonstrates a condition that cannot guarantee the reformatory process of the inmates. This can be attributed to the disregard for the welfare of the inmates and failure to implement the prison reforms recommendations. The paper examined the effectiveness of prisons reforms on the welfare of inmates in Ado Ekiti and Olokuta prisons in Ekiti and Ondo States respectively. The study employed a descriptive survey research design with the use of a structured questionnaire to obtain information from the inmates. Multi stage sampling technique was adopted to select the respondents (inmates) from the two prisons. Data for this study were analysed using descriptive statistics and chi square to test the hypothesis formulated for the study. The study revealed that poor administration of the criminal justice systems and unethical practices of the Nigeria police force in Nigeria resulting to high number of inmates awaiting trials are the major causes of overcrowding of the prisons. Therefore, overcrowding constitute a major threat to the welfare of the inmates. In addition the study revealed that prison reforms have a significant impact on the welfare of the inmates in Ado Ekiti and Olokuta. The study recommended government intervention in the implementation of the previously recommended prison reforms, constant supervision of the prisons by the Minister of interior and allocation of funds for provision of infrastructure to cater for the needs of the Nigeria Prison Service.

Prisons are key institutions for strengthening justice and security and are increasingly targets of international interventions. However, prison reform in conflict-affected settings is understudied. To understand the conditions underpinning successes and pitfalls of international prison reform, this study examines the local conditions under which international prison reform interventions take place. Drawing on unique data from interviews with inmates and staff members in Hargeisa Central Prison and Garowe Prison, we analyse United Nations prison reform cases in Somaliland and Puntland, Somalia. We find that the international prison reform in these contexts not only falls short in delivering on some set objectives but also does not engage with the particularities of local conditions and contexts. Furthermore, existing reform programmes embed a conflict of interest: while the beneficiaries of prison reform are concerned with the mental and physical well-being of inmates, the international actors aim to shape prison practices along international standards and incapacitate a subset of serious offenders.

The Modern Republican Party in Florida chronicles the emergence of the modern Republican Party in Florida. It provides the historic political foundation for the modern political era in Florida; it identifies the key elements of Republican Party organizations and structures that became the foundation for the current Republican network; and it contrasts the current political environment to the one-party era of the Democratic Pork Chop Gang. The narrative of the book describes the successes in the state-wide campaigns for governor and for positions on the Florida Cabinet. It provides an overview of the role of both Florida Republicans in national, presidential politics and Floridians serving in the United States House and Senate. It describes the decennial redistricting struggles and other obstacles that Republicans overcame as they became the majority in both Houses of the state Legislature, and it discusses the opportunities for women and minorities that accompanied this Republican emergence. Within the narrative are descriptions of the changes in state government made by Republicans or with their bipartisan cooperation. The book also provides an overview of the Republican influence on the state policies for public education and school choice; criminal justice and prison reform; taxation and business incentives; and consumer protection and environment preservation, including the protection of the Florida Everglades. The book identifies the officeholders, volunteers, and party officials who contributed to, and became part of, the Republican network. It also discusses the ever-changing elements of the Florida political arena, which includes voters with no party affiliation, soft money committees, and independent campaign consultants.

Reviewed by: Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Military Prisons: Familiar Responses to an Extraordinary Crisis during the American Civil War by Angela M. Zombek Sarah Purcell Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Military Prisons: Familiar Responses to an Extraordinary Crisis during the American Civil War. By Angela M. Zombek. ( Kent, Ohio: Kent State University Press, 2018. Pp. xxii, 287. $45.00, ISBN 978-1-60635-355-4.) Angela M. Zombek shows the value of fresh periodization and framing in this book on Civil War military prisons. Penitentiaries, Punishment, and Military Prisons: Familiar Responses to an Extraordinary Crisis during the American Civil War puts Civil War military prisons in the context of early republic and antebellum histories of incarceration in the United States, an early starting point that enables Zombek to provide some surprisingly insightful analysis. Zombek also shifts the frame of antebellum and Civil War prison scholarship away from some of the most famous and well-studied cases (other than the prison at Andersonville, Georgia, which is included) to focus on Camp Chase Prison (Ohio), Johnson's Island Prison (Ohio), Old Capitol Prison (Washington, D.C.), Castle Thunder Prison (Virginia), and Salisbury Prison (North Carolina) as well as the penitentiaries that preceded them in those states. Zombek avoids the northeastern United States to shift her analysis away from the well-known narratives of the dominant Pennsylvania and Auburn, New York, prison systems. Zombek uses these shifts to argue the somewhat startling premise that both Union and Confederate "wartime officials relied heavily on antebellum practices to manage thousands of captives. Antebellum assumptions about prison administration, the proper treatment of inmates, inmates' identity, and methods of punishment born in penitentiaries shaped the administration of both Union and Confederate military prisons" (p. x). Zombek finds that wartime prison officials relied on antebellum standards of humane treatment to pattern the punishments they fashioned for prisoners of war, wartime criminals, and civilians suspected of treasonous behavior. She stresses the commonality in goals—punishment—between antebellum penitentiaries and Civil War prisons, and she demonstrates well how continuities in penal theories and practices influenced everything from the Lieber Code to prison architecture. In carefully themed chapters, Zombek demonstrates how antebellum ideas about prisons shaped the experiences and identities of both prison officials and inmates. Chapter 1 charts how military, state, and federal officials (and some prison reformers) debated penal theories in the antebellum period, and chapter 2 examines how those debates influenced the building of penitentiaries in Ohio, Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Georgia before the war. In chapter 3 Zombek argues that both Union and Confederate officials assumed much power from the states in prison administration during the Civil War but continued to follow established antebellum patterns of administration and punishment. Chapter 4 employs creative use of prisoners' writings to argue that prisoners "manipulated [End Page 699] rules and shaped the internal dynamics of prisons," and in the process Zombek uncovers how military prisons shifted prisoners' own identities—often in ways comparable to prewar criminals (p. xix). Chapter 5 examines prisoners' correspondence and visitors to probe the prisons' wider social and political engagement. Even though outsiders were often concerned with prisoners' well-being, chapter 6 demonstrates that they retained a fear of escaped war prisoners, who were stigmatized as criminals. Despite stressing continuity, Zombek does chart some important areas of change. She argues in chapter 7 that the growth of the population of imprisoned women, who "faced an even harsher stigma than men," was one of the most significant changes of the wartime penal system (p. 158). Zombek could have analyzed race more closely but handles gender well. Chapter 8 details state and federal debates about prison reform after military prison closure, and the conclusion examines the failure of those reforms after the war, even as federal power was enhanced by prison control. Zombek's tightly written and argued account will be required reading for anyone interested in the penal system and should appeal to anyone open to seeing Civil War prisons in a new way. Sarah Purcell Grinnell College Copyright © 2019 The Southern Historical Association

Prison reform is the aim and process of improving conditions inside prisons in order to maintain the humanity of its occupants and achieve a more effective penal system. Prison reform is said to have been originated by philanthropic activists such as John Howard and Elizabeth Fry, and intellectuals such as Jeremy Bentham and Cesare Beccaria, in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. Contemporary prison reform movements are initiated through projects and programs advocated by religious groups, academics, voluntary‐sector organizations, and prisoners.

Transatlantic Interracial SisterhoodsSarah Remond, Ellen Craft, and Harriet Jacobs in England Sirpa Salenius (bio) In the nineteenth century the transatlantic world was animated by an exchange of ideas, texts, and information that circulated between the United States and Europe. Abolitionists, social reformers, and educators who crossed the ocean contributed to the building of bridges of collaboration established around different reform movements and activism. People from various nations participated in creating communication channels that soon became stabilized. Simultaneously they contributed to the forming of an extensive web of alliances, many of which were shaped to form an interracial, intercultural, and transnational network of people dedicated to transforming society through a commitment to such causes as abolitionism and women's rights. In the transatlantic web of cooperation, activists who worked across national borders forged coalitions that embraced reform movements in myriad forms (such as temperance, education, peace, poverty, prison reform, eradication of prostitution, and others). In many instances, the struggle against various forms of discrimination intersected: activists united around such central controversies as slavery and women's rights, two pivotal nineteenth-century issues that in many movements formed a nexus with the common designator of oppression. Indeed, abolitionism and colored solidarity were closely linked to women's liberation movements and the resistance to the ideals of patriarchal (white) society. Women, who at times were divided by rivalries, jealousies, and differences in race, class, and educational background, were nonetheless connected by the shared experience of patriarchal oppression and gender discrimination and by such uniting forces as womanhood and motherhood. As Paula Baker argues, "'Motherhood' and 'womanhood' were powerful integrating forces that allowed women to cross class, and perhaps even racial, lines."1 Hence, despite the dissimilarities and antagonism that divided them, women considered other women their comrades in fighting against oppression. Women who were engaged in transforming society often recognized [End Page 166] that other females would be their strongest allies—socially, culturally, and politically—and therefore, in their efforts to gain support for the causes for which they were campaigning, activist women directly appealed to the shared womanhood of the female audiences they were addressing. Thus women, be they fugitive or former slaves, or abolitionists and suffragettes, joined forces to realize their ideals. They established associations, organizations, leagues, and sisterhoods where women shouldered the responsibilities of leadership, assumed control, and forged ahead, expanding their transatlantic networks that covered the United States and Europe. Together they created transatlantic sisterhoods, dedicated to assisting the less privileged and more oppressed members of society. They formed sisterhoods, which were a demonstration of how women organized their activities with the aim of creating extensive international and interracial communities geared to resist racism and gendered power asymmetries. As white and black women united around common causes, they displaced dominant norms, creating a counter-narrative to patriarchy and anti-blackness; women assumed agency and participated in social and political struggle as they resolutely worked against discrimination and reworked conceptualizations of gendered subjectivity. In sum, as they assumed agency, women became involved in counter-hegemonic acts of resistance to oppression. defining sisterhood Feminist scholars have tried to define the concept of sisterhood, which is based on complex and politically charged relationships between women, often established around various forms of activism. Scholar Felly Nkweto Simmonds, for instance, discusses the difference between sisterhood and friendship, pointing out that based on the definitions found in A Feminist Dictionary (1985), sisterhoods involve a "discovery of shared oppression," while the main difference between the two concepts, Nkweto Simmonds convincingly argues, is that "sisterhood was constructed as political act, whereas friendship remained in the personal/private."2 However, sisterhood and friendship are concepts that often overlap, which renders it difficult to separate the two and clearly define the similarities and differences between them. Although a shared experience or unifying notions, such as oppression or womanhood, or such integrating terms as solidarity and alliance, are important both in sisterhood and friendship, the tendency of scholars, according to Nkweto Simmonds, is to ignore difference. Many scholars, for example, tend to refer to black women as a homogenized group, a hegemonic construction of blackness, and thus "a solid base for sisterhood," without acknowledging differences [End Page 167] between...

Claudia L. Bushman. "A Good Poor Man's Wife": Being a Chronicle of Harriet Hanson Robinson and Her Family in Nineteenth-Century New England. Hanover: University Press of New England, 1981. 276 + xvi pp. Mark Thomas Connelly. The Response to Prostitution in the Progressive Era. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1980.261 + x pp. Barbara Leslie Epstein. The Politics of Domesticity : Women, Evangelism, and Temperance in Nineteenth Century America. Middletown, Conn.: Wesleyan University Press, 1981.188 + xi pp. Estelle B. Freedman. Their Sisters' Keepers-. Women's Prison Reform in America, 1830-1930. Ann Arbor: The University of Michigan Press, 1981. 248 pp. These four volumes present useful new material on nineteenth- and early twentieth-century American reform crusaders and their reforms concerning women. Connelly's book describes a general social movement, antiprostitution; the other three authors explore women's part in reform movements and begin two centuries earlier. Included are prisons for women, religion and temperance as vehicles for protofeminism, and the activism of a pioneer suffragist and club woman. All the books describe issues which concerned the "middling" classes.

In recent years, there has been a renewed interest in criminal justice reform. Movements such as the #cut50 campaign, a bipartisan effort to reduce the prison population by 50 % in 10 years, demonstrates how much things have changed from the “tough on crime” rhetoric which dominated much of the 1980’s. Philanthropy has historically and will continue to play a large role in the reform movement. As this paper suggests, however, if the current momentum is to continue, there must be a push towards a “collective impact,” collaborative approach in the field of prisoner reentry.