How Mass Incarceration Has Shaped History
A historian argues that it's time to look at the consequences of locking up millions of people over several decades.
Would Formerly Incarcerated People Vote Democratic?
Conventional wisdom says that Republicans don't want to give ex-felons voting rights because they'll end up voting for Democrats. But is this true?
Oscar Wilde’s Pamphlet: “Children in Prison and Other Cruelties of Prison Life”
Wilde's description is heart-wrenching, but that doesn't hold him back from the usual wit and drama that characterize his writing.
What the Prisoners’ Rights Movement Owes to the Black Muslims of the 1960s
Black Muslims have been an influential force in the prisoners' rights movement and criminal justice reform as early as the World War II era.
The Problem With Privatizing Prisons
If private prisons make their profit from criminal society, its goes against business sense to reduce criminality.
The Return of Debtors’ Prisons
New lawsuits allege that court officials are jailing people who fall behind on payment of court fees and fines, leading to a resurgence of debtors' prisons.
Bringing Education to Prisoners
Is there an alternative to the punitive treatment of criminals? We look at the history of correctional education reforms within the American prison system.
Debtors’ Prisons, Class, and Patriotism in 18th Century Ireland
In a paper for Eighteenth-Century Ireland, Martyn J. Powell discusses the politics that seem to have limited the use of debtors' prisons in Ireland.
![Female prisoners at Parchman sewing, c. 1930
By Mississippi Department of Archives and History [see page for license], via Wikimedia Commons](https://daily.jstor.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/Parchman_Female_Prison_Sewing_1050x700-600x400.jpg)
A History of Women’s Prisons
While women's prisons historically emphasized the virtues of traditional femininity, the conditions of these prisons were abominable.