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Teaching with American Prison Newspapers: History

An instructional guide to Reveal Digital's American Prison Newspapers 1800-2020: Voices from the Inside

Introduction

History

This page consists of several reading and viewing materials to facilitate the study of incarceration through a historical lens. This consists of studying the history of the American penal system. This will also include the following topics: prison reform movements, prisoner rights’ movements, prison abolition, and the origins of private prisons. Altogether, learners will be able to gain an in-depth understanding of prison culture alongside its impact on American culture. 

Guiding Questions: 

  1. What was the first prison in the U.S.? Where was it located? Who was it created by? What was its purpose? 

  2. Who are the prominent thinkers/philosophers/scholars in the field of prison reform, mass incarceration, and penology?

  3. What themes have persisted in discourse surrounding imprisonment in the U.S.? (ex: parole, probation, punishment vs rehabilitation, death penalty, alternatives to imprisonment) 

  4. What are some key moments in U.S. prison history? How have other historical events and civil rights and social movements shaped prison history? 

This video provides a crash course on what penology is. It also identifies specific terms/key phrases within the field. 

From JSTOR Daily

Readings from APN

 

  1. The World’s Model Prison - Lend a Hand (Feb. 1909)

  2. Object Not to Punish But to Teach - Lend a Hand (Feb. 1909) 

  3. Kindness and Education Accomplish Reformation - Lend a Hand (Feb. 1909)

  4. History of the State’s Prison (Raleigh, NC) - The Prison News (Nov. 1926) 

  5. New Penology Would Make the Punishment Fit the Criminal not the Crime - The Outlook (Jun. 1934)

  6. Penology in the Year 1950 - Agenda (Aug. 1936) 

  7. Revised Standards for Acceptance of Registrants for Induction in the Army - Soonerl-a-nd (Jan. 1943) 

  8. Military Service for Prisoners and Former Prisoners - Paahao Press (Mar. 1943) 

  9. Psychiatry in Prison - The Lancer (Jun. 1944) 

  10. Penology: Conservative vs Radical Penology - Paahao Press (July 1962)

  11. An Analytical Look at the Penal Picture - Raiford Record (Summer 1962) 

  12. Jacqueline Kennedy Thank You Letter - Detour (Jan. 1964) 

  13. Crime and Payment - The Pendleton Reflector (Jan. 1964)  

  14. From Detention to Punishment and Now Rehabilitation - The Turning Point (Mar. 1971) 

  • provides a historical survey of the various methods of punishment 

  1. Violence in Prison Traced to Freud - Santa Fe Progress (May 1971) 

  2. Inmate’s Rights Accelerate - RMC Newsletter (Oct. 1972) 

  3. The New Prison is an Old Idea - Anarchist Black Dragon  (Sept. 1978)

  4. No Right to a Rose Garden - The Angolite (May 1981) 

  5. Mental Illness and Violent Crime - Joint Endeavor (Winter 1984-85) 

  6. The Prisoner - Huron Valley Monitor (Nov. 1986) 

  7. Thoughts on Prison - Chainlink Chronicle (Jul. 2001) 

  8. Correctional Officers - Dixon Digest (Feb. 2007) 

  9. Appreciating Change - The Pelican (Mar. 2019) 

  10. Remember Me - The Underground (Apr. 2019) 
     

Secondary Reading List

  1. The History of Corrections in America by the National Institute of Corrections

  2. The Historical Origins of the Prison System in America by Harry Elmer Barnes (1921) 

  3. The Penal Reform Movement in the South During the Progressive Era, 1890-1917 by Jane Zimmerman (1951)

  4. The Prisoners’ Rights Movement and Its Impacts, 1960-1980 by James B. Jacobs (1980)

  5. The Moral Education Theory of Punishment by Jean Hempton (1984) 

  6. Prison Management Trends, 1975-2025 by Chase Riveland (1999) 

  7. Slavery and Prison – Understanding the Connections by Kim Gilmore (2000)

  8. “Panopticism” from Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison by Michael Foucault (2008) 

 

Secondary Viewing List

  1. Michelle Alexander: Roots of Today’s Mass Incarceration Crisis Date to Slavery, Jim Crow by Democracy Now! (2015) 

  2. The surprising reason our correctional system doesn’t work by Brandon W. Mathews, TEDxMileHigh (2017)

  3. A brief history of prisons by Dr. Ashley Rubin, TEDxMississauga (2019) 

  4. Why do we have private prisons by PBS Origins (2019)

  5. Who makes money from private prisons by CNBC 2019)

  6. How prisoners expanded the civil rights movement by The Real News Network (2021)

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