Learning Objectives

  • Describe the origins of early modern prisons.
  • Evaluate the two predominant prison systems of the early 1800s and their strengths and weaknesses.
  • Summarize what the social critics (Gustave de Beaumont, Alexis de Tocqueville, and Dorothea Dix) thought of the early prisons and why.
  • Explain why reform of prisons and jails was needed and how those reform efforts worked out.
  • Assess where we are today in America in terms of prison types and how we got there.
  • Describe the prevailing themes in correctional history.