Imprisonment has become big business in the United States. Using a "history of ideas" approach, this book examines the cultural underpinnings of prisons in the United States and explores how shared ideas about imprisonment evolve into a complex, loosely connected nationwide system of prisons that keeps enough persons to populate a small nation behind bars, razor wire and electrified fences.
Tracing both the history of the prison and the very idea of imprisonment in the United States, this book provides students with a critical overview of American prisons and considers their past, their present and directions for the future. Topics covered include:
- a history of imprisonment in America from 1600 to the present day;
- the twentieth-century prison building binge;
- the relationship between U.S. prisons and the private sector;
- a critical account of capital punishment;
- less-visible prison minorities, including women, children and the elderly; and
- sex, violence and disease in prison.
This comprehensive book is essential reading for advanced courses on corrections and correctional management and offers a compelling and provocative analysis of the realities of American penal culture from past to present. It is perfect reading for students of criminal justice, corrections, penology and the sociology of punishment.
About the Author: David Musick earned his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of California, Riverside. His areas of specialization include the history of ideas, criminology and juvenile delinquency. For most of his adult life, he worked with inmates, as a counselor, teacher and social researcher, in a number of adult and juvenile prisons. For over thirty years, he taught courses on the sociology of corrections. In collaboration with his wife, Kristine, Professor Musick has worked as an expert on over fifty capital murder cases.
Kristine Gunsaulus-Musick earned her Ph.D. in Human Rehabilitation at the University of Northern Colorado. Her background in social science, secondary education, and the mental health fields has informed a career that includes work as a university center psychologist, professor, researcher, and published writer. She has maintained a private practice as a licensed psychologist in the Rocky Mountains, alongside the collaborative "systems" work, research, and writing she enjoys with her spouse, David.
