The Criminal in the American Reform Imagination, 1870-1940

FAIN: FEL-282242-22

Amy Louise Wood
Illinois State University (Normal, IL 61790-0001)

Research and writing leading to a book on criminal justice reform in the U.S. at the turn of the 20th century.

The Criminal in the American Reform Imagination is a cultural and intellectual history of crime and punishment in the United States at the turn of the twentieth century, when the rise of criminology and a vibrant penal reform movement reshaped public conceptions of criminal justice. A new kind of compassion for the criminal emerged at this time due to larger structural and cultural transformations in the late nineteenth century. This sympathy provoked fierce public debates about the purpose of criminal punishment and social responsibility, as people increasingly expected the state to extend compassion to all its citizens, including criminals. These debates had a profound impact on the development of our modern criminal justice system and the growth of the modern liberal state.

Associated Products

“The Regeneration of Men: U.S. Prison Reform and Progressive-Era Capitalism” (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: “The Regeneration of Men: U.S. Prison Reform and Progressive-Era Capitalism”
Author: Amy Louise Wood
Abstract: At the turn of the twentieth century, self-styled reformers launched a vibrant campaign to remake the nation’s prisons. Their goal was to prepare imprisoned men – largely, white men – for democratic citizenship in an industrial capitalist economy. To do so, they sought to turn prisons into microcosms of their ideal society, one comprised of productive, self-sufficient citizens, but tempered with an ethic of mutual welfare and civic responsibility. With a focus on Thomas Mott Osborne’s efforts in New York state, this paper explores how prisons became laboratories for the modern progressive state and a reformed capitalism.
Date Range: October 6, 2023
Location: Online Seminar: Newberry Library, Chicago, IL

"Prison Degeneracy" (Conference/Institute/Seminar)
Title: "Prison Degeneracy"
Author: Amy Louise Wood
Abstract: This presentation examines how degeneration and regeneration operated as important concepts for prison reform at the turn of the twentieth century. Reformers – and prisoners themselves – conceptualized prisons as a microcosm of society. They argued that society was responsible for crime because it created competition, exploitation, inequalities, poverty, desperation that caused people to degenerate, morally and physically. Prisons, they said, mimicked the worst features of society, so that prisons themselves caused degeneration. It reduced people (both prisoners and guards) to animals. In that context, it was not only prisoners that needed a regeneration, but prisons themselves, and, by extension, the wider society.
Date Range: April 2023
Location: National Humanities Center, North Carolina

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