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 behind bars, razor wire and electrified fences enough persons to populate a small nation.

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,...

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 behind bars, razor wire and electrified fences enough persons to populate a small nation.

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,...