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One of the weird things about studying prison history is how many things we do today that we used to do and abandoned bc it was "barbaric" or "uncivilized" or just plain wrong. Shall I start a thread? https://twitter.com/ashleytrubin/status/1306084978749448192
Fines! Many states got rid of fines or holding people in prison for debt, including owing court fees or fines, in the 19th C. But we brought them back. See @AlexesHarris's research. https://www.amazon.com/Pound-Flesh-Punishment-Sociological-Associations/dp/087154461X
Privacy! Early approaches to prison, especially in Pennsylvania, sought to protect the identity of prisoners so they could reenter society unstigmatized. Now the criminal record is public knowledge. See #SarahLageson's research. https://www.amazon.com/Digital-Punishment-Privacy-Data-Driven-Criminal/dp/0190872004
Overcrowding! Okay, this one's kind of unfair, but multiple early generations of prisons were intended to prevent overcrowding and all the negative consequences that came with it. See my work and #MichaelMeranze's work. https://www.amazon.com/Laboratories-Virtue-Punishment-Revolution-Philadelphia/dp/0807856312
Chain Gangs! While initially sold as progressive alternatives to factory style prisons (but really to justify the continuation of slavery), chain gangs were abolished in the ~1940s, but we brought them back several decades later. I even saw them when I lived in Florida.
On historical chain gangs: https://www.amazon.com/Twice-Work-Free-Labor-Political/dp/1859840868
And on their return in recent decades: https://academic.oup.com/bjc/article-abstract/40/1/127/398974?redirectedFrom=fulltext
Thinking retribution is a legit reason for punishment. Retribution (and even more so vengeance) became passe in the late 18th/ea 19th Cs. But in Gregg v. Georgia, the USSC said retrib was a legit rationale for executions. https://www.oyez.org/cases/1975/74-6257
We could have a whole thread on racist returns/continuations: Slavery (13th A's exception for punishment), Black Codes (risk algorithms that slyly use race as a risk factor),...
I'm getting tired and losing steam. What else have I forgotten to include?
