The Oxford history of the prison : the practice of punishment in western society / edited by Norval Morris and David J. Rothman.

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Includes bibliographical references and index -- --

Introduction / Norval Morris , David J. Rothman -- Prison before the prison: the ancient and medieval worlds / Edward M. Peters -- Body and the state: early modern Europe / Pieter Spierenburg -- Well-ordered prison: England, 1780-1865 / Randall McGowen -- Perfecting the prison: United States, 1789-1865 / David J. Rothman -- Victorian prison: England, 1865-1965 / Sean McConville -- Failure of reform: United States, 1865-1965 / Edgardo Rotman -- Prison on the continent: Europe, 1865-1965 / Patricia O'Brien -- Contemporary prison: 1965-present / Norval Morris --

Australian experience: the convict colony / John Hirst -- Local justice: the jail / Sean McConville -- Wayward sisters: the prison for women / Lucia Zedner -- Delinquent children: the juvenile reform school / Steven Schlossman -- Confining dissent: the political prison / Aryeh Neier -- Literature of confinement / W.B. Carnochan.

In The Oxford History of the Prison, a team of distinguished scholars offers a vivid account of the rise and development of this critical institution.

The authors trace the persistent tension between the desire to punish and the hope for rehabilitation, recounting the institution's evolution from the rowdy and squalid English jails of the 1700s, in which prisoners and visitors ate and drank together; to the sober and stark nineteenth-century penitentiaries, whose inmates were forbidden to speak or even to see one another; and finally to the "big houses" of the current American prison system, in which prisoners are as overwhelmed by intense boredom as by the threat of violence. The text also provides a gripping and personal look at the social world of prisoners and their keepers over the centuries. In addition, thematic chapters explore in-depth a variety of special institutions and other important aspects of prison history, including the jail, the reform school, the women's prison, political imprisonment, and prison and literature.

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