Review: Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America

Liberty's Prisoners: Carceral Culture in Early America by Jen Manion
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia was the first designated prison in the United States. Jen Manion’s Liberty’s Prisoners looks at the history of the prison and more importantly its part in creating a carceral system in America and the effects on the disparity in class and gender of local society.

Following British reforms, punishment in Philadelphia was practiced publicly utilizing both public shame and labor authorized by the 1786 Act to Amend the Penal Laws of the State. This act served “to offset the expense of caring for convicts in prison; to discourage criminals through shame and embarrassment from resuming a life of crime, and to deter others from resorting to crime.” (pp. 18-19, Kindle) As slave labor had defined a set of “social roles and expectations” (p. 32, Kindle) that advocated and justified systemic racism through violence and inequality, so too did the penal system in Philadelphia. These roles and expectations were never truly altered as African Americans gained legal freedom; it was merely the circumstance of their bondage that changed. From slavery to carceral bondage, African Americans were subjected to new ways of forced labor and punishment.

Manion clearly shows the disparity among races, classes, and gender in Philadelphia and how the treatment of the imprisoned has contributed to unequal civil liberties in American society that is still hanging over us today. Much of the book is dedicated to the comparison of the treatment of African American women to their male and white counterparts; however Manion analyzes quantifiable data to look at all those imprisoned in Philadelphia from the 1790s through the 1820s to find patterns of abuse and disparity that contributed to a system of continued inequality in early American society. The overarching thesis shows a perpetual cyclical system that for many African Americans, poor, and gendered continues to entrench them in new forms of bondage and inequality.

I think what resonated most with me, was the treatment of women. We see how once women became a victim of hard times; it would be almost impossible to be pulled out of the system. No matter what one did to try to better their circumstance, they would find themselves in a situation that pulled them into the penal system and they never really break that cycle. We still see this today among many in lower economic populations and among the homeless. This book shows how those cycles and social constructs were created and perpetuated over time.

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