Loading...
Realizing Reformation: The Building of the American Correctional Association and the Carceral State
Wilhelm, Elizabeth
Wilhelm, Elizabeth
Citations
Altmetric:
Abstract
I examine federal and state prison policy development within the National Prison Association, now known as the American Correctional Association, between 1870 and 1925 to better understand how these early policies contribute to our ability as a society to confront mass incarceration today. The NPA/ACA is a professional organization formed in 1870 that has profoundly shaped carceral institutions in the United States at local, state, and federal levels. Ultimately, I interrogate how historical discourses shape current understandings of criminality and punishment and how the prison system and carceral institutions function to limit imagined solutions and possibilities for the future. To accomplish this task, I have topic modelled the annual conference proceedings of the NPA/ACA between 1870 and 1925. Topic modelling is a form of unsupervised text exploration that uses a computer algorithm to group chunks of text together based on latent patterns in the text. My model consists of 25 provided topics (textual patterns) with 10 top pages for each topic. Based on this topic model, conversations revolve around three main themes. The first theme is fulfilling the mission of the NPA/ACA through the advocation for and the successful adoption of supported policy aims. The second theme is the reformatory theories rooted in labor, education, religious ideology, and the use of various carceral institutions/policy mechanisms within and beyond prisons, which drive these policy aims. The last theme is how understandings of race, gender, age, class, mental status, and region shape their policy formation.
Description
Date
2022-12-31
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
University of Kansas
Collections
Files
Research Projects
Organizational Units
Journal Issue
Keywords
American studies, Public policy, Law,