Economics and the social reality of prisons

On both sides of the Atlantic penal history is the object of a resurgent and revisionist interest. American historical scholarship conceptualized the prison as a natural result of humanitarian reforms in a society characterized by social and political consensus. European scholars and the radical or new criminologists in America, however, challenged this traditional view by linking the prison to the clash between social and economic classes in a society characterized by conflict. In spite of the existence of some theoretical literature that emphasizes a general economic relationship to law creation and criminality, American penal historians have ignored the possible importance of this theoretical perspective to an explanation of the origin and development of prisons. This study is an attempt to evaluate the importance of economic forces to the creation and development of the prison in America.