Prison Papermaking: Colonial Ideals of Industrial Experimentation in India.

This article questions the economic rationale of colonial experimentation and prison labor, arguing that for many administrators a prison-based experiment's success mattered less than its existence. It examines the position of convict labor and penal discipline within colonial industrial experiments in colonial India, where convicts performed experiments for what one administrator described as "the most penal" form of labor, papermaking. The belief that Indian fibers could open a new export market for global papermaking meant that prisons became prominent sites of experimentation with new pulps. Regional prisons gained state monopolies for handmade paper, often decimating local independent producers. Yet prison and industrial officers counterintuitively positioned the frequent failures of papermaking experiments as a continuing potential source for industrial improvement. They argued that the failures demonstrated the need to improve discipline and supervision. Prison experiments slotted convicts into repetitive, mechanized roles that served European investigations into the utility of Indian products.

Changes and challenges of the archives: researching early-twentieth century lesbianism in United States prisons during the COVID-19 pandemic.

"Changes and Challenges of the Archives" is based on a still-in-progress master's thesis that I will complete by May 2021 at Sarah Lawrence College. The purpose of this article is not to come to any conclusions about the challenges of researching lesbian history during the COVID-19 pandemic but, rather, to explore how these world circumstances have further complicated the labor required of a lesbian historian. Many elements of this thesis and research are still in flux, including my investigation of the role race played in creating and developing a sexually deviant, criminalized definition of lesbian(ism). My ultimate hope is that this paper provides some valuable knowledge for my queer historian comrades and sparks a dialogue that can benefit historians who are continuing their research through debilitating circumstances.

Producing food in English and Welsh prisons.

Most prison food research focuses on aspects of consumption rather than production yet farming, horticulture and gardening have been integral to the prison system in England and Wales for more than 170 years. This paper explores the interplay between penological, therapeutic and food priorities over the last fifty years through an examination of historical prison policies and contemporary case studies associated with the Greener on the Outside for Prisons (GOOP) programme. Findings are discussed in relation to how joined-up policy and practice can impact positively on whole population health and wellbeing within and beyond the prison setting.

'Close confinement tells very much upon a man': Prison Memoirs, Insanity and the Late Nineteenth- and Early Twentieth-Century Prison.

This article explores prisoners' observations of mental illness in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century British prisons, recorded in memoirs published following their release. The discipline of separate confinement was lauded for its potential to improve prisoners' minds, inducing reflection and reform, when it was introduced in the 1840s, but in practice led to high levels of mental breakdown. In order to maintain the integrity of the prison system, the prison authorities played down incidences of insanity, while prison chaplains lauded the beneficent influence of cellular isolation. In contrast, as this article demonstrates, prisoners' memoirs offer insights into the prevalence of mental illness in prison, and its poor management, as well as inmates' efforts to manage mental distress. As the prison system became more closed, uniform and penal after the 1860s, the volume of such publications increased. Oscar Wilde's evocative prison writings have attracted considerable attention, but he was only one of many prison authors criticizing the penal system and decrying the damage it inflicted on the mind. Exploration of prison memoirs, it is argued, enhances our understanding of experiences of mental disorder in the underexplored context of the prison, highlighting the prisoners' voice, agency and advocacy of reform.

Showers: from a violent treatment to an agent of cleansing.

In the early nineteenth century, physicians designed the first manufactured showers for the purpose of curing the insane. Sustained falls of cold water were prescribed to cool hot, inflamed brains, and to instil fear to tame impetuous wills. By the middle of the century showers had appeared in both asylums and prisons, but shower-related deaths led to their decline. Rather than being abandoned, however, the shower was transformed by the use of warm water to economically wash the skins of prison and asylum populations. In stark contrast to an involuntary, deliberately unpleasant treatment, by the end of the century the shower was a desirable product for the improvement of personal hygiene and population health.

"He Must Die or Go Mad in This Place": Prisoners, Insanity, and the Pentonville Model Prison Experiment, 1842-52.

The relationship between prisons and mental illness has preoccupied prison administrators, physicians, and reformers from the establishment of the modern prison service in the nineteenth century to the current day. Here we take the case of Pentonville Model Prison, established in 1842 with the aim of reforming convicts through religious exhortation, rigorous discipline and training, and the imposition of separate confinement in its most extreme form. Our article demonstrates how following the introduction of separate confinement, the prison chaplains rather than the medical officers took a lead role in managing the minds of convicts. However, instead of reforming and improving prisoners' minds, Pentonville became associated with high rates of mental disorder, challenging the institution's regime and reputation. We explore the role of chaplains, doctors, and other prison officers in debating, disputing, and managing cases of mental breakdown and the dismantling of separate confinement in the face of mounting criticism.

Insane acquittees and insane convicts: the rationalization of policy in nineteenth-century Connecticut.

A current situation in Connecticut of whether a violent insane acquittee should be held in a state prison or psychiatric facility raises difficult issues in jurisprudence and medical ethics. Overlooked is that the present case of Francis Anderson reiterates much of the debate over rationalization of policy during the formative nineteenth century. Contrary to theories of social control and state absolutism, governance in Connecticut was largely episodic, indecisive and dilatory over much of the century. The extraordinary urban and industrial transformation at the end of the Gilded Age finally forced a coherent response in keeping with longstanding legal and medical perspectives.

Post Civil War African American History: Brief Periods of Triumph, and Then Despair.

During Reconstruction, which is often called the most progressive period in American history, African Americans made great strides. By 1868 African American men constituted a majority of registered voters in South Carolina and Mississippi, and by 1870 eighty-five percent of Mississippi's black jurors could read and write. However, Reconstruction was followed by approximately one hundred years of Jim Crow laws, lynching, disenfranchisement, sharecropping, unequal educational resources, terrorism, racial caricatures, and convict leasing. The Civil Rights Revolution finally ended that period of despair, but the era of mass incarceration can be understood as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement. This article attempts to understand the persistence of racism in the United States from slavery's end until the present.

[The long road for psychiatric care in prisons]. / La longue marche des soins psychiatriques en milieu pénitentiaire.

From the 19th century to the present day, the history of psychiatry in prisons has evolved considerably. In parallel with successive laws, codes and articles, psychiatry has gained in structure. From the "medical prison", mental health consultations in every detention centre, the regional medico-psychological services, to today's specially equipped hospital units (UHSA), prisoners receive both preventive care as well as curative treatment.

[The development of medical care in prison system of Russia (end of XVII-early XX centuries)].

The article considers historical medical aspect of development of medical care of convicts in Russia. The first mentioning about treatment of ill criminals relates to 1775. In 1788 the Regulations of prisons was prepared using experience ofprison systems of European states. From 1819, organization of medical care ofpopulation fell within the competence of the Ministry of Internal Affairs that created conditions for organization of medical care in prison system. The legal basics of medical care of convicts were adopted in 1831. In 1850, out of980 000 of jailed prisoners died 1598 (0.16%) of them. In 1879, in the prison Headquarters was organized position of inspector of medical care. This employee coordinated rendering of medical care of prisoners and developed sanitary hygienic measures. The primary unit of national penitentiary system made up authorities of management ofparticular places of confinement. In 1887physicians andfeldshers were accredited to them. The state placed very high demands to medical personnel. The treatment of ill prisoners implemented at the expense of the state. During analyzed period, uniform medical statistics of morbidity. It is demonstrated that special attention was paid to infectious diseases.

Black and white body mass index values in developing nineteenth century Nebraska.

Little is known about late 19th and early 20th century BMIs on the US Central Plains. Using data from the Nebraska state prison, this study demonstrates that the BMIs of dark complexioned blacks were greater than for fairer complexioned mulattos and whites. Although modern BMIs have increased, late 19th and early 20th century BMIs in Nebraska were in normal ranges; neither underweight nor obese individuals were common. Farmer BMIs were consistently greater than those of non-farmers, and farm labourer BMIs were greater than those of common labourers. The BMIs of individuals born in Plains states were greater than for other nativities, indicating that rural lifestyles were associated with better net current biological living conditions.

Redesigning Racial Caste in America via Mass Incarceration.

This article argues that the era of mass incarceration can be understood as a new tactic in the history of American racism. Slavery was ended by the Civil War, but after Reconstruction, the gains of the former slaves were eroded by Jim Crow (a rigid pattern of racial segregation), lynching, disenfranchisement, sharecropping, tenantry, unequal educational resources, terrorism, and convict leasing. The Civil Rights Movement struck down legal barriers, but we have chosen to deal with the problems of poverty and race not so differently than we have in the past. The modern version of convict leasing, is mass incarceration. This article documents the dramatic change in American drug policy beginning with Reagan's October, 1982 announcement of the War on Drugs, the subsequent 274 percent growth in the prison and jail populations, and the devastating and disproportionate effect on inner city African Americans. Just as the Jim Crow laws were a reaction to the freeing of the slaves after the Civil War, mass incarceration can be understood as a reaction to the Civil Rights Movement.

Confinement and psychiatric care: a comparison between high-security units for prisoners and for difficult patients in France.

This paper examines the uncertain meaning of confinement in psychiatric care practices. Investigating the recent expansion of high-security units in French public psychiatry, for patients with dangerous behavior (units for difficult patients) and for suffering prisoners (specially equipped hospital units), we aim to understand psychiatry's use of confinement as part of its evolving mandate over suffering individuals with violent behavior. Although historically the epicenter of secure psychiatric care for dangerous individuals shifted from the asylum to the prison, a review of public reports and psychiatric literature demonstrates that psychiatrists' attempt to reclaim confinement as part of therapeutic practice underpinned the recent development of new units. Institutional-level analysis emphasizes psychiatry's enduring concern to subordinate social defense motives to a therapeutic rationale. Analyzing local professionals' justifications for these units in two emblematic hospitals, the paradoxical effects of a security-driven policy arise: they allowed the units' existence, yet prevented psychiatrists from defending a genuine therapeutic justification for confinement. Instead, professionals differentiate each unit's respective mission, underlining the concern for access to care and human dignity or defending the need for protection and safety from potentially dangerous patients. This process reveals the difficulty of defining confinement practices as care when autonomy is a core social value.

[The tragic fate of physicians].

Physicians and surgeons were always involved in revolutions, wars and political activities, as well as in various medical humanities. Tragic fate met these doctors, whether in the Russian prisons gulags, German labor or concentration camps, pogroms or at the hands of the Inquisition.

"It Has Made Me Think": Engaging the Public with the History of Health in the Modern Irish Prison.

Since the establishment of the modern prison system in the early nineteenth century, prisons and prisoners have been construed as sites of moral, social, and biological contagion. Historic and contemporary studies show that most prisoners experience severe health inequalities, higher rates of addiction and mental health issues, and lower life expectancy than the rest of the population. They also come from deprived social strata. Yet, these aspects of Irish penal history have been largely neglected in academia and popular histories. Our article discusses two public history projects-an art installation, The Trial, and a museum exhibition, Living Inside-that engaged different publics with the long history of health and welfare in Irish prisons. Developed by the research team on the Wellcome Trust Investigator Award "Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000," based at University College Dublin, the projects adopted different methodologies to engage their audiences and explore the experience and management of health and welfare in nineteenth- and twentieth-century Irish prisons. We further examine the different methodological approaches of each project, their varied aims and audiences, and the impacts reported by audiences and participants. The article also considers some of the challenges of doing this kind of public history, both in terms of working with marginalized communities and presenting research about difficult subjects to various audiences.

Black and white body mass index values in nineteenth century developing Philadelphia county.

This paper demonstrates that although modern BMIs in the US have increased, 19th century BMIs in Philadelphia were lower than elsewhere within Pennsylvania, indicating that urbanization and agricultural commercialization were associated with lower BMIs. After controlling for stature, blacks consistently had greater BMI values than mulattos and whites; therefore, there is no evidence of a 19th century mulatto BMI advantage in the industrializing North. Farmers' BMIs were consistently heavier than those of non-farmers.