I’ve recently been reading David Rothman’s The Discovery of the Asylym: Social Order and Disorder in the New Republic. Rothman links the development of American penitentiaries with the development of insane asylums because both institutions possess an intentional core of rehabilitation. Thus, Rothman’s story centers around the ideological transition from Puritan punishment practices to reformatory rehabilitation.

In line with Rothman’s description, I toured the Old New Gate Prison today. New Gate is the first colonial penitentiary in America. The signs and literature available at the attraction presented its historical account very similar to Rothman’s broader description. Punitive techniques before institutionalized incarceration were harsh, painful, and progressively fatal. As populations in the new colonies grew, small isolated towns innevitably interacted more with wanderers and strangers. Traditional reputational forms of law enforcement grew less effective in maintaining peace and order in these uncertain conditions, or at least drove town members to perceive an inadequacy of justice enforcement. The devices which were available (hanging, the stocks, whipping, etc) escalated in harshness until finally legitimacy was stretched to its limits. Town members began to voice concerns rover harsh techniques and juries began preferring to let criminals walk free rather than put them to death for menial crimes. This escalated concerns of social order unraveling. This preference environment led to the construction of the first penitentiary institutions, with their chnaging emphasis on rehabilitation, including New Gate prison.

But the social history of New Gate and incarceration does not end with the advent of the modern prison system. Viewing a closed or abandoned facility like New Gate helped me to see that the process of moving from acceptable to unacceptable practices of justice tends along a sort of natural life cycle. This life cycle can be traced and understood by economic prinicples, and these descriptions can serve as very fruitful arenas of political economy.