Democracy in Captivity: Prisoners, Patients, and the Limits of Self-Government

Who ought to govern those held in custody, and by what right? Democracy in Captivity examines various efforts to answer these questions, centering on two case studies at custodial institutions: the rise and demise of patient self-governance at St. Elizabeths Hospital in Washington, DC, between 1947 and 1965 and the prisoner-organized governance of Massachusetts's Walpole State Prison following a 1973 prison-guard strike. As Christopher D. Berk shows, the promise of these initiatives was tem...