Penology for Profit: A History of the Texas Prison System, 1867-1912

by Donald R. Walker

Overview

Before the discovery of oil and the advent of Progressivism to Texas, the state dealt with prison overcrowding by leasing convicts and their labor to private industry and funneling the profits into the state's coffers. In this book, Donald R. Walker examines economic, social, and political aspects of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas that resulted in the leasing system and its eventual demise.

Convict leasing resulted in high mortality rates among prisoners, and stories of abusive guards and intolerable conditions were common. Blacks, who lacked social standing, legal counsel, and the rights to vote, testify, and sit on juries, made up a disproportionate amount of the prison population and were usually sent to work in the fields. In the twentieth century, revenues from the oil industry eased the financial woes of the state, and a movement for social reform gained momentum. Investigative journalism revealed to the public the abuses of prisoners, and in 1912 the state retook control of the prison system.

Relying mainly on primary sources, including eyewitness accounts from prisoners, prison records, private correspondence, and newspaper accounts, Walker gives details and statistics of prison management in Texas during that era that will interest scholars of corrections management, Texas, black history, and the South.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781585440436
Publisher:	Texas A&M University Press
Publication date:	06/01/2000
Series:	Texas A&M Southwestern Studies , #7
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	232
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.53(d)

Table of Contents

	List of Illustrations	ix
	List of Tables	xi
	Acknowledgments	xiii
	Introduction	3
Chapter I.	Background to Leasing: The Early Years of the Texas Penitentiary	13
Chapter II.	Early Failures, 1867-1878	13
Chapter III.	The Successful Lease, 1878-1883	46
Chapter IV.	The State as Lessor, 1883-1912	78
Chapter V.	The Prisoner's Lot	112
Chapter VI.	The Powers That Were: Leadership of the Prison System	143
Chapter VII.	The End of Leasing	163
Chapter VIII.	The Texas Experience in Perspective	191
	Afterword	198
	Selected Bibliography	201
	Index	211