By Paul Griffiths (NHC Fellow, 2002–03) The English were punished in many different ways in the five centuries after 1500. This collection stretches from whipping to the gallows, and from the first houses of correction to penitentiaries. Punishment provides a striking way to examine the development of culture and society through time. These studies of … Continued
By Winnifred Fallers Sullivan (NHC Fellow, 2006–07) More than the citizens of most countries, Americans are either religious or in jail — or both. But what does it mean when imprisonment and evangelization actually go hand in hand, or at least appear to? What do “faith-based” prison programs mean for the constitutional separation of church and state, … Continued
As the 20th century came to a close and the 21st began something occurred in the United States that was both internationally unparalleled and historically unprecedented. Between 1970 and 2017 more people were incarcerated in this country than were imprisoned anywhere else in the world, and at no other point in this nation’s recorded past … Continued
The Barbados Museum and Historical Society is located in a former military prison. Its original purpose of control through force and containment is clear and obvious when I entered the present-day museum. Cannons flank the entrance, a symbol of calculated and brutal violence. The façade is imposing, an intimidating tall arch way designed not to … Continued