Introduction to Sociology
Professor Munshi
Fall 2015
Davis- Chapter 2
• Are prisons racist institutions?
• History of racist and punitive institutions
– Slavery
– Lynching
– Segregation
Davis- Chapter 2
• Penitentiary as a system that rehabilitated and
punished at the same time
• Incarceration, from prelude to punishment
itself
• Replaced capital and corporal punishment
• Repent via reflection and labor in
silence/solitude
• Prison was a reform to be more humane
Davis- Chapter 2
• Similar to Slave Codes, and after abolition of
slavery, Slave codes were revised to regulate
behavior of free black people (actions were
criminalized only when person was black)
• 13th Amendment, abolished slavery but
exception: slavery and involuntary servitude
allowable as punishment for crime if person is
duly convicted (and crimes defined by state law
where only black people could be convicted)
Davis- Chapter 2
• After slavery, criminal legal system restricts
freedom of black people
• Crime imputed to color (Douglass)
• Convict leasing system, leased in groups &
conditions were worse than slavery
• Alabama prisons, e.g.
– 99 % of prisoners in Alabama’s penitentiary=white
– After emancipation/Black Codes, majority =black
Davis- Chapter 3
• Before punitive incarceration, punishment
(corporal punishment, like whippings,
brandings, amputations, banishment) was a
public spectacle
• [though punishment for women mostly took
place within the domestic arena]
• Imprisonment as a mode of punishment 
Europe (18th c) and U.S. (19th c)
Davis- Chapter 3
• imprisonment as punishment comes up at a
very specific time– as part of the rise of
capitalism and new ideas about how society
works
• Ideology of “individual rights” is required in
order for removing them to be seen as
punishment, change in legal status, have
rights taken away [e.g. vs. banishment]
Davis- Chapter 3
• If this system came about during a specific set
of historical circumstances, we should
question whether it makes sense in the
present time, in this set of circumstances
Davis-Chapter 3
• In the U.S. different systems but similar
philosophy
– Pennsylvania model (1821): total silence, isolation,
solitude
– Auburn model: solitary cells but labor in common
Davis: in-class Quiz
Why was solitary confinement important to prison
reformers? What was the goal? How does this compare
to today’s version of solitary confinement in the prison?
In-class Exercise
Homework for Monday, December 7
• Re-read Davis Chapter 4
• Read Chapter 5
• Journal #12 is due