American Capitalism and the Decline of Debtors’ Prison in the 19th Century

Authors

James Parisot, The University of Texas Rio Grande ValleyFollow

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

10-22-2024

Abstract

This paper examines the dynamics of capitalism and the penitentiary system through an analysis of the decline of debt imprisonment in 19th-century United States. It argues that class transformations in the early to mid-1800s created a context for social experiments with new forms of punishment. The penitentiary systems that formed developed logics that contingently fit with the rising mode of production. The decline of debt imprisonment, in this context, was much in part the result of transformations in class power and class structure.

Comments

© The Author(s) 2024. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access pages (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).

Recommended Citation

Parisot, J., 2024. American Capitalism and the Decline of Debtors’ Prison in the 19th Century. Critical Sociology, p.08969205241291039. https://doi.org/10.1177/08969205241291039

Creative Commons License

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

Publication Title

Critical Sociology

DOI

https://doi.org/10.1177/0896920524129103