Detention Castles of Stone and Steel: Landscape, Labor, and the Urban Penitentiary by James C. Garman

Centered primarily on a historical archaeological and architectural investigation of Rhode Island's first state prison, built in Providence in 1838, this study by James C. Garman (Assistant Professor of Archaeology, Salve Regina University) is concerned with the negotiation and contestation of power and work in the landscape and built environment of the 19th century social reform institution. The prison and its work regime, along with those of Rhode Island poor relief institutions, orphanages, asylums, and juvenile reform structures, are examined in the context of the cultural landscape of social experimentation in Jacksonian America. Prison labor is discussed as an agent of reform, an enforcement of power relations, production, a means of training and discipline.

Hardcover: 272 pages

Publisher: The University of Tennessee Press; 1st edition (August 28, 2005)

Language: English

ISBN-10: 1572333545

ISBN-13: 978-1572333543