PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES OF PUNISHMENT AND THE HISTORY OF PRISON REFORM

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1016/S1059-4337(03)30004-3
• Published date: 09 December 2003
• Date: 09 December 2003
• Pages: 85-104
• Author: Christopher Sturr

PHILOSOPHICAL THEORIES

OF PUNISHMENT AND THE HISTORY

OF PRISON REFORM

Christopher Sturr

ABSTRACT

How can philosophers contribute to the resolution of the currentprison crisis

in the United States, and what sorts of philosophical work should activists

make use of in their efforts to address that crisis? This paper examines two

periods of prison reform in the 20th century, to indicate the problematic

role that traditional theories of the moral justification of punishment have

had in the history of reform effects have played. I argue that moral theories

of punishment are not the best vehicle for addressing the prison crisis; the

approaches suggested by critical social theory are more promising.

1. INTRODUCTION: PHILOSOPHY AND

THE PRISON CRISIS

There are over two million people incarcerated in the U.S., and an additional 4.6

million under supervision by the criminal justice system, on probation or parole

(Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2003). The number of prisoners in the U.S. has

increased dramatically over the last thirty years; the current rate of incarceration

in the U.S. of 780 per 100,000 – the highest in the world – represents a six-fold in-

crease since 1970, when the rate was 120 per 100,000 (Sentencing Project, 2003).

Punishment, Politics, and Culture

Studies in Law, Politics, and Society,Volume 30, 85–104

Copyright © 2004 by Elsevier Ltd.

All rights of reproduction in any form reserved

ISSN: 1059-4337/doi:10.1016/S1059-4337(03)30004-3

85

86 CHRISTOPHER STURR

The policies that have resulted in what nowmust be regarded as mass incarceration

have had enormous costs. Federal, state, and local governments in the U.S. now

spend over $146 billion annually for the criminal justice system as a whole, and

over $49 billion annually for prisons and jails alone. More troubling are the often

hidden costs borne by prisoners, their families, and their communities (Mauer &

Chesney-Lind, 2002). There is a gender dimension to the crisis; the rate of incar-

ceration for women has grown at nearly twice the rate for men since 1980, and the

incarceration rates of African-American women and Latinas are especially high

(Sentencing Project, 2003). The racial dimension of the prison crisis is particularly

disturbing: over two thirds of those incarcerated are African-American or Latino;

the rates of incarceration for young African-American men and young Latino men

are alarmingly high; there are well-documented disparities and racial discrimi-

nation at every stage of the criminal justice system (Davis, 2001; Parenti, 1999;

Wacquant, 2002). The current prison crisis is clearly one of the great problems

of our age.

How can philosophers contribute to efforts to address the prison crisis, and

what sorts of philosophical work can be useful and effective for prison activists

and organizers? The potential contributions of other academic disciplines are

clear: social, political, economic, and historical analysis and inquiry can help us

understand the causes and consequences of the prison crisis. The most obvious

distinctively philosophical contribution would be to expand our normative under-

standing of the current situation. But what form should such normative inquiry

take? Mainstream philosophy has almost exclusively favored moral-theoretical

approaches to punishment – in particular, inquiry into the possible moral justifi-

cations of punishment. We might think that moral theories can provide grounds

on which to criticize current penal institutions and practices – indeed it seems

unlikely that the penal system would pass muster by the lights of any plausible

moral theory; we might also think that moral theories could provide guidance for

designing alternatives to the current policies that have led to mass incarceration.

My aim in this paper is to challenge the centrality of moral theory in philosoph-

ical approaches to punishment, and to argue that activists and organizers should

look elsewhere for normative guidance in addressing the prison crisis. As I hope

to show, the history of prison reform in the U.S. shows that moral-theoretical

approaches have had a dismal record of contributing to positive social change

in the penal system. I will discuss details from two well-documented periods

of prison reform in the U.S. – Progressive reforms of the early 20th century,

and the radical prison movement of the 1960s and 1970s – in which reform

efforts had unintended consequences. I conclude by suggesting that the normative

approaches suggested by critical social theory are more promising than the

standard moral-theoretical approaches philosophers have most often favored.