Steven A. Barnes
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- October 2017
- ISBN:
- 9780691151120
- eISBN:
- 9781400838615
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691151120.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter focuses on the period after Stalin's death. It looks at the explosive uprisings in the Gulag with a particular focus on the forty-day revolt at the Kengir division of Steplag. It also ...
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This chapter focuses on the period after Stalin's death. It looks at the explosive uprisings in the Gulag with a particular focus on the forty-day revolt at the Kengir division of Steplag. It also examines the new leadership's policy that largely emptied the camp and exile systems of all those charged with either petty or political offenses. Before Stalin's death, no level of economic loss or amount of systemic crisis could cause a serious reevaluation of the need for this mass social institution. Yet his death almost immediately ushered in a radical change in the size of the system. The Gulag's decline was marked by fits and starts, resulted in a paroxysm of mass disobedience throughout the system, and finally the system's almost total collapse.Less
This chapter focuses on the period after Stalin's death. It looks at the explosive uprisings in the Gulag with a particular focus on the forty-day revolt at the Kengir division of Steplag. It also examines the new leadership's policy that largely emptied the camp and exile systems of all those charged with either petty or political offenses. Before Stalin's death, no level of economic loss or amount of systemic crisis could cause a serious reevaluation of the need for this mass social institution. Yet his death almost immediately ushered in a radical change in the size of the system. The Gulag's decline was marked by fits and starts, resulted in a paroxysm of mass disobedience throughout the system, and finally the system's almost total collapse.
David Terracina
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199599844
- eISBN:
- 9780191725227
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199599844.003.0011
- Subject:
- Law, Medical Law
Contemporary penal systems have long suffered a profound crisis of ineffectiveness. Judicial statistics show a crime rate that is constantly on the rise, whether these are blood crimes or crimes of a ...
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Contemporary penal systems have long suffered a profound crisis of ineffectiveness. Judicial statistics show a crime rate that is constantly on the rise, whether these are blood crimes or crimes of a patrimonial nature. Obviously, the chronic ineffectiveness of the penal systems cannot depend on merely one factor. In addition, it is unlikely on the one hand that all factors determining a crisis of such proportions can be known; while, on the other hand, it is highly likely that the mechanisms of the factors known are not completely understood. Hence, dealing with a combination of heterogeneous factors, both exogenous and endogenous, there can be no single solution that is able to restore the likes of the penal systems by itself. This chapter argues that cognitive neuroscience could provide useful instruments to comprehend some of the factors responsible for the ineffectiveness of the penal systems.Less
Contemporary penal systems have long suffered a profound crisis of ineffectiveness. Judicial statistics show a crime rate that is constantly on the rise, whether these are blood crimes or crimes of a patrimonial nature. Obviously, the chronic ineffectiveness of the penal systems cannot depend on merely one factor. In addition, it is unlikely on the one hand that all factors determining a crisis of such proportions can be known; while, on the other hand, it is highly likely that the mechanisms of the factors known are not completely understood. Hence, dealing with a combination of heterogeneous factors, both exogenous and endogenous, there can be no single solution that is able to restore the likes of the penal systems by itself. This chapter argues that cognitive neuroscience could provide useful instruments to comprehend some of the factors responsible for the ineffectiveness of the penal systems.
Megan Sweeney
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- July 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780807833520
- eISBN:
- 9781469604367
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of North Carolina Press
- DOI:
- 10.5149/9780807898352_sweeney.5
- Subject:
- Society and Culture, Gender Studies
This chapter focuses on the majority opinion in Beard v. Banks, which constructs reading as a privilege that best serves the interests of the penal system when it is denied to uncooperative ...
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This chapter focuses on the majority opinion in Beard v. Banks, which constructs reading as a privilege that best serves the interests of the penal system when it is denied to uncooperative prisoners. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argues that the current ruling is justified because it is consistent with eighteenth-century Pennsylvania punishment practices, which isolated prisoners from the outside world by allowing no reading materials except the Bible and by denying prisoners contact with their families. The majority opinion dismisses legal cases that have found increased contact with the world conducive to rehabilitation, arguing that such findings are moot when “dealing with especially difficult prisoners.” Although the Pennsylvania prison deputy describes the policy as designed to make prisoners “productive citizen[s],” the Court's majority opinion thus conveys little faith in the possibility that these prisoners may actually become productive citizens or that reading may facilitate such a process.Less
This chapter focuses on the majority opinion in Beard v. Banks, which constructs reading as a privilege that best serves the interests of the penal system when it is denied to uncooperative prisoners. In his concurring opinion, Justice Clarence Thomas argues that the current ruling is justified because it is consistent with eighteenth-century Pennsylvania punishment practices, which isolated prisoners from the outside world by allowing no reading materials except the Bible and by denying prisoners contact with their families. The majority opinion dismisses legal cases that have found increased contact with the world conducive to rehabilitation, arguing that such findings are moot when “dealing with especially difficult prisoners.” Although the Pennsylvania prison deputy describes the policy as designed to make prisoners “productive citizen[s],” the Court's majority opinion thus conveys little faith in the possibility that these prisoners may actually become productive citizens or that reading may facilitate such a process.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book argues that the post-Stalin leadership, having inherited a massive, inefficient, violent, and corrupt penal system, ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book argues that the post-Stalin leadership, having inherited a massive, inefficient, violent, and corrupt penal system, engaged in a serious and substantive reforming effort bent on transforming the Soviet Gulag both quantitatively and qualitatively. In order to make proper sense of Khrushchev-era reforms in the penal sector, this book places them within three broader narratives. First, they were just one part, albeit a very important and lasting part, of an extensive reformist program instituted by Stalin's heirs and Khrushchev in particular. Second, they were part of a global postwar penal transition toward rehabilitation and greater leniency and respect for inmates. Finally, Khrushchev's Gulag should be understood within the broader context of Soviet crime and punishment, particularly in relation to the Stalin-era Gulag.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book argues that the post-Stalin leadership, having inherited a massive, inefficient, violent, and corrupt penal system, engaged in a serious and substantive reforming effort bent on transforming the Soviet Gulag both quantitatively and qualitatively. In order to make proper sense of Khrushchev-era reforms in the penal sector, this book places them within three broader narratives. First, they were just one part, albeit a very important and lasting part, of an extensive reformist program instituted by Stalin's heirs and Khrushchev in particular. Second, they were part of a global postwar penal transition toward rehabilitation and greater leniency and respect for inmates. Finally, Khrushchev's Gulag should be understood within the broader context of Soviet crime and punishment, particularly in relation to the Stalin-era Gulag.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter discusses the impact of Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 on the Gulag. Stalin's passing, the ensuing power struggle, and the existing reformist tendencies within the Gulag all contributed ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 on the Gulag. Stalin's passing, the ensuing power struggle, and the existing reformist tendencies within the Gulag all contributed to the substantive reforms that would quickly and permanently alter the Soviet penal system. By 1960 the Gulag empire would be drastically reduced in size and economic importance. Its organizational structure would be decentralized to a significant degree. Reeducation as opposed to labor extraction would be proclaimed the top priority of the Gulag. Ultimately, the reforms of 1953–60 were just as monumental in terms of transforming the Soviet penal system as those of 1930–37. In many respects, in fact, they worked to roll back the reforms of the 1930s, which in general had made the penal system larger, more economically focused, and deadlier.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of Stalin's death on 5 March 1953 on the Gulag. Stalin's passing, the ensuing power struggle, and the existing reformist tendencies within the Gulag all contributed to the substantive reforms that would quickly and permanently alter the Soviet penal system. By 1960 the Gulag empire would be drastically reduced in size and economic importance. Its organizational structure would be decentralized to a significant degree. Reeducation as opposed to labor extraction would be proclaimed the top priority of the Gulag. Ultimately, the reforms of 1953–60 were just as monumental in terms of transforming the Soviet penal system as those of 1930–37. In many respects, in fact, they worked to roll back the reforms of the 1930s, which in general had made the penal system larger, more economically focused, and deadlier.
Anoma Pieris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832216
- eISBN:
- 9780824870157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832216.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter provides insights into the penal subculture using letters, petitions, and lawsuits as evidence. It looks at how prisoners manipulated the material culture that was otherwise denied to ...
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This chapter provides insights into the penal subculture using letters, petitions, and lawsuits as evidence. It looks at how prisoners manipulated the material culture that was otherwise denied to them. It also considers the social networks that were shaped within the prison and their intersection with the outside world. In matching the irate reports of colonial officials with letters and petitions from prisoners, the chapter focuses on dialogical encounters between individual convicts and colonial authority, and looks closely at customary practices from the point of view of the prisoners engaged in them. It main objective is to challenge the assumption that penal labor was necessarily reformative.Less
This chapter provides insights into the penal subculture using letters, petitions, and lawsuits as evidence. It looks at how prisoners manipulated the material culture that was otherwise denied to them. It also considers the social networks that were shaped within the prison and their intersection with the outside world. In matching the irate reports of colonial officials with letters and petitions from prisoners, the chapter focuses on dialogical encounters between individual convicts and colonial authority, and looks closely at customary practices from the point of view of the prisoners engaged in them. It main objective is to challenge the assumption that penal labor was necessarily reformative.
Ruth Harris
- Published in print:
- 1991
- Published Online:
- October 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780198202592
- eISBN:
- 9780191675430
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198202592.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, British and Irish Modern History, History of Science, Technology, and Medicine
This book examines the French debate over crime and madness in the fin de siècle. The author argues that psychiatric theories of human behaviour and new sociological interpretations of crime combined ...
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This book examines the French debate over crime and madness in the fin de siècle. The author argues that psychiatric theories of human behaviour and new sociological interpretations of crime combined to undermine the traditional foundations of the penal system and helped to shape the new science of criminology. Traditional notions of free will and moral responsibility were eroded as new and often draconian strategies evolved from managerial practices developed mainly by medical men. The book offers a detailed examination of the radical politique criminelle they devised. Through a series of case studies, the author looks specifically at discussions of feminine hysteria and women's sexuality; male alcoholism and racial degeneration; crimes of passion; crowd violence; and revolutionary politics.Less
This book examines the French debate over crime and madness in the fin de siècle. The author argues that psychiatric theories of human behaviour and new sociological interpretations of crime combined to undermine the traditional foundations of the penal system and helped to shape the new science of criminology. Traditional notions of free will and moral responsibility were eroded as new and often draconian strategies evolved from managerial practices developed mainly by medical men. The book offers a detailed examination of the radical politique criminelle they devised. Through a series of case studies, the author looks specifically at discussions of feminine hysteria and women's sexuality; male alcoholism and racial degeneration; crimes of passion; crowd violence; and revolutionary politics.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This book reveals how the vast Soviet penal system was reimagined and reformed in the wake of Stalin's death. The text argues that penal reform in the 1950s was a serious endeavor intended to ...
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This book reveals how the vast Soviet penal system was reimagined and reformed in the wake of Stalin's death. The text argues that penal reform in the 1950s was a serious endeavor intended to transform the Gulag into a humane institution that re-educated criminals into honest Soviet citizens. Under the leadership of Minister of Internal Affairs Nikolai Dudorov, a Khrushchev appointee, this drive to change the Gulag into a “progressive” system where criminals were reformed through a combination of education, vocational training, leniency, sport, labor, cultural programs, and self-governance was both sincere and at least partially effective. The new vision for the Gulag faced many obstacles. Re-education proved difficult to quantify, a serious liability in a statistics-obsessed state. The entrenched habits of Gulag officials and the prisoner-guard power dynamic mitigated the effect of the post-Stalin reforms. And the Soviet public never fully accepted the new policies of leniency and the humane treatment of criminals. In the late 1950s, they joined with a coalition of party officials, criminologists, procurators, newspaper reporters, and some penal administrators to rally around the slogan “The camp is not a resort” and succeeded in re-imposing harsher conditions for inmates. By the mid-1960s the Soviet Gulag had emerged as a hybrid system forged from the old Stalinist system, the vision promoted by Khrushchev and others in the mid-1950s, and the ensuing counter-reform movement. This new penal equilibrium largely persisted until the fall of the Soviet Union.Less
This book reveals how the vast Soviet penal system was reimagined and reformed in the wake of Stalin's death. The text argues that penal reform in the 1950s was a serious endeavor intended to transform the Gulag into a humane institution that re-educated criminals into honest Soviet citizens. Under the leadership of Minister of Internal Affairs Nikolai Dudorov, a Khrushchev appointee, this drive to change the Gulag into a “progressive” system where criminals were reformed through a combination of education, vocational training, leniency, sport, labor, cultural programs, and self-governance was both sincere and at least partially effective. The new vision for the Gulag faced many obstacles. Re-education proved difficult to quantify, a serious liability in a statistics-obsessed state. The entrenched habits of Gulag officials and the prisoner-guard power dynamic mitigated the effect of the post-Stalin reforms. And the Soviet public never fully accepted the new policies of leniency and the humane treatment of criminals. In the late 1950s, they joined with a coalition of party officials, criminologists, procurators, newspaper reporters, and some penal administrators to rally around the slogan “The camp is not a resort” and succeeded in re-imposing harsher conditions for inmates. By the mid-1960s the Soviet Gulag had emerged as a hybrid system forged from the old Stalinist system, the vision promoted by Khrushchev and others in the mid-1950s, and the ensuing counter-reform movement. This new penal equilibrium largely persisted until the fall of the Soviet Union.
Sarah Holtman
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- May 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199752232
- eISBN:
- 9780199895342
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199752232.003.0007
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter focuses on recasting the retributivism of Immanuel Kant, grounding it in his demands for civic respect and political equality. Historically, many have thought of Kant’s account of the ...
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This chapter focuses on recasting the retributivism of Immanuel Kant, grounding it in his demands for civic respect and political equality. Historically, many have thought of Kant’s account of the purpose and justification of punishment for legal offenses as a paradigm example of thoroughgoing retributivism. The chapter offers a detailed examination of the justification Kant provides for legal punishment, the purposes he recognizes, the protections he demands, and the principles he enunciates to guide the structuring of a penal system. What Kant endorses, it suggests, is a modern retributivist penal theory focused on civic respect for persons as citizens, with implications not only for institutions, laws, and policies, but for citizen attitudes and commitments. To illustrate significant differences between this view and classical retributivism, the chapter applies it to the famous Miranda decision and warnings, as well as a recent case of punishment perceived to be overly lenient.Less
This chapter focuses on recasting the retributivism of Immanuel Kant, grounding it in his demands for civic respect and political equality. Historically, many have thought of Kant’s account of the purpose and justification of punishment for legal offenses as a paradigm example of thoroughgoing retributivism. The chapter offers a detailed examination of the justification Kant provides for legal punishment, the purposes he recognizes, the protections he demands, and the principles he enunciates to guide the structuring of a penal system. What Kant endorses, it suggests, is a modern retributivist penal theory focused on civic respect for persons as citizens, with implications not only for institutions, laws, and policies, but for citizen attitudes and commitments. To illustrate significant differences between this view and classical retributivism, the chapter applies it to the famous Miranda decision and warnings, as well as a recent case of punishment perceived to be overly lenient.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0003
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter discusses how the three aims of the Gulag—economics, reeducation, and control—were restructured in the post-Stalin era. During the 1950s, the three aims of the Gulag were debated heavily ...
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This chapter discusses how the three aims of the Gulag—economics, reeducation, and control—were restructured in the post-Stalin era. During the 1950s, the three aims of the Gulag were debated heavily at multiple levels within the penal apparatus. The orientation of change in this period was decidedly toward reeducation, with a smaller but growing movement toward increased control, but in the end a lasting commitment toward reeducation was only partially realized. Whether for lack of alternative indicators of reeducation or because of the continued emphasis on plan fulfillment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in 1958 and 1960 reaffirmed the principle of rewarding its Gulag officials according to production figures alone.Less
This chapter discusses how the three aims of the Gulag—economics, reeducation, and control—were restructured in the post-Stalin era. During the 1950s, the three aims of the Gulag were debated heavily at multiple levels within the penal apparatus. The orientation of change in this period was decidedly toward reeducation, with a smaller but growing movement toward increased control, but in the end a lasting commitment toward reeducation was only partially realized. Whether for lack of alternative indicators of reeducation or because of the continued emphasis on plan fulfillment, the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) in 1958 and 1960 reaffirmed the principle of rewarding its Gulag officials according to production figures alone.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0006
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter discusses the late Soviet penal system. The early to mid-1960s was an era of idealism in the Soviet Union, fueled by rising standards of living, increased productivity, new scientific ...
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This chapter discusses the late Soviet penal system. The early to mid-1960s was an era of idealism in the Soviet Union, fueled by rising standards of living, increased productivity, new scientific discoveries, and technological advances. There was genuine euphoria on a national scale. However, this euphoria ultimately did not translate into the penal sphere. Prisons were not closed; colonies of various regimen levels persisted; a new corps of hyperqualified personnel was not recruited; and crime remained a perpetual and serious thorn in the side of the communist vision. The Gulag did not fade away into oblivion, but remained a testament to the failure of Soviet socialism in achieving a more harmonious society.Less
This chapter discusses the late Soviet penal system. The early to mid-1960s was an era of idealism in the Soviet Union, fueled by rising standards of living, increased productivity, new scientific discoveries, and technological advances. There was genuine euphoria on a national scale. However, this euphoria ultimately did not translate into the penal sphere. Prisons were not closed; colonies of various regimen levels persisted; a new corps of hyperqualified personnel was not recruited; and crime remained a perpetual and serious thorn in the side of the communist vision. The Gulag did not fade away into oblivion, but remained a testament to the failure of Soviet socialism in achieving a more harmonious society.
Julilly Kohler-Hausmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174525
- eISBN:
- 9781400885183
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174525.003.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
This introductory chapter talks about how American lawmakers “got tough” on drugs, welfare, and crime. These political choices drove one of the most dramatic expansions of a penal system in world ...
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This introductory chapter talks about how American lawmakers “got tough” on drugs, welfare, and crime. These political choices drove one of the most dramatic expansions of a penal system in world history, but policymakers did not simply increase the number and severity of penal sanctions. They also continued degrading the civic standing of those convicted of crimes, imposing limitations on their access to state benefits, employment opportunities, and civil and political rights. As lawmakers and state officials funneled more resources into the penal system, they also retrenched many social welfare programs, particularly those imagined to be serving poor, “nonworking” people of color.Less
This introductory chapter talks about how American lawmakers “got tough” on drugs, welfare, and crime. These political choices drove one of the most dramatic expansions of a penal system in world history, but policymakers did not simply increase the number and severity of penal sanctions. They also continued degrading the civic standing of those convicted of crimes, imposing limitations on their access to state benefits, employment opportunities, and civil and political rights. As lawmakers and state officials funneled more resources into the penal system, they also retrenched many social welfare programs, particularly those imagined to be serving poor, “nonworking” people of color.
Anoma Pieris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832216
- eISBN:
- 9780824870157
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832216.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
During the nineteenth century, the colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Melaka were established as free ports of British trade in Southeast Asia and proved attractive to large ...
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During the nineteenth century, the colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Melaka were established as free ports of British trade in Southeast Asia and proved attractive to large numbers of regional migrants. Following the abolishment of slavery in 1833, the Straits government transported convicts from the East India Company's Indian presidencies to the settlements as a source of inexpensive labor. The prison became the primary experimental site for the colonial plural society and convicts were graduated by race and the labor needed for urban construction. This book investigates how a political system aimed at managing ethnic communities in the larger material context of the colonial urban project was first imagined and tested through the physical segregation of the colonial prison. It relates the story of a city, Singapore, and a contemporary city-state whose plural society has its origins in these historical divisions. A description of the evolution of the ideal plan for a plural city across the three settlements is followed by a detailed look at Singapore's colonial prison. The book traces the prison's development and its dissolution across the urban landscape through the penal labor system. It demonstrates the way in which racial politics were inscribed spatially in the division of penal facilities and how the map of the city was reconfigured through convict labor. Later chapters describe penal resistance first through intimate stories of penal life and then through a discussion of organized resistance in festival riots. Eventually, the plural city ideal collapsed into the hegemonic urban form of the citadel, where a quite different military vision of the city became evident.Less
During the nineteenth century, the colonial Straits Settlements of Singapore, Penang, and Melaka were established as free ports of British trade in Southeast Asia and proved attractive to large numbers of regional migrants. Following the abolishment of slavery in 1833, the Straits government transported convicts from the East India Company's Indian presidencies to the settlements as a source of inexpensive labor. The prison became the primary experimental site for the colonial plural society and convicts were graduated by race and the labor needed for urban construction. This book investigates how a political system aimed at managing ethnic communities in the larger material context of the colonial urban project was first imagined and tested through the physical segregation of the colonial prison. It relates the story of a city, Singapore, and a contemporary city-state whose plural society has its origins in these historical divisions. A description of the evolution of the ideal plan for a plural city across the three settlements is followed by a detailed look at Singapore's colonial prison. The book traces the prison's development and its dissolution across the urban landscape through the penal labor system. It demonstrates the way in which racial politics were inscribed spatially in the division of penal facilities and how the map of the city was reconfigured through convict labor. Later chapters describe penal resistance first through intimate stories of penal life and then through a discussion of organized resistance in festival riots. Eventually, the plural city ideal collapsed into the hegemonic urban form of the citadel, where a quite different military vision of the city became evident.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter focuses on the most powerful and important institution in the Gulag's new network of oversight and assistance, the Procuracy. By the mid-1960s, Khrushchev's penal system was enmeshed in ...
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This chapter focuses on the most powerful and important institution in the Gulag's new network of oversight and assistance, the Procuracy. By the mid-1960s, Khrushchev's penal system was enmeshed in a multifaceted and robust network of oversight and assistance that helped curb violence and other illegalities, promoted the reeducation of prisoners, and even supported the economic responsibilities of the individual penal facilities. In this manner the corrective-labor institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) were integrated more fully into the party-state apparatus and their surrounding communities, thereby reducing the conditions of isolation that led to abuse. Never again would the Soviet Gulag function as an autonomous empire within the empire.Less
This chapter focuses on the most powerful and important institution in the Gulag's new network of oversight and assistance, the Procuracy. By the mid-1960s, Khrushchev's penal system was enmeshed in a multifaceted and robust network of oversight and assistance that helped curb violence and other illegalities, promoted the reeducation of prisoners, and even supported the economic responsibilities of the individual penal facilities. In this manner the corrective-labor institutions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MVD) were integrated more fully into the party-state apparatus and their surrounding communities, thereby reducing the conditions of isolation that led to abuse. Never again would the Soviet Gulag function as an autonomous empire within the empire.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter assesses Khrushchev's reforms in the penal sphere. The reforms of the Khrushchev period had an important lasting effect on the Soviet penal system. This certainly holds true in terms of ...
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This chapter assesses Khrushchev's reforms in the penal sphere. The reforms of the Khrushchev period had an important lasting effect on the Soviet penal system. This certainly holds true in terms of the Gulag's permanent reduction in size, but it also applies to the reorientation of Gulag aims and the resultant improved conditions experienced by its inmates. Although certain inmate privileges were reduced or eliminated in the early 1960s at the culmination of the “camp is not a resort” campaign, many of the most important prisoner-friendly reforms of the 1950s, such as parole and the eight-hour workday, remained. Despite certain continuities, therefore, the Gulag did not return to a state of unchecked (and even abetted) violence, grueling labor, and oppressive living conditions—the defining features of the Stalinist penal system. De-Stalinization in the penal sphere was a real and enduring legacy of the Khrushchev era.Less
This chapter assesses Khrushchev's reforms in the penal sphere. The reforms of the Khrushchev period had an important lasting effect on the Soviet penal system. This certainly holds true in terms of the Gulag's permanent reduction in size, but it also applies to the reorientation of Gulag aims and the resultant improved conditions experienced by its inmates. Although certain inmate privileges were reduced or eliminated in the early 1960s at the culmination of the “camp is not a resort” campaign, many of the most important prisoner-friendly reforms of the 1950s, such as parole and the eight-hour workday, remained. Despite certain continuities, therefore, the Gulag did not return to a state of unchecked (and even abetted) violence, grueling labor, and oppressive living conditions—the defining features of the Stalinist penal system. De-Stalinization in the penal sphere was a real and enduring legacy of the Khrushchev era.
Jeffrey S. Hardy
- Published in print:
- 2016
- Published Online:
- May 2017
- ISBN:
- 9781501702792
- eISBN:
- 9780801458514
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Cornell University Press
- DOI:
- 10.7591/cornell/9781501702792.003.0005
- Subject:
- History, Russian and Former Soviet Union History
This chapter discusses the campaign against the post-Stalin reform of Soviet criminal justice. Stalin's rule left behind a powerful tough-on-crime psychology among Soviet society and Soviet ...
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This chapter discusses the campaign against the post-Stalin reform of Soviet criminal justice. Stalin's rule left behind a powerful tough-on-crime psychology among Soviet society and Soviet officialdom that proved resistant to change. The efforts of Khrushchev and his top allies in the 1950s to move the country away from the punitive justice of the Stalin era ultimately “failed to resonate” with the Soviet public. As a result Khrushchev and his peers in the late 1950s turned instead to optimism for the future as a ruling technique, a trope that was inseparably coupled with intolerance for those unwilling to move forward toward communism. In the end, therefore, even Khrushchev and most top justice officials turned against the “soft line” of justice and became caught up in a renewed campaign against various enemies of socialism.Less
This chapter discusses the campaign against the post-Stalin reform of Soviet criminal justice. Stalin's rule left behind a powerful tough-on-crime psychology among Soviet society and Soviet officialdom that proved resistant to change. The efforts of Khrushchev and his top allies in the 1950s to move the country away from the punitive justice of the Stalin era ultimately “failed to resonate” with the Soviet public. As a result Khrushchev and his peers in the late 1950s turned instead to optimism for the future as a ruling technique, a trope that was inseparably coupled with intolerance for those unwilling to move forward toward communism. In the end, therefore, even Khrushchev and most top justice officials turned against the “soft line” of justice and became caught up in a renewed campaign against various enemies of socialism.
Peter Zinoman
- Published in print:
- 2001
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780520224124
- eISBN:
- 9780520925175
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of California Press
- DOI:
- 10.1525/california/9780520224124.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the penal system regime in French Indochina. It explains that life inside the colonial prison was powerfully shaped by three factors including the conduct of the guards, the ...
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This chapter examines the penal system regime in French Indochina. It explains that life inside the colonial prison was powerfully shaped by three factors including the conduct of the guards, the conditions of forced labor and the quality of food and health care, and these were virtually absent in Indochina. It suggests that this may be because of French colonial officials' distrust of and contempt for the indigenous prison staff and the callous indifference of the colonial state to the fate of native inmates.Less
This chapter examines the penal system regime in French Indochina. It explains that life inside the colonial prison was powerfully shaped by three factors including the conduct of the guards, the conditions of forced labor and the quality of food and health care, and these were virtually absent in Indochina. It suggests that this may be because of French colonial officials' distrust of and contempt for the indigenous prison staff and the callous indifference of the colonial state to the fate of native inmates.
Anoma Pieris
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- November 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780824832216
- eISBN:
- 9780824870157
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- University of Hawai'i Press
- DOI:
- 10.21313/hawaii/9780824832216.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Asian History
This chapter examines the motivations behind specific plural political divisions, inscribed on the colonial landscape of the Straits Settlements, as providing the rationale for racial segregation ...
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This chapter examines the motivations behind specific plural political divisions, inscribed on the colonial landscape of the Straits Settlements, as providing the rationale for racial segregation within the colonial penal system. Evidence from colonial records and subsequent interpretations of the plural society weigh heavily on this history due to their conviction that colonial intentions were realized in the perfection of Singapore's urban landscape. This research differs, however, in its interpretation of the ends to which colonial urbanism was applied. It is argued that Singapore's penal identity tarnished the reputation of the perfect colony and intersected with efforts at containing deviant activities (gambling, opium, and prostitution) in segregated urban neighborhoods. Although identified as a native pathology by orientalist narratives, the penal system and the opium trade underwrote the economic successes of colonial Singapore.Less
This chapter examines the motivations behind specific plural political divisions, inscribed on the colonial landscape of the Straits Settlements, as providing the rationale for racial segregation within the colonial penal system. Evidence from colonial records and subsequent interpretations of the plural society weigh heavily on this history due to their conviction that colonial intentions were realized in the perfection of Singapore's urban landscape. This research differs, however, in its interpretation of the ends to which colonial urbanism was applied. It is argued that Singapore's penal identity tarnished the reputation of the perfect colony and intersected with efforts at containing deviant activities (gambling, opium, and prostitution) in segregated urban neighborhoods. Although identified as a native pathology by orientalist narratives, the penal system and the opium trade underwrote the economic successes of colonial Singapore.
Julilly Kohler-Hausmann
- Published in print:
- 2017
- Published Online:
- May 2018
- ISBN:
- 9780691174525
- eISBN:
- 9781400885183
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Princeton University Press
- DOI:
- 10.23943/princeton/9780691174525.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, American History: 20th Century
In 1970s America, politicians began “getting tough” on drugs, crime, and welfare. These campaigns helped expand the nation's penal system, discredit welfare programs, and cast blame for the era's ...
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In 1970s America, politicians began “getting tough” on drugs, crime, and welfare. These campaigns helped expand the nation's penal system, discredit welfare programs, and cast blame for the era's social upheaval on racialized deviants that the state was not accountable to serve or represent. This book sheds light on how this unprecedented growth of the penal system and the evisceration of the nation's welfare programs developed hand in hand. The book shows that these historical events were animated by struggles over how to interpret and respond to the inequality and disorder that crested during this period. When social movements and the slowing economy destabilized the U.S. welfare state, politicians reacted by repudiating the commitment to individual rehabilitation that had governed penal and social programs for decades. In its place, they championed strategies of punishment, surveillance, and containment. The architects of these tough strategies insisted they were necessary, given the failure of liberal social programs and the supposed pathological culture within poor African American and Latino communities. This book rejects this explanation and describes how the spectacle of enacting punitive policies convinced many Americans that social investment was counterproductive and the “underclass” could be managed only through coercion and force. Spanning diverse institutions and weaving together the perspectives of opponents, supporters, and targets of punitive policies, the book offers new interpretations of dramatic transformations in the modern American state.Less
In 1970s America, politicians began “getting tough” on drugs, crime, and welfare. These campaigns helped expand the nation's penal system, discredit welfare programs, and cast blame for the era's social upheaval on racialized deviants that the state was not accountable to serve or represent. This book sheds light on how this unprecedented growth of the penal system and the evisceration of the nation's welfare programs developed hand in hand. The book shows that these historical events were animated by struggles over how to interpret and respond to the inequality and disorder that crested during this period. When social movements and the slowing economy destabilized the U.S. welfare state, politicians reacted by repudiating the commitment to individual rehabilitation that had governed penal and social programs for decades. In its place, they championed strategies of punishment, surveillance, and containment. The architects of these tough strategies insisted they were necessary, given the failure of liberal social programs and the supposed pathological culture within poor African American and Latino communities. This book rejects this explanation and describes how the spectacle of enacting punitive policies convinced many Americans that social investment was counterproductive and the “underclass” could be managed only through coercion and force. Spanning diverse institutions and weaving together the perspectives of opponents, supporters, and targets of punitive policies, the book offers new interpretations of dramatic transformations in the modern American state.
Jennifer Greiman
- Published in print:
- 2010
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780823230990
- eISBN:
- 9780823241156
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823230990.003.0005
- Subject:
- Literature, American, 19th Century Literature
Chattel slavery provided a model of lawful violence, against which other forms of exceptional penalty — capital punishment, solitary confinement — operated in the United States in the early decades ...
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Chattel slavery provided a model of lawful violence, against which other forms of exceptional penalty — capital punishment, solitary confinement — operated in the United States in the early decades of the nineteenth century. As the penal system learned from slavery, so reform movements in general began to partake of the rhetoric and practices of penitentiary reform, particularly insofar as sentiment and sympathy produced a kind of lingua franca for reform, shaping debates about technologies of punishment along with those on abolition, temperance, public education, and any number of reformist efforts. The condition staged in The Blithedale Romance is a crisis of empowerment in a society organized as both democratic and sovereign. The mimetic relations instituted at Blithedale involve them in enactments of sovereignty that produce what Tocqueville calls “a stranger among us.”Less
Chattel slavery provided a model of lawful violence, against which other forms of exceptional penalty — capital punishment, solitary confinement — operated in the United States in the early decades of the nineteenth century. As the penal system learned from slavery, so reform movements in general began to partake of the rhetoric and practices of penitentiary reform, particularly insofar as sentiment and sympathy produced a kind of lingua franca for reform, shaping debates about technologies of punishment along with those on abolition, temperance, public education, and any number of reformist efforts. The condition staged in The Blithedale Romance is a crisis of empowerment in a society organized as both democratic and sovereign. The mimetic relations instituted at Blithedale involve them in enactments of sovereignty that produce what Tocqueville calls “a stranger among us.”
