Focusing on the intersection of Christianity and politics in the
American penitentiary system, Jennifer Graber explores evangelical
Protestants' efforts to make religion central to emerging practices
and philosophies of prison discipline from the 1790s through the
1850s.
Initially, state and prison officials welcomed Protestant
reformers' and ministers' recommendations, particularly their ideas
about inmate suffering and redemption. Over time, however,
officials proved less receptive to the reformers' activities, and
inmates also opposed them. Ensuing debates between reformers,
officials, and inmates revealed deep disagreements over religion's
place in prisons and in the wider public sphere as the separation
of church and state took hold and the nation's religious
environment became more diverse and competitive. Examining the
innovative New York prison system, Graber shows how Protestant
reformers failed to realize their dreams of large-scale inmate
conversion or of prisons that reflected their values. To keep a
foothold in prisons, reformers were forced to relinquish their
Protestant terminology and practices and instead to adopt secular
ideas about American morals, virtues, and citizenship. Graber
argues that, by revising their original understanding of prisoner
suffering and redemption, reformers learned to see inmates'
afflictions not as a necessary prelude to a sinner's experience of
grace but as the required punishment for breaking the new nation's
laws.