The Prison Reform Movement: Forlorn Hope

by Larry E. Sullivan

This is a short history of penal reform in the United States. The title is derived from a statement by an early 19th-century observer who noted that reformation of offenders within prisons was a "forlorn hope." Sullivan's thesis is that not much has changed, a position shared by most criminologists. The author, a former librarian at the Maryland State Penitentiary, hopes for more humane treatment, but doesn't see it as likely given the current structure of society. While the same material can be found in criminology texts, this is a good short history of the unsuccessful attempts to punish, deter, and rehabilitate within the same institution.

200 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 1990