ABSTRACT
Introduction As Chapter 2 noted, reformers like the Quakers thought that prisons would be quiet places where offenders could reflect on their lives as they spent their days praying and working. They thought that prisons would be like monasteries where prisoners would reform. Later prison leaders were not as clearly religious as the Quakers, but they still believed in rehabilitation. In fact, rehabilitation continued as a stated goal of prison life well into the 20th
century. Since the early 1990s, however, prisons have emphasized punishment, deterrence, and incapacitation.
