ABSTRACT
In the opening decades of the twentieth century, new ideas and new programs transformed public attitudes and social policies toward the criminal, the delinquent, and the mentally ill. The innovations are well-known for they have dominated every aspect of criminal justice, juvenile justice, and mental health right through the middle 1960's. To a remarkable degree, American historians have ignored these programs for the criminal, the delinquent, and the insane. There is not a single history of probation or parole or indeterminate sentences, not more than two or three accounts of prisons, mental hospitals or training schools in the twentieth century, and only a handful of studies of juvenile courts or outpatient clinics. Two words, "conscience" and "convenience", point to the dynamic and tension that are at the core of the analysis. Progressives aimed to understand and to cure crime, delinquency, and insanity through a case-by-case approach.
