Introduction

This part introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters. The part examines the development of two tracks within the women's prison system, one consisting of the custodial institutions that evolved from men's prisons, the other comprising reformatories that feminized the late nineteenth-century penology of rehabilitation. It explores a more detailed view of the two types of women's prisons and their inmates. The part focuses on the issue of racial discrimination in the two types of prisons. It also focuses on the operation of a specific reformatory and deals with issues of social class and social control. The five institutions are the Tennessee State Penitentiary, the New York State Prison for Women at Auburn, the Ohio Penitentiary, New York's Western House of Refuge at Albion, and the Ohio Reformatory for Women at Marysville. These institutions provide opportunities for a number of comparisons.