ABSTRACT
In the early part of the twentieth century, the reformatory movement continued its spread. Twentieth-century American corrections officials and, consequently, legislators, increasingly favored the industrial prison and farms or plantations as the most desirable models for imprisonment. The Louisiana State Prison at Angola, holding about 5,000 inmates, is a good example of a plantation, or farm-style, prison. In 1906, the Mississippi legislature designated the Parchman Farm Prison Plantation as the state's primary prison. By 1917, the Parchman Farm Prison consisted of 13 agricultural camps where large cotton crops, and all food for the prison, were grown. By 1926, 99 prisons were operating throughout the United States. Federal laws soon curtailed the efficacy of the industrial prison as a money-making enterprise. In 1992, during his campaign for the presidency, Bill Clinton and his paid political consultants resolved that they would be more robust "crime fighters" than any of their Republican competitors.
