History Commons^™

Umaine Professors Study The Link Between Racial Prejudice And The Punishment Of Criminals, Gladys Ganiel

Social Justice: Diversity, Equity, & Inclusion

During the past 30 years, the criminal justice system in the United States has meted out increasingly harsher punishments for offenders, so that today the U.S. imprisonment rate is the highest in the Western industrial world. Research by two University of Maine sociology professors suggests that racial prejudice against African-Americans is one of the underlying factors in the creation of public policies favoring crime control.

Early Days Of The Maine State Prison At Thomaston, Negley K. Teeters

Maine Bicentennial

An academic history of the design and construction of the first Maine State Prison built at Thomaston, Maine. The prison, designed by and constructed under the supervision of Dr. Daniel Rose, was unique in America. The 50 solitary confinement cells were actually underground pits. Rose, as the first prison warden, employed the Auburn prison system of strictly enforced silence, hard labor, and corporal punishment intended to inspire "grief and penitence."

Negley K. Teeters (1896-1971)was a Professor of Criminology at Temple University, Philadelphia and a leading academic in the field of prison reform.