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Information Regarding The Maine State Prison, Thomaston, Maine 1824-1953, Allan L. Robbins

Maine Bicentennial

Prior to the start of World War II, J. Edgar Hoover’s FBI declared dead the criminal networks established by violent career gangsters during the Prohibition Era. By 1950, America’s attention was focused on the Cold War, Communism, and suspected Soviet subversion plots.

As the FBI continually denied the existence of organized crime, a new American mafia was establishing legitimate businesses as covers for racketeering, drug trafficking, and loansharking. Bribes to local police and politicians bought protection from investigation.

In 1949 the American Municipal Association pushed for the U.S. Congress to investigate. Despite Hoover’s continued denials, the resulting Kefauver Committee proceedings …

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.