Reading Prisoners: Literature, Literacy, and the Transformation of American Punishment, 1700–1845

Schorb Takes Us Off The Scaffold And Inside The Private World Of The First Penitentiaries--such As Philadelphia's Walnut Street Prison And New York's Newgate, Auburn, And Sing Sing. With The Current Rise Of Mass Incarceration In America, Reading Prisoners Offers Vital Background To The Ongoing, Crucial Debates Over The Benefits Of Prisoner Education--page [4] Of Cover. Introduction: A Is For Aardvark : A Prison Literacy Primer -- Part One. Literacy In The Eighteenth-century Gaol: Books Behind Bars : Reading Prisoners On The Scaffold ; Crime, Ink : The Rise Of The Writing Prisoner -- Part Two. Literacy In The Early Penitentiary: What Shall A Convict Do? : Reading And Reformation In Philadelphia's Early Penitentiaries ; Written By One Who Knows : Congregate Literacy In New York Prisons -- Afterword: Good Convict, Good Citizen? Jodi Schorb. Includes Bibliographical References And Index.