Travail forcé et enfermement pénal. Quelques questions sur la naissance de la prison aux États-Unis

In: Déviance et société, Band 9, Heft 3, S. 215-231

Abstract

The penal use of prison is often considered as the breaking point in historigraphy. One cannot deny the fundamental transformations implied by the prison and consequently the penitentiary. But their use does not signify a total break with previous repressive policies. The study of the American situation shows that servitude and hard labour may be presented as the bridge between two different repressive logics. Thus servitude was first substituted to capital punishment ; incarceration then appeared as the material modality necessary to the execution of the sanction.