Author: ashleytrubin

The Unintended Consequences of Penal Reform: A Case Study of Penal Transportation in Eighteenth-Century London (Law & Society Review, 2012)

WHAT WERE THE CONSEQUENCES OF PENAL TRANSPORTATION TO THE NEW WORLD FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY BRITISH CRIMINAL JUSTICE? TRANSPORTATION HAS BEEN DESCRIBED BY SCHOLARS AS EITHER A REPLACEMENT OF THE DEATH PENALTY RESPONSIBLE FOR ITS DECLINE, OR A PENAL INNOVATION RESPONSIBLE FOR PUNISHING A MULTITUDE OF PEOPLE MORE SEVERELY THAN THEY WOULD HAVE BEEN PUNISHED BEFORE. USING DATA FROM THE OLD BAILEY SESSIONS PAPERS AND THE PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS, THIS STUDY EXAMINES SENTENCING AND EXECUTION TRENDS IN EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY LONDON. IT TAKES ADVANTAGE OF THE NATURAL EXPERIMENT PROVIDED BY THE PASSAGE OF THE 1718 TRANSPORTATION ACT THAT MADE TRANSPORTATION AVAILABLE AS A PENAL SENTENCE, THUS ENABLING ONE TO ASSESS THE “EFFECT” OF TRANSPORTATION ON PENAL TRENDS. THIS STUDY FINDS THAT THE PRIMARY CONSEQUENCE OF THE ADOPTION OF TRANSPORTATION WAS TO MAKE THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE NET MORE DENSE BY SUBJECTING PEOPLE TO A MORE INTENSE PUNISHMENT. WHILE IT WAS ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH A SMALL DECLINE IN CAPITAL SENTENCES FOR SOME TYPES OF OFFENDERS, THE ADOPTION OF TRANSPORTATION WAS ALSO ASSOCIATED WITH AN INCREASE IN THE RATE AT WHICH CONDEMNED INMATES WERE EXECUTED. THE STUDY CLOSES WITH A DISCUSSION OF THE CONDITIONS THAT MAY LEAD TO LAW’S UNINTENDED CONSEQUENCES, INCLUDING THE MESH-THINNING CONSEQUENCES OBSERVED HERE.

Honorable Mention, Law and Society Association Graduate Student Paper Prize (2013)

Resistance or Friction: Understanding the Significance of Prisoners’ Secondary Adjustments (Theoretical Criminology, 2015)

SCHOLARS EXAMINING PRISONERS’ “SECONDARY ADJUSTMENTS” HAVE OFTEN EMPHASIZED PRISONERS’ “RESISTANCE” TO THE PRISON REGIME, PARTICULARLY THEIR AGENTIC ACTS THAT FRUSTRATE THE PRISON’S RULES, GOALS, OR FUNCTIONS. WHILE THESE AGENCY-CENTERED ACCOUNTS OFFER AN IMPORTANT CORRECTIVE TO THE UNDERSTANDING OF PRISONS AS TOTALIZING INSTITUTIONS, THEY MAY GO TOO FAR. I ARGUE THAT SCHOLARS HAVE OVERUSED (AND MISUSED) THE TERM “RESISTANCE” TO DESCRIBE CERTAIN PRISONER BEHAVIORS, CREATING BOTH ANALYTICAL AND NORMATIVE CONSEQUENCES. INSTEAD, I SUGGEST THE CONCEPT OF “FRICTION” MORE ACCURATELY DESCRIBES THE REACTIVE BEHAVIORS THAT OCCUR WHEN PEOPLE FIND THEMSELVES IN HIGHLY CONTROLLED ENVIRONMENTS.

The Consequences of Prisoners’ Micro-Resistance (Law & Social Inquiry, forthcoming)

WHAT ARE THE CONSEQUENCES OF MICRO-RESISTANCE TO LEGALITY IN THE PRISON CONTEXT? USING ARCHIVAL DATA FROM PHILADELPHIA’S EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY (1829–1875), I EXAMINE THE CONSEQUENCES OF NONCOMPLIANT PRISONER BEHAVIOR FOR THE PRISONERS THEMSELVES AND THE PRISON REGIME. I SUGGEST THAT PRISONERS’ NONCOMPLIANCE OFTEN ENTAILED SUBSTANTIAL COSTS TO PRISONERS, PARTICULARLY IN COMPARISON TO THE SUBSTANTIAL BENEFITS OF COMPLYING WITH THE PRISON REGIME. I ALSO SUGGEST THAT PRISONER NONCOMPLIANCE DID NOT HAVE A SINGLE SET OF POSITIVE OR NEGATIVE CONSEQUENCES FOR THE PRISON REGIME, BUT RATHER HAD VARIABLE SIGNIFICANCE BECAUSE DIFFERENT ACTORS USED EPISODES OF NONCOMPLIANCE FOR THEIR OWN GOALS, SUPPORTING OR CRITICIZING THE PRISON.

A Neo-Institutional Account of Prison Diffusion (Law & Society Review, 2015)

Three Waves of American Penal Development, 1790-1920 (Punishment and Incarceration: A Global Perspective, 2014)

THIS CHAPTER CALLS ATTENTION TO PENAL REGIME SHIFTS, EMPHASIZING THE IMPORTANCE OF COMPARING DIFFERENT PERIODS OF PRISON DEVELOPMENT. IN PARTICULAR, IT EXAMINES DIFFERENT INSTANTIATIONS OF PRISON ACROSS TIME. I DISCUSS THREE PERIODS OF PRISON DEVELOPMENT (1790-1810S, 1820-1860, 1865-1920), FOCUSING ON THE NATURE OF PRISON DIFFUSION ACROSS THE UNITED STATES. SPECIFICALLY, I DISCUSS THE HOMOGENEITY AND DIVERSITY OF PRISON FORMS IN EACH PERIOD. I DEMONSTRATE THAT THE FIRST TWO PERIODS WERE PARTICULARLY HOMOGENOUS, AS MOST STATES THAT ADOPTED PRISONS FOLLOWED A SINGLE MODEL, THE WALNUT STREET JAIL MODEL (1790-1810S) AND AUBURN SYSTEM (1820-1860). BY CONTRAST, THE POST-CIVIL WAR PERIOD EXPERIENCED THE EMERGENCE OF WOMEN’S PRISONS, ADULT REFORMATORIES, AND DISTINCTIVELY SOUTHERN APPROACHES TO CONFINEMENT. USING NEO-INSTITUTIONAL THEORY, I SUGGEST THIS POST-WAR PROLIFERATION OF PRISON FORMS WAS ONLY POSSIBLE BECAUSE THE PRISON HAD BECOME INSTITUTIONALIZED IN THE PENAL LANDSCAPE. SCHOLARS RARELY EXAMINE MULTIPLE SHIFTS IN PENAL REGIME TOGETHER, REDUCING THEIR ABILITY TO MAKE COMPARATIVE INSIGHTS. THIS CHAPTER JUXTAPOSES THREE HISTORICAL PERIODS OF PRISON DEVELOPMENT, THEREBY ILLUSTRATING THE DIVERSITY OF THE THIRD PERIOD AND IMPROVING EXTANT UNDERSTANDINGS OF PRISON EVOLUTION.