Book Review: Engendering Resistance: Agency and Power in Women's Prisons

Abstract

them to design a structure that would provide not just punishment but also security while minimizing corruption, insuring the health of inmates and guards and achieving the reformation of wayward inmates through labor and religion.Johnston's study is not limited to examining prison architecture in the West. He notes, for example, the well-documented, intense penological debate between proponents of the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems that was sustained through much of the 18th century. He also discusses the history of prison architecture in Asia, where China was the last national state to reform prisons, and Latin America, where Brazil was the first country to erect a prison based on Western plans.Professor Johnston suggests that prison architecture was at one time influenced as much by economic conditions as social policy. In 19th-century Europe, where a labor surplus existed, prisons were designed to hold inmates in isolation. In the United States, however, which was experiencing a labor shortage, legislators encouraged inmate labor to reduce the cost of their custody. At the turn of the 21st century, one might argue that economic conditions-as much as social policy-still largely determine not only the design and function of correctional institutions but also their location.Absent in this otherwise comprehensive study is a discussion of prisons specifically designed for juvenile or female offenders. Readers might be curious to know if Zebulon Brockway's innovative Elmira Reformatory, established in New York in 1876 and exemplifying the "new penology," included features unique to the individualized treatment of inmates. Other readers interested in the incarceration of female offenders in the United States likely would appreciate a discussion of the early prisons for women, which often lacked perimeter fencing and housed inmates in "cottages." However, this omission does not detract from this intelligently written study in which Johnston effectively weaves the history of the prison with the evolution of prison architecture.To most Americans, punishment is synonymous with prison, and the author convincingly illustrates how, throughout history, the prison has been viewed as an instrument of punishment as well as a symbol of justice and order. Richly documented with over 100 photographs and sketches, Forms of Constraint enables the reader to easily envision the numerous architectural plans referred to in the text. A glossary, comprehensive index, and bibliography are valuable supplemental resources that complement the engaging narrative. Johnston has made an important contribution to the published material on prisons and has provided a very readable study that should appeal to practitioners, scholars, and general readers.