The very definition of punishment in America has been subject to a variety of changes, and has served as the basis for much debate over the course of America's history. In Penitentiaries, Reformatories, Chain Gangs , Mark Colvin tackles the subject of penal change in America by examining three case studies which represent shifts in the interpretation of punishment specifically during the nineteenth century: the rise of penitentiaries in the Northeast; the changes in the treatment of women offenders in the North; and the transformation of punishment in the South after the Civil War. Colvin uses these case studies to apply four theoretical explanations of penal change, shedding light on both the history of penal authority and the current state of the system today. An engrossing and highly relevant volume, Penitentiaries, Reformatories, Chain Gangs is a comprehensive investigation of punishment and its meaning past and present.