Penology For Profit : A History Of The Texas Prison System, 1867-1912

College Station, Texas: Texas A & M University Press. Fine in Fine Dust Jacket. 1988. First Edition. Hard Cover. 216 pages: 6.25 x 9.25 in.: 1.6: KB#006537: Dustjacket now protected by Archival Quality Mylar Cover. Scarce, Out Of Print, Book. Texas A&M Southwestern Studies Number Seven. "Before the discovery of oil and the advent of Progressivism to Texas, the state dealt with prison overcrowding by leasing convicts and their labor to private industry and funneling the profits into the state's coffers. In this book, the first on convict leasing in Texas, historian Donald Walker examines all the economic, social, and political aspects of late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century Texas that resulted in the leasing system and its eventual demise. Convict leasing resulted in high mortality rates among prisoners, and despite commissions, reports, and warnings to the lessees, stories of abusive guards and intolerable conditions persisted. In the twentieth century, revenues from the oil industry eased the financial woes of the state, and at the same time, a movement for social reform gained momentum. Investigative journalism revealed to the public the abuses of prisoners and mismanagement by the private contractors, and in 1912 the state retook control of the prison system. " .