Studying the history of girls’ and women’s imprisonment is a vital but often neglected area of feminist criminology. A proper understanding of the current patterns, practices, and challenges of female incarceration requires placing these issues in their historical context, as Perry does in this important book. In the tradition of Nicole Hahn Rafter’s Partial Justice: Women, Prisons, and Social Control (Piscataway, New Jersey, 1990), Perry’s historical work clearly illustrates the necessity of exploring girls’ and women’s imprisonment as central to the enforcement of male privilege.
How exactly did the nation, and the state of Kansas, decide that incarceration was the proper response to venereal disease? At the start of World War I, military officials were concerned about soldiers contracting syphilis and gonorrhea. Although many options were considered, including the distribution of condoms or the regulation of prostitution, the military ultimately adopted a two-part plan that included “moral training” for the...