In the prison business, all roads lead to Texas. The most locked-down state in the nation has led the way in criminal justice severity, from assembly-line executions to isolation supermaxes, from prison privatization to sentencing juveniles as adults. This history of American imprisonment, from the days of slavery to the present, shows how a plantation-based penal system once dismissed as barbaric becomes the national template, and how that injustice can change. Drawing on convict accounts, official records, and interviews with prisoners, guards, and lawmakers, the author reveals the Southern roots of our present-day prison colossus. While conventional histories emphasize the North's rehabilitative approach, he shows how the retributive and profit-driven regime of the South ultimately triumphed. He argues that just as convict leasing and segregation emerged in response to Reconstruction, so today's mass incarceration, with its vast racial disparities, must be seen as a backlash against civil rights. Illuminating the origins of America's prison juggernaut, this book points toward a more just and humane future.

Prison heartland -- Plantation and penitentiary -- "Worse than slavery" -- The agonies of reform -- The penal colony that wasn't -- "Best in the nation" -- Appeal to justice -- Retributive revolution -- The triumph of Texas tough.