Scholars like Harriet Washington, Heather Ann Thompson, and Susan Reverby have illuminated the history of substandard healthcare provision in American prisons during the twentieth century. They have identified the many harms endured and resisted by generations of prisoners, their families, and broader communities, harms arising from factors like enduring racism, medical experimentation, malnutrition, overcrowding, inadequate service provision and oversight, and unmet mental health needs. Despite reports and inquiries spanning decades, from Rector’s 1929 survey of medical provision in American prisons to investigations surrounding the 1971 Attica uprising, the carceral system’s health problems have remained deeply entrenched and widespread, especially following the rise of mass incarceration in the 1970s.
This roundtable discussion will draw connections and comparisons across one hundred years of prisoners’ health experiences in the state of New York, with a particular focus on infectious disease. The research team - three formerly incarcerated scholars and one university-affiliated historian - came together in 2024 to investigate questions of sickness, disability, race, and scientific racism using century-old prison records at the New York State Archives.
Building from an archival exploration of syphilis treatment during the 1920s at Elmira Reformatory, the Institution of Defective Delinquents at Napanoch, and Sing Sing Prison, the discussion will expand to foreground more recently incarcerated individuals’ experiences facing infectious diseases like HIV, Hepatitis C, and COVID-19. Questions the speakers will address include:
- How did changing testing and treatment standards for syphilis affect New York prisoners during the 1910s and 1920s?
- To what extent were/are prisoners coerced into treatment and to what extent could/can they resist?
- In what ways did/do certain diseases attract moral punishment within prison settings?
- How might the inclusion of formerly incarcerated scholars in the research and writing process lead to a richer understanding of historical and present-day healthcare challenges within the carceral system?
Chair email:
[email protected]Learning Outcomes- Develop a historically informed understanding of sickness and health in the carceral system
- Develop an understanding of the enduring nature of inadequate healthcare provision in American prisons
- Learn about research co-production methodology
