Today's guest is C.J. Ciaramella, a Reason reporter whose new cover story traces 250 years of American efforts to build a more humane prison system and the recurring failures that followed.
Nick Gillespie talks with Ciaramella about how the penitentiary system began as a humanitarian alternative to corporal punishment and quickly descended into brutality. They trace the evolution of American prisons through convict leasing, forced labor, overcrowding, and mass incarceration, and discuss why many state correctional systems are now approaching a breaking point. They also discuss the collapse of the bipartisan criminal justice reform movement, what Ciaramella learned from visiting Louisiana's notorious Angola prison, and whether experiments inspired by Scandinavian prisons offer a better way forward.
0:00—Chronicling the history of American prisons
