From Asylum to Prison by Anne E. Parsons


ISBN
9781469669472
Published
Binding
Paperback
Pages
240
Dimensions
155 x 235mm

To many, asylums are a relic of a bygone era. State governments took steps between 1950 and 1990 to minimize the involuntary confinement of people in psychiatric hospitals, and many mental health facilities closed down. Yet, as Anne Parsons reveals, the asylum did not die during deinstitutionalization. Instead, it returned in the modern prison industrial complex as the government shifted to a more punitive, institutional approach to social deviance. Focusing on Pennsylvania, the state that ran one of the largest mental health systems in the country, Parsons tracks how the lack of community-based services, a fear-based politics around mental illness, and the economics of institutions meant that closing mental hospitals fed a cycle of incarceration that became an epidemic.

This groundbreaking book recasts the political narrative of the late twentieth century, as Parsons charts how the politics of mass incarceration shaped the deinstitutionalization of psychiatric hospitals and mental health policy making. In doing so, she offers critical insight into how the prison took the place of the asylum in crucial ways, shaping the rise of the prison industrial complex.
Father's Day Catalogue 2025 x Book Frenxy
59.49
RRP: $69.99
15% off RRP


This product is unable to be ordered online. Please check in-store availability.
Instore Price: $69.99
Enter your Postcode or Suburb to view availability and delivery times.

You might also like

The Cleopatras
Lloyd Llewellyn-Jones
34.99
29.74
15% Off
We Dont Know Ourselves
24.99
21.24
15% Off
Lost Japan
26.99
22.94
15% Off
History of Scotland
24.99
21.24
15% Off
Operation Pimento
34.99
29.74
15% Off
Chernobyl Prayer
26.99
22.94
15% Off
Prospecting for Gold
29.95
25.46
15% Off
Somewhere Below
28.95
9.99
65% Off
The Habsburgs
26.99
22.94
15% Off
One Summer America 1927
26.99
22.94
15% Off

RRP refers to the Recommended Retail Price as set out by the original publisher at time of release.
The RRP set by overseas publishers may vary to those set by local publishers due to exchange rates and shipping costs.
Due to our competitive pricing, we may have not sold all products at their original RRP.