An original transatlantic history of the invention of the corrections profession and of ensuing debates about punishment’s purposes and prisoners’ rights.

Impermissible Punishments explores the history of punishment inside prisons and how governments grappled with obligations to justify the punishments they impose. Legal scholar Judith Resnik charts the creation of the corrections profession and weaves together the stories of people who made rules for prisons and the stories of those living under the resulting regimes.

Resnik maps three centuries of shifting ideas, norms, and legal standards aiming to draw lines between permissible and impermissible punishments. Her account documents the impact of World War II, the United Nations, the US Civil Rights movement, and the pioneering prisoners who insisted that law should protect their individual dignity. Taking us to the present, Resnik analyzes the expansion of imprisonment, the inability of public and private prisons to provide safe housing, and the impact of abolition politics.

Exploring the interdependency of people in and out of prisons, Impermissible Punishments examines what governments committed to equality owe to the people they detain and argues that many contemporary forms of punishment need to end.

"Punishing a criminal act by separating the perpetrator from society is a universal concept throughout time and around the globe, but the purpose and end goal of imprisonment have always been a matter of great debate. Is prison meant to be retribution, deterrence, a means of rehabilitation? Resnik explores how imprisonment is addressed in the US Constitution (which bans a nonspecific ‘cruel and unusual punishment’) and analyzes the relevant case history. After an introduction that surveys several centuries of the history of carceral punishment, the book also delves into the lives of individual people who have been imprisoned, both today and in the past…Highly recommended for readers of intellectual or legal histories." - Library Journal

"Resnik presents a thorough, penetrating, and insightful analysis of the transatlantic history of punishment over three centuries…a meticulous and sweeping history of punishment and an incredible resource for advocates, scholars, and the general public…It is a huge step forward in our understanding of the origins and development of our criminal legal system and provides us with the context and language to help us move our system forward to a more humane place." - Balkinization