The Connecticut Prison Association and the Search for Reformatory Justice

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Gordon S. Bates. The Connecticut Prison Association and the Search for Reformatory Justice

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THE CONNECTICUT PRISON ASSOCIATION AND THE SEARCH FOR REFORMATORY JUSTICE

This book is a 2015 selection in the Driftless Connecticut Series, for an outstanding book in any field on a Connecticut topic or written by a Connecticut author.

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On the positive side Darwin’s evolutionary theory enabled other religious leaders of the latter part of the nineteenth century to apply in a completely different way the ideas of evolution and progress. In New England the revised Calvinist teaching of Nathaniel William Taylor, that individuals could will their own salvation, was compatible with Darwin’s struggle for survival. The conviction of Horace Bushnell that people could change to meet the ever-changing demands of their environment merged easily with Darwin’s concept of evolution.39

As the century came to a close, a growing portion of Jewish and Christian thought also embraced the rationalist, more materialistic assumption that all acts had a natural, physical cause, including and perhaps especially crime and antisocial behavior. The scientific method as well as the research of Darwin had produced a new way of viewing social problems. After Darwin, criminality could no longer be seen as inevitable or permanent, at least for most offenders. There were environmental factors, as well as personal deficiencies, that could provide a basis for criminal activity.

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