Abstract
In the years following the Civil War, communities throughout the United States reckoned with divergent ideas about crime and punishment. Southern states in particular faced questions related to race and the legacy of slavery as they defined new crimes, designed penal facilities, and filled local jails. During this period, North Carolina adopted a new state constitution that manifested the transition from corporal punishment to incarceration that was occurring throughout the country. Like many states, North Carolina looked to New York and Pennsylvania for lessons to be gleaned from those states’ experiences with penitentiaries—new facilities that promised to rehabilitate incarcerated people and deter crime.
Founded in 1869, Durham, North Carolina, encountered the urgent need to design a criminal justice system in this unsettled environment. Because of its establishment at a pivotal moment in U.S. history, subsequent struggles with mass incarceration, and current role as a pioneer in criminal justice reform, Durham offers a rich case study for the evolution of criminal punishment at the local level. This Note provides the first comprehensive examination of Durham’s penal facilities and the decisions that shaped them from the city’s founding to the present. It also identifies factors that have contributed to the success and failure of reform efforts, raising questions about the trajectory of ongoing criminal justice reform, illustrating the constraints that reformers face, and offering lessons to communities seeking alternative responses to crime.
Citation
Michael DeLuca,
Punishment, Penal Reform, and Alternatives to Incarceration in Durham, North Carolina, 1869-Present,
74 Duke Law Journal
1613-1660
(2025)
Available at: https://scholarship.law.duke.edu/dlj/vol74/iss7/3
