rehabilitation — Bunk History

RFK Jr speaking at a podium.

RFK’s Ideas About “Wellness Farms” for Young People Are Eugenic and Unconstitutional

RFK’s call for “wellness farms” revives a grim legacy of forced labor, racial injustice, and eugenics disguised as mental health reform.

by Kylie Smith via Nursing Clio on May 8, 2025

A row of beds at the Fort Worth Narcotic Farm.

“I Don’t Expect Many Escapes”

On the rise of the narcotic farm model, a radical reimagining of the nation’s approach to addiction.

by Holly M. Karibo via HNN on November 19, 2024

Four typewriters including the Nazi-built Urania model.

Why the World of Typewriter Collectors Splits Down the Middle When These Machines Come Up for Sale

In this new hobby, I found so many stories.

by Mark Lawrence Schrad via Slate on March 16, 2024

Ella Fitzgerald performs at Lorton Reformatory in 1959.

In the 1960s, Prison Chaplains Created a Star Studded Music Festival at Lorton Reformatory

Syncopation and swing reigned supreme at the annual Lorton Reformatory Jazz Festival in the 1960s.

by Dominique Mickiewitz via Boundary Stones on March 1, 2024

How Liberal Policymakers and White Suburban Parents Drove the War on Drugs

A Q&A with Matthew Lassiter about how liberal policymakers and white parents drove the escalation of the War on Drugs.

by Matthew D. Lassiter, Michan Connor via HNN on January 10, 2024

Ronald Reagan signing anti-drug legislation as Nancy Reagan and legislators look on.

America's War on Drugs Was Always Bipartisan—And Unwinnable

There was really only one big difference between liberal drug warriors and conservative ones.

by Matthew D. Lassiter via Made By History on December 7, 2023

Sketch of a bedroom with a double bed, a prison courtyard outside the window.

Controversy and Conjugal Visits

Conjugal visits were first allowed as incentives for the forced labor of incarcerated Black men, the practice expanding from there. Is human touch a right?

by Molly Hagan via JSTOR Daily on February 13, 2023

Inmates playing touch football at Moberly Correctional Center in Moberly, MO, 1990.

The First Famous Football Team Behind Bars

Sing Sing's football team, The Black Sheep, ascended to fame even though its players were incarcerated. One player was so good, he signed with the Eagles.

by Joshua Finnell via JSTOR Daily on February 8, 2023

Johnny Cash.

Far From Folsom Prison: More to Music Inside

Johnny Cash wasn't the only superstar to play in prisons. Music, initially allowed as worship, came to be seen as a rockin' tool of rehabilitation.

by Morgan Godvin via JSTOR Daily on November 29, 2022

The Rikers Island docks.

The Long Crisis on Rikers Island

A new book about Rikers Island is essentially a labor history, revealing how jail guards seized control from managers, politicians, and judges.

by Brendan O'Connor via The Baffler on May 12, 2022

Lithograph of Eastern State Penitentiary from above.

The Invention of Incarceration

Prisons have been controversial since their beginnings in the late 1700s — why do they keep failing to live up to expectations?

by Ashley Rubin, Greg Miller via JSTOR Daily on March 18, 2022

Collage of William F. Buckley by Aaron Martin.

The Conservative and the Murderer

Why did William F. Buckley campaign to free Edgar Smith?

by Sam Adler-Bell via The New Republic on March 7, 2022

Photograph of prison warden T. M. Osborne and two other men in a penitentiary hallway.

Were Early American Prisons Similar to Today's?

A correctional officer’s history of 19th century prisons and modern-day parallels. From Sing Sing to suicide watch, torture treads a fine line.

by Charles Neal via JSTOR Daily on January 19, 2022

DR. JOHN J. CRAVEN, MEDICAL DIRECTOR OF THE DEPARTMENT OF THE SOUTH AND THE PHYSICIAN WHO LATER ATTENDED JEFFERSON DAVIS, PERFORMS AN OPERATION DURING THE 1863 SIEGE OF CHARLESTON. THE DOCTOR APPEARS TO BE APPLYING A SPLINT TO THE LEG OF A PATIENT WHILE A MAN BEHIND HIM SEEMS TO BE HOLDING A WHITE COTTON CLOTH, LIKELY SOAKED IN CHLOROFORM, OVER THE PATIENT'S MOUTH AND FACE. | LOCATION: MORRIS ISLAND, SOUTH CAROLINA, CONFEDERATE STATES OF AMERICA. (PHOTO BY CORBIS VIA GETTY IMAGES)

America Has Been Through An Opioid Crisis Before

America’s first opioid crisis came after its bloodiest war, but the lessons of the original debacle have been lost in history.

by Jonathan S. Jones via Vice on April 9, 2021

a artistic human face photo

Bring Back the Nervous Breakdown

It used to be okay to admit that the world had simply become too much.

by Jerry Useem via The Atlantic on February 8, 2021

Artistic photo of Malcolm X

Malcolm’s Ministry

At the end of his remarkable, improbable life, Malcolm X was on the cusp of a reinvention that might have been even more significant than his conversion.

by Brandon M. Terry via New York Review of Books on February 4, 2021

A team photo of the 1966 Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes from a newspaper.

Game Day at the Ohio Pen

Remembering the Ohio State Penitentiary Hurricanes—and the day my father played against them in 1965.

by David Martin via Belt Magazine on January 31, 2020

Candy Land Was Invented for Polio Wards

A schoolteacher created the popular board game, which celebrates its 70th anniversary this year, for quarantined children.

by Alexander B. Joy via The Atlantic on July 28, 2019

California Wildfires Have Been Fought by Prisoners Since World War II

The war had turned forestry work into a form of civil defense, and prisoners a new army on the home front.

by Volker Janssen via HISTORY on November 13, 2018

Treadmills Were Meant to Be Atonement Machines

America’s favorite piece of workout equipment was developed as a device for forced labor in British prisons.

by Diane Peters, U. R. Q. Henriques, David H Shayt via JSTOR Daily on May 2, 2018

Thirty Minutes Behind the Walls’ cast member A.B. Johnson plays the harmonica.

A Peek at the Golden Age of Prison Radio

"Texas Jailhouse Music" explores a time when Texas prisons promoted rehabilitation through a wildly successful radio show.

by Maurice Chammah via The Marshall Project on May 16, 2016

Johnny Carson hosting the Tonight Show.

The Amazing, Disappearing Johnny Carson

Carson pioneered a new style of late-night hosting—relaxed, improvisatory, risk-averse, and inscrutable.

by Isaac Butler via The New Yorker on November 6, 2024

State Correctional Institution at Camp Hill Administration Building, with a restricted entrance sign in front of its doors.

The Porous Prison

How incarcerated people have become separated from American society.

by Charlotte Rosen, Reiko Hillyer via Public Books on October 3, 2024

A photograph of Joe Biden next to a photograph of Lyndon Baines Johnson imposed on a red background.

Lyndon Johnson Knew That Part of Wielding Power Is Knowing When to Let It Go

As Democrats debate whether Joe Biden should stay in the race against Trump, LBJ’s often misunderstood example looms.

by Christopher Hooks via Texas Monthly on July 2, 2024

A historical marker outside Fendall Hall, a plantation.

Historical Markers Are Everywhere In America. Some Get History Wrong.

The nation's historical markers delight, distort and, sometimes, just get the story wrong.

by Laura Sullivan, Nick McMillan via NPR on April 21, 2024

A family affair: Roosevelt was just 31 in 1913, when President Woodrow Wilson appointed him assistant secretary of the U.S. Navy — a post previously held by his cousin Teddy.

The Making of FDR

Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s struggle against polio transformed him into the man who led the country through the Great Depression and World War II.

by Jonathan Darman via The Saturday Evening Post on April 5, 2024

Patti Davis sits for a portrait with her pug, Lily, at her home.

For Years, the Reagans' Daughter Regretted Some Things She Wrote. Now She's at Peace.

Patti Davis has spent a lifetime chronicling her life with parents Ronald and Nancy Reagan. In a new book, 'Dear Mom and Dad,' she reckons with them as people.

by Mary McNamara via Los Angeles Times on February 6, 2024

The Silent Treatment: Solitary Confinement’s Unlikely Origins

Characterised today by the noise of banging, buzzers, and the cries of inmates, solitary confinement was originally developed from Quaker ideas.

by Jane Brox via The Public Domain Review on October 25, 2023

Panting of a woman lounging with a book, titled “Dolce far niente” (The Sweetness of Doing Nothing), by Auguste Toulmouche, 1877.

We’re Distracted. That’s Nothing New.

Ever since Thoreau headed to Walden, our attention has been wandering.

by Caleb Smith via The Chronicle of Higher Education on March 10, 2023

Sillhouettes of incarcerated men preparing for a graduation ceremony.

Educational Aid for Prisoners Works. Yet It’s Politically Precarious.

Why all Americans benefit from higher education for those incarcerated.

by Kate L. Flach, Adrian Cox via Made By History on August 23, 2022

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