In Penitentiaries, Reformatories, and Chain Gangs, Mark Colvin tackles the subject of penal change in America by examining three case studies from the nineteenth century that represent shifts in the interpretation of punishment; the rise of penitentiaries in the Northeast; the changes in treatment of women offenders in the North; and the transformation of punishment in the South after the Civil War.

Colvin uses these case studies to apply four theoretical explanations of penal change, shedding light on both the history of penal authority and the current state of our correctional system. In addition, he examines ideas such as how punishment differs from reform, topics like the treatment of women in reformatories, and the notion that the use of convict leasing and chain gangs of black prisoners in the South is a perpetuation of plantation labor leftover from slavery.