This article examines the role of prisoner self-expression in destabilizing the harshest penal regime in American history, convict leasing, which developed more extensively in Texas than in any other state. In particular, it analyzes African American work songs and turn-of-the-century convict autobiographies written mainly by Whites. It argues that prisoner criticisms influenced free-world leasing opponents and that convict resentment thereafter complicated postleasing reform efforts. In the tradition of anti-institutional prison sociologists, the article suggests that reform-oriented prisons often have difficulty maintaining order because their newly expectant inmates desire release over rehabilitation.
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