I recently met author Dale Brumfield, and am currently reading his fascinating page turner on the history of Thomas Jefferson's brain child, the Virginia State Penitentiary. This notorious prison opened in 1800 and was Virginia's only state prison until Mecklenberg Correctional Center was opened in 1976. Today there are 39 such correctional facilities in Virginia, housing a total of over 38,000 inmates (Over 30,000 additional individuals are housed in local jails and in federal prisons in Virginia).The historic original penitentiary, since razed to make room for development in downtown Richmond, was designed by U.S. Capitol and White House architect Benjamin Latrobe, and represented a new approach to the rehabilitation of offenders in Virginia that was to be a great improvement over the harsh and often humiliating public forms of punishment common in those days. But over time "The Pen" became notorious for many of the wrong reasons.
From the book's cover:
"The prison endured severe overcrowding, three fires, an earthquake and numerous riots. More than 240 prisoners were executed there by electric chair. At one time, the ACLU called it the "most shameful prison in America." The institution was plagued by racial injustice, eugenics experiments and the presence of children imprisoned among adults."
Please join author Dale Brumfield at the monthly meeting of the local chapter of "Aging Persons in Prison Human Rights Campaign" at its regular meeting at the Emmanuel Episcopal Church in Harrisonburg at 7:30 pm Monday, November 20, to get a signed copy of the book, or bring your copy of the book to have it signed if you've already purchased one. They can be purchased on line at
https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/virginia-state-penitentiary-dale-brumfield/1126526853?ean=9781467137638#/.
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