History ETDs

Publication Date

1-29-1986

Abstract

Until 1885 the territory of New Mexico lacked a penitentiary to house its criminal population. Neither years of harrowing frontier violence nor the problem of notoriously inadequate county jails provided sufficient incentive to bring such an institution to fruition. Only when political and economic self-interest coalesced among a group of highly placed public figures in Santa Fe in the mid-1880s did the penitentiary become a reality. The political alignments forged during that time continued to influence the prison's operation, usually to its detriment, from then on.

This study examines the long-standing obstacles to the creation of a penitentiary, the circumstances which finally permitted its construction, and the legacy of political interference which plagued it thereafter. Insofar, as is possible, it. also attempts to depict conditions within the penitentiary and evaluate prison life.

As indicated by contemporary public documents, newspaper accounts, and personal correspondence, the penitentiary attracted intense local interests. Long forced to serve the cause of political expediency, it eventually assumed the status of a respected territorial institution.

Level of Degree

Masters

Degree Name

History

Department Name

History

First Committee Member (Chair)

Richard Nathaniel Ellis

Second Committee Member

Paul Andrew Hutton

Third Committee Member

John L. Kessell

Language

English

Document Type

Thesis

Download

Included in

History Commons

Share

COinS