In the timeline of criminal justice, integrating education into the prison system is a fairly recent development that did not emerge until the early 1900s. In Oregon in particular, we can track these changes through the progress made at the Oregon State Penitentiary. This paper asks when and to what extent did organized correctional education programs for male prisoners at the Oregon State Penitentiary develop prior to 1929? To answer this question, I compare the findings of the “father of correctional education,” Austin H. MacCormick, to three main source bases: newspaper articles from the time period, a book on Oregon prison superintendents, and accounts of prisoners in the OSP inmate magazines Lend A Hand and Shadows. While MacCormick stated that there were no education programs in place when he visited the Oregon State Penitentiary in 1929, my other sources suggest otherwise.
