In U.S. national government censuses in 1880 and 1890, prisoners were grouped with disabled, poor, and homeless persons. In 1880, the census provided extensive statistics on crime and prisoners in a volume entitled “The Defective, Dependent, and Delinquent Classes.” This heading included statistics concerning “insane,” “idiots,” “blind,” “deaf-mutes,” “homeless children,” “paupers in almshouses,” “outdoor paupers,” “prisoners,” and “juvenile delinquents in reformatories.” The census in 1890 had similar categories, but the general heading was “Crime, Pauperism, and Benevolence.”

The relative conceptual position of prisoners is much different today than it was in 1880. The Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 outlawed job discrimination against qualified persons, mandated reasonable accommodation for disabled persons, and sought to ensure that disabled persons were mainstreamed in American life. Showing concern for the poor and homeless is a highly valued position in local and national politics. Non-profit organizations that serve the homeless engage in large, high-profile fundraising efforts. Prisoners, in contrast, are subjects of much less public concern. Even issues such as mass incarceration, the disenfranchisement of persons who have completed felony sentences, and the imprisonment of persons who cannot pay fines and debts hardly attract any public concern. Prisoners had a better public position among the “defective, dependent, and delinquent classes” in late nineteenth-century America than they do today.