Conclusion: Tocqueville’s Penal Reform and Today’s Penal Problems

Abstract

Ferkaluk concludes her work on Tocqueville’s penal reform by noting two important questions that remain and briefly reflecting on the implications that a study of On the Penitentiary System has for the present. First, Ferkaluk notes that the question of evaluating Tocqueville’s penal reform in relation to his work in the Algerian colonization project needs further study. A second important question that emerges from this work is how do the themes of On the Penitentiary System compare to Tocqueville’s larger works, especially Democracy in America, which followed so closely in publication? Finally, Ferkaluk argues that Tocqueville’s moderate penal reform enables readers to navigate the relationship between crime and social mores, address multiple causes of crime, and understand the proper objects of the contemporary penal system in a moderate way.