SMC Professor Publishes Paper Exploring Incarceration’s Impact on Politics, Racism

Radhika Vaid
Staff Writer

Photo of Dr. Michael Haggerty
Dr. Michael Haggerty

SMC Professor Dr. Michael Haggerty’s new book explores the question of whether the United States’ reputation as the land of the free has its limits through a study of the history of incarceration in New York City.

Dr. Haggerty’s recent paper, “The Blackwell’s Island Candidate: Mike Walsh and the Politics of Incarceration in Antebellum New York,” published in “New York History,” is the result of almost ten years of dedicated research. What started as a seminar paper in graduate school grew into a comprehensive study of 19th-century incarceration in New York City.

“I was inspired by the vast number of historical documents in the city’s archives, especially arrest records showing the large number of people imprisoned during that time,” Dr. Haggerty said. “The tremendous research material made me question who gets to be free and what that really means.”

However, his research wasn’t easy. He had to make repeated trips to New York City to access different archives, which was time-consuming and expensive. Fortunately, he received funding from various institutions, including the New York Historical Society and the New York Public Library, to support his work. Additionally, revising the paper based on feedback from different readers was a challenging but essential part of the process.

“I hope the paper will help people understand the diverse experiences of incarcerated individuals throughout history and how incarceration has influenced urban politics and racism,” Dr. Haggerty said.

Dr. Haggerty is currently working on another paper about how New York state officials allowed the enslavement of incarcerated people in the mid-19th century.

Dr. Haggerty has been teaching history at SMC since the fall of 2023. Before that, he taught at the University of California, Davis, where he earned his Ph.D. in History. Dr. Haggerty also taught in prisons, including a course at SCI Huntingdon through Penn State’s Restorative Justice Initiative. At SMC, he focuses on teaching U.S. history, covering the U.S. survey, the American Revolution, and African American history.

“I hope this work can shed a little light on a forgotten aspect of history and contribute to our understanding of the past when it comes to the impact of incarceration,” Dr. Haggerty said.