Reforming Women, Reshaping the Carceral State: A Public–Private Partnership in World War I New Orleans

During World War I, more than 250,000 citizens across the United States served in the American Protective League (APL)—a voluntary, domestic civilian surveillance organization that reported to the Department of Justice’s Bureau of Investigation. Throughout the nation, APL members supported the war effort by policing community morality. In New Orleans, the local APL chapter took these efforts a step further, establishing a detention home and reformatory for sex workers. Run by volunteers who were operating under the authority of the Department of Justice, this detention home represented an unusual public-private partnership. What motivated these prominent men to establish this home? How coercive was the detention, and how did the women respond to it? What lasting effect did the detention home have on the lives of the individual women and on the broader carceral state that emerged? Using records from the local APL chapter, the Bureau of Investigation, and New Orleans Criminal Court records, this paper considers these questions and the broader legacy of this detention home for the American carceral state.