States and Sisters: The Role of the Sisters of the Good Shepherd in State-Building and Girls’ Carceral Institutions in the Western United States

Homes of the Good Shepherd, run by the Catholic Sisters of Our Lady of Charity of the Good Shepherd, reformed and incarcerated ‘fallen’ women and girls in the U.S. as early as 1843, making it the first institution in the nation to exclusive incarcerate women and girls. The Good Shepherds in the Western United States operated in collaboration with the state to incarcerate wayward girls before structures existed at the state level, showing an uncharacteristic willingness by western states to rely on Catholic institutions for state-building. This paper frames the construction of girls’ carceral institutions in the West as arising from the precarious collaboration of the Catholic church and of state governments, while placing the Sisters of the Good Shepherd within the larger context of the federal government’s reliance on Catholic sisters to run boarding schools for Native children.