Which act ended the industrial prison era by restricting interstate commerce in prison-made goods?

• A. Hawes-Cooper Act
• B. Ashurst-Sumners Act
• C. Punitive era
• D. Pride Act

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how federal law shut down the market for prison-made goods by stopping their shipment across state lines. The Hawes-Cooper Act of 1929 started this process by prohibiting the interstate shipment of products made by convict labor, signaling a move away from prison-made goods in commerce. But that act left loopholes and enforcement gaps. The Ashurst-Sumners Act of 1935 strengthened and expanded those restrictions, making it illegal to ship prison-made goods across state lines and tightening enforcement so the market for inmate-produced products effectively collapsed. This combination finally ended the industrial prison era by cutting off the interstate commerce that had sustained it. The other options aren’t statutes that accomplished this shift, with one referring to a historical period and another not representing a real act in this context.