Role and Evolution of the American Prison

¶ … Role and Evolution of the American Prison System

Explain the Primary Role and Evolution of the American Prison System and Determine if Incarceration Reduces Crime

The United States constitution is the fundamental foundation of the American criminal justice system. Given that the document is now over two hundred years old, it constantly experiences numerous amendments and interpretations. As a result, the criminal justice system over the years experienced alterations in order to reflect the needs and beliefs of each subsequent generation. The configuration of the modern prison system has its basis in the late 1700's and early 1800s. The development of the modern prison system aims at protecting innocent members of the society from criminals. The prison systems also deter criminals from committing more crimes through detaining and rehabilitating them. However, more and more deluge of white-collar crimes and other crimes, burdens the American criminal justice system and the prison system. Given the rise in crimes in the society, the effectiveness of incarceration is open to discussion. It is as a result the purpose of this paper to highlight the evolution and the major role of the modern prison system in America. The paper also highlights incarceration in the American prison system, its functions and determines whether incarceration reduces crimes in America.

Introduction

The prison system is in divergent ways an excellent prism through which to assess a particular culture. If a prison system is corrective, that tells that a given society experiences increased crime rates. A prison is an organization marked through considerable authority but modest accomplishment (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). A prison system, on the other hand, refers to the managerial arrangement of prerequisite for incarceration of convicted criminals. The American prison system entails the federal prisons, states prisons and local prisons (Kraska & Brent, 2011). The society has had prisons of all sorts from the biblical times. Although prisons are different in their internal systems and stated objectives, the major accomplishment of a prison in its fundamental directive is to restrain and contain offenders. Rehabilitation is a recurring objective of prisons, although this aim is sometimes unachievable. However, rehabilitation is reformers' dream, but not beneficial to all criminals. The utilization of prison as an authority experienced steady growth since the beginning of the 19th Century penitentiary, and is a major dominant of the modern criminal justice system (Kraska & Brent, 2011). The development in the utilization of prisons is specifically for the minority and more presently women. Women face underrepresentation in the American prisons with almost 7% of women in the overall prison population even after the present accelerated development in the rate of women confinement.

The Evolution of the American Prison System

The formation of the modern prison has its foundation in the late 1700's and early 1800s. The prison reformers borrowed ideas from institutions and Laws of England. The shifts during the era link to individuals, both in the early American and England colonies. The Quakers who settled in Pennsylvania were instrumental in forming a prison system with incarceration as a way of moral reformation serving the primary objective (Barnes, 1921). Dr. Benjamin Rush signed the Declaration of Independence and he was a major architect of the transformational prisons model that influenced the perspective of penology. His foundational principle supported "houses of Repentance," and this instigated the establishment of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, which allowed Benjamin to endorse prison reform principles.

According to Benjamin, reform principles were crucial in the treatment of prisoners (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). His reform principles meant shifts in punishment and prisons, reduced number of convicted criminals, but a rise in prison population with longer incarceration sentences. John Howard worked to ensure relief to American Indians while Quakers influenced the colonies' perspective to punishment and crime. During the colonial era, there was little requirement for prisons in America. Criminals got detained temporarily as they waited for court rulings or specific punishments (Barnes, 1921). People viewed incarceration as an expensive proposition and a loss of valuable labor. As a result, confinement mostly did not last more than one day.

In 1682, nearly a century before the outbreak of the American revolution, the Pennsylvania Quakers adopted William Penn's blueprint of government which became the framework for the colony as well as the first exemplar of the penal reform in the history of America (Barnes, 1921) . One of the key reforms was the rejection of the jailers practice that charged prisoners for fees, boardroom and other extravagances. The Pennsylvania Quaker reformers dominated the American prison reform in the 19th Century. Before 1750, incarceration by law was rare compared to increased general public and physical punishments. Colonial jails contained a variety of political and military prisoners with undetermined sentences. Incarceration failed to become a crucial criminal sanction until the late 19th Century after the culmination of the American Revolution (Barnes, 1921).

Early jails after American Revolution held debtors and those who failed to pay tax and other fine payments (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). From this perspective, people viewed jails as a technique for coercing debtors to pay as opposed to a criminal sanction. During early 19th century, the condition of the American jails reflected that of its Western world counterparts. Cellular confinement was nonexistent with prisons and jails becoming huge rooms that housed all types of prisoners; from debtors, children, felons, the dissolute and the mentally ill. Architects of prison history believe that the foundation of the contemporary prison system is the evolution of Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). .

John Howard and Benjamin Rush had a hand in the reformation of the Walnut Street Jail. They transformed Walnut Street Jail and other jails that followed from an entirely punitive establishment to jails that stressed on rehabilitation, reform and penitence (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). Benjamin and his colleagues supported the introduction of single cells to Walnut Street Jail as a means of isolating the most risky prisoners from others thereby doing away with the component of criminal contagion.

By early 1820, two competing models of prison evolved out of the Walnut Street Jail. The Pennsylvania system that took over the Walnut Street Jail supported a 24-hour separation and labor behind bars (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). On the other hand, the Auburn Prison scheme that formed in New York promoted cellular isolation at night and congregate labor in stringent silence during the day. Eventually, the Auburn Scheme became the prominent design of prison in the United States. This is because of the congregate labor that became more effective compared to individual labor. The Auburn prisons were more cost-effective as they saved money hence, becoming the underside line for prison administrators.

A novel wave of reforms in prison concurred with culmination of the 1865 American Civil War. By late 1860s, American prisons were suffering from overcrowding (Barnes, 1921). Together with the developing opposition of labor unions who acted against unfair antagonism prison labor posed to free labor, prison restructuring was on the perspective. Notwithstanding the novel reform environment, Southern states, so ravaged by the war, would catch up for the coming century. Ill equipped to house prisoners in conservative prisons, most Southern states resorted to convict leasing, chain gang, and the agricultural prison camps.

The meeting of the first National Prison Congress in Ohio, in 1870, represented a huge speculative turning point in penology (Barnes, 1921). Building on the current experiments with undefined sentences and the Australia and Ireland mark system, the congress took on a Declaration of Principles regarded as the most progressive documents in the 19th Century prison reform. Prior to the culmination of the 19th Century, numerous experiments at reforms were attempted. The New York's Elmira Reformatory laid the foundation for the reformatory movement in 1876 through stressing on imprecise sentencing and the mark system over the fixed sentence. Between 1877 and 1901, twelve states formed comparable reformatories. One imperative area that went virtually overlooked at the National Prison Congress was the female offenders' incarceration.

In 1874, Indiana opened the first female prison with Massachusetts opening a reformatory for females the subsequent (Barnes, 1921). Apparently, female imprisonment was not a priority for reformers in the early 19th Century because they were few female prisoners. The "Sing Prison" in New York was the first prison to form an isolated wing for women following its establishment of the Mount Pleasant Female Prison in 1830. Between 1870 and 1935, the country developed twenty female reformatories exclusively for women when female criminality became more of an issue (Barnes, 1921). In the 19th Century, American prisons adopted correctional innovations as parole, indeterminate sentencing and probation. Between 1870 and 1904, the American inmate population developed by sixty two percent, and by 1935, the state population had experienced a tremendous rise of 162% since 1904 (Barnes, 1921). Despite the addition of novel prisons and the execution of the novel progressive experiments, the first decades of the 20th Century requested for the return to an earlier era placing less stress on moral education, instruction and classification in favor of the more financially lucrative and punitive labor regime of the 19th Century (Barnes, 1921).

Factors that led to Development of the American Prison System

The modern prison system in America is a product of the 18th Century enlightenment. This instigated reference works on prison systems and prisons to provide brief shrift to the build up of places of confinement and prisons before the 1700s (Craig, 1998). While early prisons were hardly ever built expressly for the imprisonment purpose, most cultures resorted to makeshift dungeons or cages to confine prisoners in the accessible structures. Given that incarceration is widely applicable as a punishment in the contemporary world, imprisonment played a minor role in the punishment regimes in most nations before 19th Century.

The present American prison system developed as an option to whipping. The system used penitentiaries to prevent prisoners from engaging in crimes and revitalizing them into effective society members. Indeed, prison appeared to cause more offenses than preventing them. However, until the late 19th Century, anyone convicted of a federal crime got imprisoned in state organization because of lack of federal prison facilities (Craig, 1998). The system functioned as long as state prisons got permission to lease inmates out and received boarding fees from the national government. The numbers of federal prisons rose by two between 1885 and 1895. In 1887, the congress stepped in to put to an end the contract leasing of federal prisoners (Craig, 1998). In reaction to this, state prisons turned down federal prisoners leading to the formation of federal penitentiaries.

Numerous aspects instigated the formation of the federal prison system. The rapid rise in population and the promulgation of numerous novel federal laws led to increased federal prisoners. National indignation over the situations of state prisons and the horrors of the convict-leasing system that prompted the prohibition against leasing federal prisoners instigated the formation of federal facilities. In 1891, the Congress passed Three Prisons Act, which gave authority of constructing three federal penitentiaries (Craig, 1998). The first federal prison was constructed in Leavenworth, Kansas and it received its first charges in 1895. The construction preceded the construction of the United States penitentiary at Atlanta in 1902 and McNeil Island, Washington, in 1907. In its first decade, the federal prison system became different from the state system. By 1930, 5 federal prisons remained operational. Notwithstanding the additional federal prisons, these facilities became more overcrowded as the federal criminal justice system formed more breakable law. In this regard, overcrowding and poor recordkeeping instigated the formation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons in 1929 (Craig, 1998).

The Role of American Prison System

The criminal justice system functions to control crime through arresting, prosecuting, convicting and punishing those convicted of misdemeanor (Kraska & Brent, 2011). A major limitation on the justice systems is that efforts to control offenses must be performed within the blueprint of the law. Criminal law defines what is illegal and highlights the citizens' rights, and processes that officials must utilize to attain the goals of the system. Taking action against criminals assist in crime control, but the criminal justice system must also try to deter crimes from happening. Crime is preventable through numerous means. Perhaps the most paramount means is through the deterrent effect of courts, police and corrections actions. These actions not only discipline those who break the law, but also offer examples that keep others from committing crimes (Kraska & Brent, 2011). However, crime control relies on the activities of citizens and those of criminal justice officials. With the evolution of American Institutions to accomplish justice, control and prevent crimes, decisions must reflect political, social, legal and moral values.

According to Gelderloos (2009), the principal role and function of the American prison system is corrective purpose. The corrective measures used in the prison system include combination of punishment to the felons with the sole objective of promoting security and safety of the innocent people in the society. However, Gelderloos (2009) claims that prison systems constantly function as continuous risks against people who challenges government and other relevant corporations. The American prison system lowers and prevents criminal acts through detaining and rehabilitating felons.

Although the correction system hold three major objectives; to protect people, punish and rehabilitate the criminals in the society, it is not apparent how well the contemporary American correction system accomplishes these objectives. Nevertheless, the most apparent objective of the system of correction is to discipline those found guilty of offenses. The punishment operates as a disincentive against a person replicating criminal actions besides functioning as a paradigm to people wishing or planning to engage in criminal activities. Incarceration is one of the means through which criminals receive their punishments in the American prison system. Death penalty as well as lesser penalties with an example of probation is also punitive.

The prison system operates to protect people. It acts to protect the society from offenders, and entails streets policing and imprisonment of offenders. Through detaining offenders in prisons, they are isolated from the public and cannot do any harm that would affect the larger society. The prison system also functions to rehabilitate offenders. Good rehabilitation allows prisoners to behave accordingly and fit in the society following their release. The rehabilitation entails counseling, drug treatment and vocational training. Rehabilitation allows criminals to become productive members of the society as opposed to being a burden to the society.

Incarceration and Crime Reduction

Imprisonment is the most reliable penalty imposed by the United States courts (Hancock & Sharp, 2004). While less than thirty percent of people under correctional supervision are in jails and prisons, incarceration remains the principal for punishing those who commit grim crimes. Imprisonment contributes greatly to deterring potential offenders. However, prison crowding and reduced probation supervision levels spurs interests in the build up of less severe punishments, intermediate sanctions and less costly punishment, but more restrictive conservative probation (Thomas, 2010). Intermediate sanctions unlike incarceration offer different restrictions on freedom. These sanctions include home confinement, victims' restitution, boot camp, intensive probation supervision and forfeiture of stolen property or possessions.

Incarceration refers to the confinement of criminals in a prison as punishment for a committed crime (Escresa - Guillermo, 2011). It is a custodian sentence used to people convicted or suspected to having committed an offense. The goal of incarceration is crime control and punishment. Incarceration functions to separate criminals to block them from doing more offenses. It also functions to punish offenders for crimes committed, deter other people from committing offenses and to rehabilitate them. The goals of incarceration are achievable through incapacitation, deterrence and rehabilitation.

Incapacitation refers to the process of incarcerating criminals to block them from committing crime. Incapacitation entails a set of minimum sentence for particular offenses, and may need longer sentences for persons who depict a greater danger for crime repetition (Escresa - Guillermo, 2011). Deterrence, on the other hand, closely links to incapacitation, but it augment recognition of penalties for criminal activities. Rehabilitation functions to reform a person and corrects bad conducts.

Incarceration does not reduce crime. Apparently, the American Criminal Justice system is facing major crisis (Thomas, 2010). There are increased number of people in the United States jails and prisons than ever before. The process of punishing criminals through incarceration instigates the rise in number of prisoners. With more functional prisons than in any other nation, the United States finds itself in a condition that seems not to improve in absence of serious and real change. The modern prisons have turned to be a breeding place for drug abuse, violence, transmission of infectious diseases and mental illness (Escresa - Guillermo, 2011). The excessive overcrowding in prisons only makes the problem of crimes even worse. According to the United State Department of Justice, more than 2.3 million males and females are presently serving sentences in the federal prisons, state prisons and local jails. Considering the current population of the nation estimated to be three hundred and five million as at 2008, 2.3 million people are a huge number. In this view, the American prison system requires crucial changes (Dina & Todd, 2006).