¶ … History Of Penitentiaries
With nearly 10% of its population incarcerated, it is important for Americans to understand the purpose and history of penitentiaries in this country. To this end, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a history of punishment, the history of prison development, and a comparison of the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn systems. Finally, an analysis of the impact and involvement of prison labor over time is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning the purpose and history of penitentiaries in the conclusion.
History of punishment
Although humans have used various punishments for different purposes such as infractions of social, religious or legal codes such as the Code of Hammurabi for millennia (Voglis, 2002), the term has assumed a formalized modern meaning that includes a legal process. For instance, according to the definition provided by Black's Law Dictionary (1990), punishment is "any fine, penalty, or confinement inflicted upon a person by the authority of the law and the judgment and sentence by a court, for some crime or offense committed by him, or for the omission of duty enjoined by law" (p. 1234). While crimes of omission are rare (i.e., failure to pay taxes), the punishments for either case may include...
Although the buildings that can be regarded today as prisons date to antiquity, the historical sources for these early prisons have been lost or remain fragmented, and they can only be explained today in terms of modern penology (Morris & Rothman, 1999). Nevertheless, it is clear that humans have recognized the need to separate certain types of criminal offenders from the general population for thousands of years. For instance, Morris and Rothman report that, "In the Western tradition the practice occurs as early as the Greek myths and the Book of Genesis, and it is usually classified as part of the wider category of physical punishments that restrict an individual's freedom of movement" (p. 3).
Comparison of the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn system
In the early 19th century, the Quakers were responsible for developing the Pennsylvania system for penitentiaries, while the Auburn system that followed a few years later incorporated some innovations that were intended to improve the field of corrections (May, 1995). The Pennsylvania system was predicated…
Written into the legal changes would be protocols for review of cases to re-determine parole eligibility in certain cases but especially those where the latter crimes were non-violent and relatively minor offences. Because of this review aspect the legal and physical changes of this alternative is the most effective in both the short-term and long-term, of dealing with prison overcrowding. This alternative was chosen, not because it is the
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
Just as clearly no individual who is logical would consider Charles Manson or Theodore Bundy as eligible profiles for the restorative justice program or even for rehabilitation program or indeed of any other than imprisonment or death by execution There are however, very potentially productive, useful, and worthy individuals who are shuffled into the correction system due to their inability to hire a lawyer or lack of knowledge concerning