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Prison reform essays position paper
Penitentiary Era 1790’s – 1860’s
Prison reforms in the united states
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Prison reform essays position paper
Penitentiary Era 1790’s – 1860’s
Prison reforms in the united states
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Contrast the Pennsylvania and the New York penitentiary theories of the 1800s Having studied the history of prison systems of Pennsylvania and New York tell us that the prisoners were in more isolation in Pennsylvania then those serving time in New York prison system. In Pennsylvania the inmates worked, ate, slept alone. However, in New York prison system the inmates worked, and ate together. List and briefly explain the four types of prisons Prisons can be described in four categories. First are the maximum-security prisons.
On April 21st, 1930, Ohio State Penitentiary, which was built in Ohio’s capital, Columbus, in 1834, caught fire and killed hundreds of inmates. When returning for the night, they discovered that a fire was started within cell blocks G and H. It was only after the fire had been doused, that everyone had realized that the scaffolding, on the outside walls of those cell blocks, was what had caught fire. At the time, the prison was known for its poor conditions. The prison was only meant to hold 1,500 people, but at the time of the fire, it was housing 4,300 inmates. This disaster goes down in history as the worst fire at any prison in the United States.
Halfway through the 18th century, the United States was serving as a model for prisons. Dix was revolutionary in reforming prisons. She convinced states to invest in libraries, basic education, and more care for the men, women, and even children imprisoned in the jails and penitentiaries whereas abuse regularly occurred (Parry). Pennsylvania was a key role model for prisons all over the United States. This state’s prisons were known for having “two of the best prisons in the world” (“Prison and Asylum
Throughout the history, when states were at war with each other, many soldiers were captured by the opposite side and put into war prisons. The captured soldiers were unable to grasp how their freedom was suddenly snatched away from them in the process of serving their country, and resulted in them becoming prisoners of war. During the bloody battles of the Civil War, numerous Union and Confederate soldiers were captured by the opposite sides and became prisoners of war. Approximately 194,000 Union soldiers were captured by the Confederacy, out of which 30,000 died during captivity. The ones who somehow managed to stay alive in the dreaded conditions of the Southern prisons suffered from lack of food and medical care.
In 1841, a school teacher named Dorothea Dix was asked to teach a Sunday school class at a prison. When she started to teach, she realized the horrible conditions of the prison. Cells were crowded with violent offenders, minor criminals, and mentally ill people. People were dirty, the mentally ill were neglected, and the cells were unheated. Some prisons were even old mineshafts.
Prisons in the 1840s were tough and gross. The crime rate went from 5,000 a year in 1800 to 20,000 in 1840. The punishments could be execution or they could be sent to Australia, America, or Tasmania. During the 1940s, prisons were nasty and unhealthy.
The major periods in the development of prisons involved; The Penitentiary Era (1790), which had the philosophy or rehabilitation deterrence, mostly developed in Philadelphia. The Mass (Congregate) Prison Era (1825), which had the philosophy of incapacitation deterrence, and was developed in Ney York State Prison. The Reformatory Era (1876), which had the philosophy of rehabilitation, developed in Elmira Reformatory, NY. The Industrial Era (1890), which had the philosophy of incapacitation and restoration, developed mostly in NY, CA, and IL. The Punitive Era (1935), which had the philosophy of retribution, developed in Alcatraz, CA.
The Lost Civil War Prison The video was fascinating because it told the story about one of the largest prisoner of war(POW) camps, camp Lawton. Although this was one of the biggest POW camps it was also lost because it didn’t not have enough information to completely pin point its walls and components. Time Team America were the people doing the research in the investigation of camp Lawton.
During the Civil War, the capture of Large amounts of Prisoners became a common practice, and an exchange system developed. A prisoner could be exchanged for an enemy soldier, depending on his rank , and as a result, about 200,000 soldiers on both sides were freed. However, this exchange system stopped in 1864 when General Grant refused to trade any more captives in an attempt to wear down the South by attrition. This policy greatly affected the Confederacy. Prison conditions had been relatively good, but they quickly worsened.
“Prison camps during the Civil War were potentially more dangerous and more terrifying than the battles themselves. A soldier who survived his ordeal in a camp often bore deep psychological scars and physical maladies that may or may not have healed in time. 56,000 men died in prison camps over the course of the war, accounting for roughly 10% of the war 's total death toll and exceeding American combat losses in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. “
During this time period, there was a large controversy over the purpose of prison – was it for punishment or atonement? After the war of 1812, there was a small campaign to put children who had committed crimes in juvenile detention centers rather than jails. However, that was not the biggest reform movement directed at the prison system at the time. Dorothea Dix and several others, including Francis Lieber and Samuel Gridley Howe, began to take action and revise the American Prison System. Their goal was simple: to transform prisons into ones that reformed rather than incarcerated their inmates (Faragher 440).
Poor living conditions in prisons emerged because judges were inclined to send more people to prison than the space that was provided. Therefore, prisons became over crowed and hard to handle. Living spaces in prisons got smaller and more prisoners has to share their place with someone else. Security at the prisons also fell downhill, as male guards saw the women and young children as prey for rape. Most prisoners were either brutally assaulted and/or rape while in
The prison reformation is one reform that took place during the 1800s. At the time, the treatment of prisoners was horrific. They were treated as if they weren’t even human. Prisoners were tied and locked up in chains and put in cages like animals. Children were also locked up along with adults for small charges and crimes that they committed.
In the ancient times jails or prisons did not exist. In these times punishments usually were more physical such as whipping, branding and hitting, but also included non-physical aspects such as stocks and public humiliation. The occurrence of stoning was the ancient day death penalty. Many stoning deaths were carried out by the townspeople. This normally included the persons spouse, children, and even those whom they considered friends.
Private Prisons Many people in America have no idea that there are different types of prison systems. The two different types of prisons include state-ran and private. State-ran prisons are prisons owned and operated by the local, state, or federal government; however, private prisons are prisons in which individuals are incarcerated by a third-party organization that is under contract with a government agency. Private prisons are funded by the government and have the unique ability to do whatever they want.