Before the centralization of prison systems, prisoners had the privilege to decorate their prison cell, personalize their prison clothing, and have different types of furniture, such as bookshelves, rugs, and chairs. However, this changed when the prison system became more centralized. Austin and Irwin (2012) explained that “the centralization of authority and the formation of rules and regulations in prison systems resulted in stringent and uniform routines”, which eliminated the privileges of the prisoners. In our course textbook, Dannie Martian, a former prisoner at Lompoc, provided insight on the changes that occurred at the prison in which he was incarcerated.
In addition, transitioning to the present-day system, Jacoby highlights the modern issues in prison “The Boston Globe reported in 1994 that more than 200,000 prison inmates are raped each year, usually to the indifference of the guards.” This information serves as a strong emotional approach, challenging readers to question the morality and humanity of our modern convictions. Lastly, Jacoby poses the question whether “puritans were more enlightened than we think, at least on the subject of punishment.” Jacoby strategically plays on the readers emotions, empathizing with a reflection upon the modern penal system. The idea of a quick, painful, corporal punishment as a potential alternative invites the reader to consider whether such measures are more humane and emotionally tolerable than the hidden atrocities within the penitentiary system.
There are many subjects in the book “The Essentials of Criminal Justice.” Through the fourteen chapters, the chapter I will be discussing is chapter eleven. Chapter eleven talks about the history of correctional institutions, jails, prisons, and alternate correctional institutions. In this paper, I will be discussing only part of chapter eleven. It will be discussing the history of the correctional Institutions which includes the following: the history of the correctional institutions, the origin of corrections in the United States, the development of prisons, the New York and Pennsylvania systems, and the comparisons of the 19th and 20th century correction systems.
James Gilligan explains his views in the article, Beyond the Prison Paradigm: From Provoking Violence to Preventing It by Creating “Anti-Prisons”. The article is about the history, of prisons from when they were first created to today’s prison systems and the reasoning behind creating them. Gilligan dates his research and extensive knowledge about prisons all the way back from the first civilization known to man, Sumerian. Dating back to the first prison the Sumerian people called it house of darkness, which basically represented of evil, pain, isolation, hell, and gloom.
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
Learning the significance in regards towards the criminal justice system, and noticing certain aspects and turning points made me realize just how important it is to continue to progress and overcome over every situation we may come across in our life. Both concepts of the books acknowledge the hardships that inmates face and provides many positive examples of how individuals overcame them. As for Mr. Smith Goes to Prison Jeff Smith discussed prison reform and his own personal experience in the prison system he had experienced. Jeff Smith's lifetime of advocacy and civil service make him perfectly suited to write this insightful and damning account of our Criminal Justice System.
If one thinks jails in modern-day U.S. society are bad, then he /she should consider exploring the detention facilities of other societies. Societies such as the one in Anthem (written by Ayn Rand) had a detention facility called the Palace of Corrective Detention which had horrible conditions compared to modern American jails. In the modern-day U.S. society people have more freedoms and liberties compared to Anthem 's society. After a close examination of Anthem, it is noticeably clear that the U.S. society is more progressive than the society in Anthem, which is glaringly obvious by contrasting modern-day U.S. jail with the Palace of Corrective Detention in Anthem.
The poem “Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane” by Etheridge Knight is a commentary on the twentieth century American prison system. It invokes within the reader a feeling that many of the processes used to ‘correct’ a prisoner is dehumanizing. Solitary confinement is one such method. Solitary confinement should be outlawed because it is ineffective as it traumatizes the victims and is a violation of human rights. To begin, solitary
In the nineteenth century, Dickens was writing a forgettable epic works. "Dickens beliefs and attitudes were typical of the age in which he lived” (Slater 301). The circumstances and financial difficulties caused Dickens’s father to be imprisoned briefly for debt. Dickens himself was put to work for a few months at a shoe-blacking warehouse. Memories of this painful period in his life were to influence much of his later writing, which is characterized by empathy, oppressed, and a keen examination of class distinctions.
“Prisons: A social crime and failure.” Anarchism and other Essays: Prions. Mother Earth Association, 1911. Web. 15 Sep. 2016 Goldman explains her position on the prison system and how it has come to such poor conditions.
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).
After the riots that formed due to corruption by two separate law organizations, citizens and law officers began to reevaluate the system, by eliminating the revenge and disincentives between the officers. Correction Centers with the purpose of remodeling criminals began to pop up in the early 1800’s in the United States. Penitentiaries and asylums were a form of imprisonment for criminals and the mentally ill. Many of these institutions were dirty and crowded and were being reformed to fit the mentally ill’s
Walnut Street Jail, Philadelphia, (1773-1838) was established as a state penitentiary in 1790 using Quaker reformist principles and served as the basis for what would later become the separate system. A reflection of Bentham’s Panopticon, the Jail incorporated solitary confinement, absolute silence and solitary penance to maintain prisoner civility and promote reformation as it was thought that criminality was brought about by bad connections and that through isolation and reflection they would become their own salvation (Ogborn, 1995). The theory of surveillance was central to the Panopticon’s design and inherently the separate system. This is furthered by Grass (2000) who argued that a vital aspect of Jeremy Bentham’s Panopticon, thought it was never built, was in its ability to have all prisoners observed simultaneously as Bentham stressed that for it to instil reformative thoughts, the prisoner would need to feel that they are constantly under surveillance. This suggests that prisons under the separate system were characterised by the theory that feeling that they were being constantly observed would help shape a prisoner’s
The conditions in prisons in the early 1800s to mid-1800s the criminal justice institutions were completely different than they are today; surprisingly prisons were one of the first things brought to the New World, yet they were so pitiful. Prisoners lived in awful conditions, since the jails were so pitiful, it caused many people to start reform movements, such as Theodore William Dwight. Theodore Dwight started his career by teaching law at Hamilton and Columbia College, he also was interested in the issues of criminal justice and participated in them. This interest in criminal justice later lead him and Enoch Wines to investigate prisons in New York and later in a broader span investigation. When the investigation was over in 1867, the men
Few remember that not just the indicted are changed in the prison system-the authority figures become different, too. Thousands of people go to detention facilities and stay there from minutes to decades, but the authority figures stay there with every influx of new prisoners. The wardens, in particular, are a monumental part of the system. They regulate the prisoners causing them to adapt to situations, whether positive or negative. Samuel Norton, the warden in the adaptation of Stephen King’s Shawshank Redemption, is embodied by the atmosphere of the prison.
