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How Does Corporal Punishment Change Over Time

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The correctional process and the concept of punishment have changed considerably over time. Punishment of wrongdoing was initially carried out by infliction of pain upon the body or death by corporal punishment. In the middle ages, corporal punishment and capital punishment was the norm and was often carried out. As time progressed forward, punishment of wrongdoing was carried out by punishment of the soul by incapacitation through incarceration of the body. Prisons before the 1700’s were holding cells and places to be held before people were put to death or corporal punishment was carried out (Rio Salado, 2017). In the late 1700’s, a humanitarian shift in punishment occurred as prisons were increasingly used for physical confinement (punishment …show more content…

Prisons Also, prisons were the first buildings erected in the New World by pilgrims. They believed in the concept of `houses of detention` (Lynch, 2017). In Boston, settlers erected forty homes in the city to serve this purpose. Many of these immigrants were seeking religious freedom. As their population expanded, they needed to establish a strong social order. As time went on, they needed to punish violators of law and social order. This helped to reinforce concepts that were shaped in the Old World. The only long term prisoners were poor people that were in debt, hence the need for debtor’s prison (Prison History, 2016). As the conscience of American’s changed, prisons and treatment of prisoner’s changed over time. The first formal prison system in the United States was the Philadelphia's Walnut Street Jail established in 1776 (as cited in Rio Salado, 2017). This prison system operated under “The Pennsylvania System.” This system held the belief that the weight of one’s conscience would lead to repentance. This system believed in the philosophy of isolation, silence and solitary labor (as cited in Rio Salado, …show more content…

Prison labor was good for the production of goods under the prison industry system. This helped to reduce the costs of confinement. Modern prisons of today are often overcrowded. They are built with the purpose of accomplishing retribution through punishment. They also are built and focused on rehabilitation, in order to reintegrate inmates back into society. Prevention of criminal activity can be accomplished through deterrence. People will fear the consequences of committing crime and of being sent to prison, if caught and/or

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