History Outline: American Correctional Facilities

The Walnut Street prison, which was the first prison, built in 1790 was a prototype for other prisons to be built over the next 30 years. By the year 1817 the prison began to deteriorate. Changes and overcrowding of prisoners in one room pushed Pennsylvania legislature to build more prisons. In 1817 two more prisons where built, one in eastern and one in western Pennsylvania. They built these prisons with separate cell areas, so each inmate could be kept alone, eliminating all the problems of congregate living. The idea of having separate cells did not originate in America. "Of course the notion of forcibly confining people is ancient and there is extensive evidence that the Romans had a well-developed system for imprisoning different types of offenders." (Meskelly).

The US Correctional System has many different types of punishments, which are based upon the type of crime the offender commits. Murder, Rape and Identity theft are all crimes, crimes that carry different types of punishments. Some crimes such as murder for example have different levels that are based on it nature, first, second, and third degree murder are all three types of murder but carry a different punishment. There are some crimes though that does not carry a large jail or prison sentence such as driving under the influence (DUI). This type of crime is most like going to sentence the offender to alcohol awareness (AA) classes as a form of punishment, in hopes of rehabilitating the offender to give up

There are five state prison systems in which exist in today's penitentiary systems and they are maximum-security prisons, close-high security prisons, medium-security prisons, and open security facilities. Variations between these five systems are common and uncommon because in a

When people think of reform movements, they often look for one key sign, and ask one key question of whether that the reform was a success. Did the reform create a lasting change in the way people view the institution that was reformed? All the great reformation movements, from Horace Mann and his education reforms, to Martin Luther, and the Protestant Reformation, to the civil rights movement, all created lasting change in the minds of the average person. One other reform, often overlooked historically is the Prison Reform movement. As the world shifted from 18th to 19th century ways of life, many key aspects of life underwent tremendous change. As the United States gained their independence from Britain and began to shape their own

One of the first prison systems was called the Pennsylvania System. The ideology of this system was used in the Eastern State Penitentiary in the early 1800s. This system had very definite ideas on how a prison should be organized and managed. The operation of this prison was based on the following 5 general principles (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, 2006):

The Pennsylvania and Auburn prison systems are similar in the fact they were both put in place to house prisoners. The Pennsylvania system was built to keep offenders in solitary confinement. The Auburn system did have an area for solitary confinement but it was only one wing of the prison. The Pennsylvania system was not able to have inmate labor due to the solitary confinement; whereas the Auburn system had a more open system and the second wing allowed for prisoners to be housed together and participate in activities and provide labor for the prisons, therefore reducing the costs of operations. The Pennsylvania system eventually ceased to exist due to the operational costs and the system was not successful. The Auburn system is what the

American prison system incarceration was not officially used as the main form of punishment in United States (U.S.) until around the 1800’s. Before that time criminals were mainly punished by public shaming, which involved punishments such as being whipped, or branded (HL, 2015). In fact, President Lincoln codified the prison incarceration system in the Emancipation Proclamation that indicated no slavery would take place in America unless a person was duly convicted of a crime (paraphrased) (White, 2015). In this era prisons were used more as a place where criminals could be detained until their trial date if afforded such an opportunity. However, one of the main problems with this idea was the fact that the prisons were badly maintained, which resulted in many people contracting fatal diseases. Yet, according to White (2015) unethical and immoral medical experiments were also conducted on inmates’ leading to health failures. Moreover, because everyone was detained in the same prisons, adolescent offenders would have to share the same living space with adult felons, which became another serious problem in that adolescent were less mature and could not protect themselves in such environments

Over the last couple of decades, prison systems have adopted the use of solitary confinement as a means of punishment and have progressively depended on it to help maintain obedience and discipline inside the prison structure. Solitary confinement is a form of incarceration in which a prisoner is isolated in a cell for multiple hours, days, or weeks with limited to no human contact. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, the United States represents only 5% of the world's population yet houses 20% of the world’s prisoners (ACLU). Two of the biggest problems with our modern day criminal justice system is the overwhelming number of people that are incarcerated in the United States and the overwhelming number of convicts who return

The differences between the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems are that the Auburn prisons were way cheaper than Pennsylvania's. Pennsylvania system housed two inmates together to work and provide more goods to sell, whereas Auburn systems would allow the inmates to come and work together during the day which allowed them to provide way more goods than Pennsylvania. Auburns system was cheaper and not many inmates experienced mental health problems, but because Pennsylvania kept the inmates isolated, many of them became mentally ill.

Jail is usually the first place a person is taken after being arrested by police officers. The authority of states to build, operate, and fill jails can be found in the Tenth Amendment, which has been construed to grant to states the power to pass their own laws to preserve the safety, health, and welfare of their communities. Jail is to protect the public and citizens of county by providing a wide range of constructive, professional correctional services for pre-trial and convicted detainees. Jail is also ensure the safety and welfare of staff, visitors, and offenders by operating facilities and programs in a secure, humane environment which meets professional and standards and constitutional

Allen state that solitary confinement is “A punishment program requiring isolation of an inmate in a cell, as known as a “prison with in a prison” (Allen, 32). Prisoners were locked in a room with nothing but themselves and the walls surrounding them for hours upon hours. Solitary confinement is still a debated topic now a days. Hopefully now you have a basic understanding of what prisons in the 1800’s were

The overall belief of the Penitentiary was that most prisoners would benefit from the incarceration experience. The penitentiary concept would remove felony offenders from normal society, and through penitence, pastoral counseling, solitude, and reasonable discipline, antisocial behaviors would be corrected. However, the system became overcrowded; prisoners had to be doubled up in their cells, thus removing the concept of solitude. Allegations of abuse and brutality arose and by the end of the Civil War, the penitentiary’s population had grown to 1,117 prisoners (Siegel & Bartollas, 2011).

The difference between the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems are the Pennsylvania system kept prisoners in solitary confinement 24/7. Prisoners were kept separated and were not allowed to interact or communicate with one another. Prisoners were found to have suffered psychological problems and/or insanity due to the isolation by this system. The Auburn system allowed prisoners to work during the day and were isolated during the night however silences was enforced at all times. Prisoners were more productive in their work under this system and is was found to be less cost effective.

According to (Seiter, 2011) the Pennsylvania system was known as the separate and silent system with silence enforced and inmates not allowed to see or talk with each other. Through this approach, it was believed that offenders would not be morally contaminated and be trained in crime by other prisoners. According to (Seiter, 2011) the Auburn system became known as the congregate and silent system as officials continued to reduce the spread of criminals ideas by inmates through silence and strict discipline they wanted inmates to march with their eyes looking down at the ground. They did not want the inmates to give other inmates ideas.

For a place that keeps criminals in one building, security is the most important tool a prison can have. In the 18th century, early Americans tried to stray from keeping criminals in prisons. Instead, if a person commits a crime, they were punished using more direct methods. These methods can go from the criminal being banished from their homes to being punished to death. Prisons were being used in the 18th century, but not much. The first of these practices were introduced to the Pennsylvania system. They were hoping to be better than the English prisons by focusing on isolation and penance. However, still, their prisons were not much considered as houses of punishment. They put in prisons high ranking criminals more than the common criminals.