History of Punishment

It was the Auburn jail that added a new system to imprisonment. It was solitary confinement. At the time many criminals had mental breakdowns being locked up in one room by themselves for years. It was then that a thirty five year rivalry between Pennsylvania and New York

Throughout the years, the use of imprisonment has varied, along with its influences of society. It is thought that although prisons have been around since the thirteenth century, prisons as we know them now to be have only been around for the last three centuries. The first uses of prisons were not seen as a form of punishment instead they were used as a way of making people do something. People would be held in prison until they paid their debts, or awaiting trial and then leading up to their sentence. McGowen (1995) suggests that from the early 1700s ‘bridewells’ a house of correction have existed, however at that time being used merely for vagrants and drunks. At the end of the sixteenth century there was a shift in punishment to imprisonment, along with this came a new, more humane idea of reform. Criminals would spend their days of prison carrying out hard labour. However after the American Revolution, imprisonment took a step back and there was another change. There was mass overcrowding within the prison service and although the death penalty was still being used it was a symbol of the power of the state. Therefore, an everyday way of dealing with offenders would be transportation to the colonies, being either Australia or America.

Having extreme, agonizing, punishments was not out of the ordinary during the 17th century. The punishments and crimes were very unsystematic, and often times very foul. There were punishments that were as minor as carting,and there were punishments as severe as the death penalty.Throughout the 17th century there were a variety of punishments for different crimes that were commited.

From 500CE until 1500CE was best known as the Medieval Ages. Medieval period began after the fall of the Roman Empire. In many parts of the Middle Ages significantly changed. Types of punishment and determination of guilt and innocence are examples of the continuity and change in the area of law and order.

The Penitentiary Era 1790 to 1825 mass prison building era housed many prisoners with the goals of rehabilitation; deterrence and allowing the inmates to work during the day and when they returned were put into solitary confinement (Ortmeier 2006, 391). This new era was too focused on making prisoners think about their crimes and learn skills in workshops and general labor to reenter society as a productive member. Capital and corporal punishment were looked down upon by many and they did not actually fix the problems of rising crime. Often time’s prisoners were held in a large jail cells, men and women alike that resulted in rape and fighting among each other. The strengths of this era looked to keep prisoners safe and at times lessen

Beccaria is known for being the founder of the Classical School. He wrote An Essay on Crimes and Punishment that was based on transforming punishment to corrections. He proposed reorientation of criminal laws toward more humanistic goals. On page thirteen of our textbook it shows the four of his newer ideas that were incorporated into the French Code of Criminal Procedures and in the French penal Code.

For ages, humans have been ending the lives of others in the name of morality and

The History of prisons goes through many eras. Many of these eras have a major impact on today’s prison system. The different was that the system worked and didn’t work really showed what was possibly and what should not be tried again. Each era tried to do something new are recreate something that had already been done by making changes to the way that they treated the inmates all the way to how they were housed and how much contact they had with one another. The different eras gave the present day prison system many great things to think about. Such as large capacity housing so you can properly use all the space in the prison and hold it to capacity. There is also the parole system that gives inmates a chance to work get out early and spend the rest of their sentence on the outside. These many great traits that the prison system today has all come from the hundreds of years of trial and error that occurred throughout the world.

People who lived in the 13 colonies had a very rough life and nothing came easy for them. Nothing for them came without hard work. If they slacked of summer with their farms they would go hungry that winter, or might not even survive. Every single day there was work to be done and some women had to cook for lots of people and work until they felt very sick. Even young infants were helping around.

The Walnut Street Jail was first built as a city jail in 1773 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. The jail was named after the streets it was located in which were sixth and Walnut streets. The Jail then expanded in 1790 in which a penitentiary-house was added. Walnut Street Jail is considered the United States first penitentiary house because no other jail was single-celled. During that time, jails that existed did not believe in the idea that inmate can change. The jail was built in Pennsylvania due to overcrowding in another jail called High Street Jail. Even though Walnut Street Jail opened as a local jail, they also had a plan for their inmates. This plan was to look at criminals positively and hope for them to change. Walnut

The aspect on working in prison has changed but only for the safety of the prisoners and guards. If helped some of the prisoners have something to do during the day, a way for them to be productive. Then on the other hand in the beginning they were forced to work no matter if they liked it or not, there were even stories of them being sold as slaves. Cell blocks in the beginning were huge; they had a restroom, bed, work area, and exercise space. Now the cell

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

With the exception of probation, imprisonment has been the main form of punishment for serious offenders in the United States for over 200 years. Americans can be said to have invented modern incarceration as a means of criminal punishment. Although Europe provided precedents, theoretical justifications, and even architectural plans for imprisoning offenders, Americans developed the blueprints for the typical prisons of today and devised the disciplinary routines, types of sentences, and programs that prison systems of other countries subsequently adopted or modified (Rafter & Stanley 1999).

during the day to work in the prison shops. This new system was then deemed the

The Auburn system focused on production through congregate work and harsh discipline. While the Pennsylvania system focused on repentance through solitary confinement, reading the Bible, and reflecting on one’s sin ( Mays, G. & Winfree, L., 2008)..The key elements in both the Auburn and Pennsylvania systems were solitary confinement and silence. The Pennsylvania system isolated offenders in individual cells. The Auburn system had offenders in cells for a limited part of the day and focused more on production, rather than isolation. The Auburn system won out because it was adaptable and profitable at the same time; whereas, the Pennsylvania system spent more money by building individual cells for isolation. Furthermore, too much isolation led