Purpose and History of Punishment

The Eastern State Penitentiary and Auburn Prison were both designed to reform prisoners but in different ways. The Eastern State Penitentiary was known as a "separate system" in which they used solitary confinement a form of reformation. Auburn Prison was designed as a "congregate system" in which prisoners worked together and ate together but housed in solitary confinement.

Elam Lynds (1784-1855) was the first warden of Auburn, New York prison and creator of the Auburn system. Lynds was also a pioneer of prison inmate labor and believed in hard work, which in return will help inmates obtain useful skills they could utilize after release (Kania & Davis, 2012). From a financial standpoint, “Prison labor may be used to generate revenues to support the operations of prison environment” (Doss, Sumrall III, &

Provide the justifications for punishment in modern society. Punishment functions as a form of social control and is geared towards “imposing some unwanted burden such as fines, probations, imprisonment, or even death” on a convicted person in return for the crimes they committed (Stohr, Walsh, & Hemmens, 2013, p.6). There are four main justifications for punishment and they are: retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation. There is also said to be a fifth justification of reintegration as well.

The society generally has established customs and moral imperative to guide the conduct of each member of that particular society. These norms designating certain ways in which people ought to live in the society exist in societal laws and moral prescription. The justifications for the ideal practices in the society have been found in the desire to maintain peaceful coexistence in the society. The extent of freedom of an individual is therefore often curtailed for the greater good of the society. These utilitarian considerations have been discussed amidst the concept and rationale of punishment. John Stuart Mill, Michel Foucault and Kantian ethics have been used to justify or refute the notion and rationale of punishment in our society. These ethical perspectives provide useful insight into understanding punishment and its justifications or otherwise. Punishment is necessary as a social control tool and must be exerted with reasonableness and with due regard for the aim for which it is exerted.

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

The California prison system was created in response to the increased amount of criminal activity that sparked during the Gold Rush years. Prior to the Gold Rush, California had prided itself on being a land of health, beauty, and opportunity (Bookspan, xviii). However, immigration and population growth surged, especially amongst foreign convicts and “aliens”, resulting in increased crime. At first, it was decided that punishment for small crimes would be a beating by whip while punishment for serious crimes, like robbery or murder, would be hanging (Kidport).After becoming a state in 1850, the California governor John McDougal reacted to this method of punishment by beginning what is known as the California Prison System. The first prison within California was San Quentin, which began to receive inmates in 1854, next was Folsom State Prison in 1880, then California Correctional Institution in 1933, California Institution for Men in 1941, and California Institute for Women in 1952 as well as multiple California state prisons that have opened since then in cities such as San Diego, Sacramento, Chowchilla, Avenal, Corcoran, Susanville, Vacaville, Crescent City, and many more (California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation). The early California prison systems were very much influenced by the Auburn prison system, from the Auburn Correctional Facility in Auburn, New York. This system imposed solitary confinement to silence prisoners and promote meditations, but still

The four goals of punishment in the American criminal justice system are retribution, deterrence, incapacitation, and rehabilitation. The purpose of the four goals of punishment is to ensure that the sentence the criminal is receiving is reasonable and just. It is difficult to satisfy all of the components to the highest degree for all criminals. All of the goals serve a different purpose and are significant in their own way, but when combined together they create a very complex sentencing policy for criminals.

The four justifications for punishment include, “retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation” (Reichel, 2013, p. 231). Retribution is when a person receives a punishment as a result for committing a crime (Reichel, 2013). This form of punishment is deemed necessary by society because a person deserves to pay for breaking the law (Reichel, 2013). “A goal of retribution is to retaliate for the wrong done in such a way that the nature of the punishment reflects the nature of the offense” (Reichel, 2013, p. 231). That is why there are different sentences for different crimes because each deserves a certain punishment (Reichel, 2013). For example, a person who commits murder isn’t going to receive the same punishment as a person

The Auburn State Prison was built in 1816, occupied in 1821 and soon after became the model for succeeding American prisons. Quaker thinking, in that "repentance for one's wrongs was best attained through private contemplation, which was facilitated by the penitentiary concept", influenced the Auburn prison. (Carney,

Throughout time, the use of punishment has changed drastically. Not only has the actual infliction of punishment changed, the reasoning behind this punishment has also changed. There have been numerous scholars, educators, and researchers that have presented various theories on the reasoning behind societal punishment. Some of these theories are closely similar, however some are drastically different. It is important to note that these theorists have broad perceptions that can be rooted back to specific time periods throughout history. Societal punishment is defined as, “punishment being a complex social institution, shaped by the ensemble of social and historical forces and having a range of effects that reach well beyond the population of offenders” (Garland, 1991).

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

The Auburn System borrowed the separate and silent strategy. This strategy was not successful in New York. The buildings construction didn’t allow for strict isolation of prisoners like the

Punishment is defined as “the infliction or imposition of a penalty as retribution for an offense” (“Punishment”). Some prominent theories of punishment include retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, and the moral education theory. Although retribution, deterrence, and rehabilitation are all crucial components of punishment justification, independently the theories have weaknesses that avert the moral rationalization of punishment. I believe that Jean Hampton’s moral education theory is the best justification for punishment because it yields the most sympathetic and prudent reasons for punishment, while simultaneously showing that punishment cannot be justified by solely

What are the purposes of punishment? Which do you consider to be the most important and why?

Theories of why we punish offenders are crucial to the understanding of criminal law; in fact it is not easy to define legal punishment, however one thing is clear within the different theories of punishment is that they all require justification.[1] There are many theories of punishment yet they are predominantly broken down into two main categories. The utilitarian theory seeks to punish offenders to discourage, or “deter,” future wrong doing. The retributive theory seeks to punish offenders because they deserve to be punished due to their behaviour upsetting the balance of society[2].