...PRISON IN AMERICA Since the beginning of time there has been good and evil, as man developed modern society he found that a need existed to separate the bad from the good. Society needed to find a way to protect the weak and defenseless citizens from the dangers of mankind. The use of confinement to punish offenders began in Europe in the early eighteen century. The concept of incarcerating offenders for long periods of time as a way of punishment for crimes is fairly new development in America. (McShane, Williams 1996) Before 1770’s with a few exceptions serious offenders received fines, corporal punishment, death, and banishment, but they were not incarcerated as a form of punishment. (McShane, Williams 1996) Jails were made to only hold people awaiting trail and minor offenses. This was in accordance with Puritan views that man was born into sin and punishment was God’s way of dealing with sin and evil deeds. This type of thinking was thrown out due to changing ways of criminal behavior. Now enter the modern institution designed to deal with this new breed of criminal behaviors. The first prison in America is supposed to be the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia (1790) There is however another, an abandoned copper mine in Connecticut which was converted into a prison. In 1773 Newgate prison accepted its first inmate by the 1820’s it was closed due to rising costs. (McShane, Williams 1996) This was the first institution designed to incarcerate offenders with...
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...In the early years before the great American Revolution, imprisoning of individuals who had done wrong in the United States of America was not possible as the system had not come into effect like other places such as the United Kingdom. When the idea of incarceration came in the US, it came in three major eras, and this was slightly before the beginning of the American Revolution as stated before. “The initial stage or age involved putting into prisons and even rehabilitating persons who were involved in any crime and during this time the American Civil War was still in progress. This era was commonly referred to as the time of Jacksonian (Roth 97)”. It was followed by a period where some new ideas and methodologies became useful, and these changes came immediately after the war. It was known as the Progressive era, an idea such as probation unspecified sentencing came into place. Then significant changes in American Penal continued to be observed up to today. A lot had changed in the US Penal system as compared to what it was in the early years when this practice was being practiced for the first time. “When America was being colonized by the British, the slaves who were brought in the form of prisoners and laborers were shipped in America using the Atlantic Ocean (Rothman 76)”. It became the first major method of imprisoning and it evolved to later being known as the prisoner trade. This was around the 1660s onwards, and thousands of people were moved to America by the English...
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...Solution to Overcrowded Prisons CJA/454 September 9, 2013 Professor The war on drugs has increased the prison population of correctional institutions in every state in America. The war on drugs was declared by President Nixon in 1971. This policy that his administration implemented was part of a Comprehensive Drug Abuse Prevention and Control Act of 1970. Some agree and others disagree with the war on drugs. What we all can agree on, is that prisons have swelled to all-time highs due to the war on drugs campaign. I believe there are many workable solutions that can decrease the prison population in America. First, replace mandatory sentencing laws with more flexible and individualized guidelines. Second, reduce the three strike laws for nonviolent offenders. Third, relax the Truth-in-Sentencing Laws. Last, support community policing efforts. In 1986 Congress passed the anti-drug abuse at which was well intentioned established 5 to 10 year mandatory sentence is for drugs importation and distribution. A couple of years later President Reagan signed the Omnibus Anti-Drug Abuse Act granting the federal government authority to penalize all conspirators and drug related crimes regardless of their role. Believe it or not, most people locked up in the federal system are serving time for conspiracy charges due to drug distribution although nothing was found. By removing minimum mandatory sentences and replacing them with other guidelines, you give the judges more discretion...
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...History of the United States Prison Marshall Keese Introduction to Criminal Justice CRJ-100-201103 05/14/2011 Instructor: Andrew Blank History of the United States Prison Introduction This research paper is on the history of the prison in America. How it came to be in its present state? Things I will be writing about in this paper are the early history of the prison history in England. I will be talking about early American prisons, the goal of rehabilitation, prison labor, changes in the prison system, rehab programs, population, housing and prison organization we will hit briefly on all those aspects of the history of prisons. The reasoning behind this paper is because many people do not know why prison are the way they are now. In order to know why we have prisons the way we have them today you have to know where they came from. The main findings from my paper are from the internet. Articles that I read for this are Towards a Fair and Balanced Assessment of Supermax Prisons by Daniel P. Mears and Jamie Watson. The textbook Twelfth Edition Introduction to Criminal Justice Author Larry Siegel Chapter 16. Prison Reform in Pennsylvania by Norman Johnston P.H.D Board member Emeritus of the Pennsylvania Prison Society, Wikipedia. The short History of Prison by the Howard League for Penal Reform. These articles helped me to understand how we have the prison system today. I found that the...
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...Punishment in America America has a unique justice system, like no other in the world. During the creation of the American colonies and the building of a nation, America took ideas of justice from their British heritage. Corporal punishment was the idea of dealing with criminal issues. America has since changed its view on punishment, early responses where considered brutal and today the view is more for rehabilitation of the offender. If a law is broken or a crime committed, the offender should be punished. The question that has lingered for many centuries is how harsh the punishment should be. The early Americans relied on public shaming for punishment. The intent was to teach a lesson to the offender and education would likely prevent recurring criminal activity. Some of the common practices for punishment were public whippings at the towns whipping post, brandings such as an A on the forehead for adulteries, cutting off ears, tongues, or fingers for liars and thieves, and placing offenders on the pillory or a stock for the townspeople to throw rotten vegetables or rocks at. For more severe crimes such as murder or rape, criminals were punished with execution by public hanging. Imprisonment was not as common. Early responses to crime seem to be extremely brutal, but the idea was to give a punishment as closely as possible to the crime. In the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, the English would also send criminals to the new American colonies to remove them from English...
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...The Prison System January 23, 2010 There is much to discuss when it comes to our prison systems. The history, the evolution of the system, and the manner in which prisons are operated, both in the past and today, each are important topics in the discussion of the prison system. The fundamentals of the prison system have progressed greatly over the years as well as the influence of the prison system on America. The development of privately operated prisons has added a political aspect to the imminent solutions of the problems within the prison system. The birth of the prison system stemmed from the need to find more humane and effective means of punishment for wrongdoers, or those who chose not to follow society’s guidelines. Before prisons existed, the majority of serious crimes were dealt with by capital punishment. The British criminal code, which was emulated until the Revolution, depended greatly on capital punishment. Although less severe crimes, which did not sanction the death penalty, were punished with fines or “sanguinary” punishments. Non-capital punishments in the early days of criminal justice were designed to terrorize and subject offenders to derision in hope that they would change their behavior. Jails existed but they were mainly used to hold criminals during pretrial proceedings. The realization that cruel vengeance did little to limit or prevent criminal activity in the 1700s further promoted the invention of the prison. The first penitentiary...
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...unacceptable to the social norms of society. Because of this need, the development of prisons were constructed to house the individuals, so they can serve their time away from free individuals. Prisons are an intricate part of our history, starting from the late 1700’s up until now our system continues to redefine itself based on the needs of society. I will explore the evolution of punishment, prison system and how prison labor impacts over time. Punishment can be defined as the correctional goal with emphasis on inflicting pain or suffering. (Seiter, 2011) Punishment is used as a form of social control, it is viewed, that, a person will refrain from wrongdoing if the consequences impact their freedom. Since the ancient times of the Code of Hammarbi, banishment, and beheading punishment has been a part of how our culture deals with offenders. We can trace back punishment to the colonial days where punishment was based on community opinion and punishment was publicly displayed to ridicule and deter others from such behavior. This type of punishment started to transform into a more organized structure because of enlightened political philosophy, a more humane approach was sought. Incarceration became the vehicle in which the American justice system dealt with deviant behavior. Sir Alex Patterson once said, “You cannot train a man for freedom under the conditions of captivity”. The first prisons in the free United States were recognized as penitentiaries to signify their prisoners...
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...Correction System The correction system is one of the umbrella sections of criminal justice that is mandated to deal with lawbreakers and offenders. Primarily, the correction system serves three main functions of punishing, protecting and correcting the criminal offender. In America, the government agencies work together with correction systems to ensure that these responsibilities are met. Also referred to as the penal system, the correctional system is charged with the duty of administering jurisdictions, especially to community based programs, parole and probation victims. This paper is a description of the history of correctional systems in America and discusses two needs that require to be fixed so that correction systems run more safely and efficiently. History of correction systems in America The history of the correctional system in the United States dates back to the 17th century during which imprisonment as a form of punishment had begun to become popular (Roth, 2006). The American Revolution largely contributed to the efforts of initializing a system that would deal with law offenders. During this period, prisons in the form of detention facilities and dungeons were commonly used in different parts of America. The efforts of building prisons in and around America began in three major waves were the first wave began during the infamous Jacksonian Era (Stanko et al, 2004). This era led to extensive use of imprisonment and heavy labor as a way of punishing penalty...
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...that are locked up for petty crimes that have years in prison when they should really be there for a couple of months but i guess thats how there money is made, by filling prison cells. The united States Currently incarcerates 1 in nearly 100 americans adults. Americans incarceration addiction grew during the late 1980s and early 1990s as state and local governments passed "tough-on-crime" legislations. 1. for example, California's "three strikes" law called for mandatory sentencing of repeat offenders, and New York adopted the "Broken Windows" strategy that called for the arrest and prosecution of all crimes large and small. 2. Prisons are becoming so over populated that there isnt enough prison guards to contain them. i feel this is a major problem and the state needs to worry less about petty crimes and crack down on the major things, why give a person years for petty crimes like 3-5 bags of marijuana or crack when you should be looking for the source of it and catch the main person. Prison overcrowding is quickly becoming a major financial and controversial problem in the United States. There are now more than two-thirds of a million people in our country in jail or in prison, and soon there will be half a million in prison alone. With that being said, two-thirds are confined in less than 60 square feet of floor space. While prison conditions have improved considerably in many ways, the present correctional system is still struggling to deal with the same problems that...
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...America Today in the Prison’s Melanie Fife American InterContinental University March 17, 2013 Chad Faries ABSTRACT I’m writing a paper that has 5 different sources, that have books, newspaper articles, and Government papers, that has something to deal with America’s prisons today in society. America has a huge problem with our prison system being overcrowded. The crime rate has increased so much and we are just making me people go to jail or prison. The topic I chose was the prison system being over-crowded. I know many people that have been on both sides of the prison's walls, which allows me to see both sides of the prison system. Prison's in American are very over-crowded due to crimes being committed more often than what they were ten years ago due to not being staffed properly, not having enough room for all the inmates, and the system just trying to have you do your time and not trying to get you back to society. Prison Overcrowding has so many issues understaffing can lead to security and control difficulties. It can also cause heath and the well-being of the inmate’s problems. They will have more violence and conflicts because they are understaffed and cannot be watched properly. Not enough security can make it harder to manage the prison. They can increase opportunities for exercise, sports, and church. Active inmates are less likely to feel stressed or hostile. We can also classify offenders due to the level of their risk and their crime. Improve organization...
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... History of the Prison System Prison is an institution for the confinement of persons convicted of criminal offenses. Throughout history, most societies have built places in which to hold persons accused of criminal acts pending some form of trial. The idea of confining persons after a trial as punishment for their crimes is relatively new. During the 15th century in Europe, the penalties for crimes were some form of corporal punishment like whippings for less serious crimes and execution or enslavement for more serious offenses. In early 16th century England, vagrants and petty offenders were committed to correctional institutions known as workhouses. During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I, the government transported convicted felons to the English colonies. The punishment was thought of as the hard labor to which the prisoners were consigned. It wasn't until the 17th century that the idea that persons convicted of crimes could be punished by confinement and released after a period of time. During the 17th century, England and other European countries like Italy, Germany, and the Netherlands began imprisoning debtors, delinquent juveniles, minor misdemeanant, and felons. Early jails were mostly dark, overcrowded, and filthy. Prisoners were herded together indiscriminately, with no separation of men and women, the young and old, the convicted and unconvicted, or the sane and insane. In America the concept of imprisonment...
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...The History of Prisons R May 23, 2012 The History of Prisons Both state and federal prisons were designed to serve the same purpose. They are alike in the sense that they both confine criminals. At the same time there many differences in which make each system unique. Both are primarily operated by state governments. Adults convicted of felony crimes may be imprisoned in one of the approximately 1,800 state, federal, local, or private prisons in America. State prisons confine felons with more than a year to serve with an array of offenses. Federal prisons confine federal offenders. State prison systems have been in use since the early 1800’s. The state prison system is made up of several small prisons that house most of the United States prison population. The criminals within the state prison system are charged with an array of offenses from drug offenses to violent crimes and have more than a year to serve. One of the major problems within the state prison system is overcrowding. The use of federal prisons began in the 1890’s. The Federal Bureau of Prisons confines felons convicted of federal crimes and houses pretrial defendants in federal jails in several large cities. At one time, the federal system was considered a model for state systems, but it has suffered from many of the same problems plaguing state systems in recent years, including an influx of drug offenders that has caused pervasive overcrowding and continuous...
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...Crime has existed in the world as long as human beings have walked on it. When there is a crime there must be a form of punishment. A form of punishment must exist when a person commits a crime, he or she must be taught a lesson to prevent the crime from occurring again. To understand how punishment was developed a person must start from the beginning. This essay will discuss the history of punishment, the history of prison development, the comparison of the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn system, and last the impact and involvement of prison labor over time. Before discussing the history of punishment one must know what the” term” punishment means. The “term” punishment can be in numerous ways but each “term” possesses the same meaning. One way of defining punishment is, a penalty inflicted on an offender through judicial procedure (Merriam-Webster, 2012). The use of punishment can be dated back to as early as the 1600s. During that era crime in America was punished based on the English criminal codes (Sieter, 2011). Examples of crimes in the 1600s would be drunkenness, stealing something of minor value, and slander (the utterance of false charges or misrepresentations, which defame and damage another's reputation (Merriam-Webster, 2012)). If a person was found committing any of the crimes previously listed he or she would be known as an offender. An offender would receive his or her punishment at the town whipping post or placed in stocks and pillories. Pillories are said...
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...History of Punishment This paper is about the history of punishment and the early prison systems and how it has evolved through the years. This paper will help you learn how the early settlers and colony’s dealt with crime and punishment. As well as the differences between the Pennsylvania system and the Aruban system, and which system was better and abated in the United States. Early on the Punishment to a crime varied based on the beliefs regarding the causes of crime. The earliest responses to crime were extremely brutal and included torture, beatings, branding, and mutilation. According to Seiter (2011), these corporal punishments were often an attempt to relate the punishment as closely as possible to the crime. For instance, liars had their tongues ripped out, thieves had fingers or a hand cut off, and adulterers had a scarlet A branded on their foreheads to reduce their attractiveness and discourage any further adultery. Another form of punishment used was, banishing someone from the group or tribe or transportation. Transportation started in England and was used throughout the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries to send undesirables to the colonies in America. The first response to crime in the American colonies was based on the English criminal codes. They would use corporal and capital punishment, which was carried out in public to deter both individual offenders and the broader community. Offenders would be wiped, branded, thieves would have a finger cut...
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...Privatization of Prisons Private Prison, Inc. Introduction America has been getting tougher on lawbreakers. This is something that the public long has been demanding. The problem it creates, however, is a shortage of prison capacity to hold the increased numbers of convicted criminals. This has led to: prison overcrowding, sometimes prompting court actions against penal systems; rapidly rising operational outlays; and taxpayer resistance to the cost of new prisons. A partial answer to the problems of prison overcrowding and high costs may be the "privatization" of prisons. Costs and overcrowding problems are the driving force behind the privatization phenomenon. As a national average, it costs roughly $20,000 per year to keep an inmate in prison. There are approximately 650,000 inmates in state and local prisons. This costs taxpayers an estimated $18 billion each year. More than two thirds of the states are facing serious overcrowding problems, and many are operating at least 50 percent over capacity. Cost comparisons between private and government operation of prisons show frequent cost savings under private management. While the national average cost to hold a prisoner in a government run prison is $40 per inmate a day, many privately run prisons charge the governments on average lower fees. U.S. Corrections Corporation (USCC), a private company headquartered in Louisville charges Kentucky charges a daily fee of $25 per inmate. In their first year of operation in...
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