The Purpose and History of Penitentiaries
By: Jeremy Rice

Imprisonment as a form of criminal punishment only became widespread in the United States just before the American Revolution, though penal incarceration efforts had been ongoing in England since as early as the 1500s, and prisons in the form of dungeons and various detention facilities had existed since long before then. Prison building efforts in the United States came in three major waves. The first began during the Jacksonian Era and led to widespread use of imprisonment and rehabilitative labor as the primary penalty for most crimes in nearly all states by the time of the American Civil War. The second began after the Civil War and gained momentum during the Progressive Era, bringing a number of new mechanisms—such as parole, probation, and indeterminate sentencing—into the mainstream of American penal practice. Finally, since the early 1970s, the United States has engaged in a historically unprecedented expansion of its imprisonment systems at both the federal and state level. Since 1973, the number of incarcerated persons in the United States has increased five fold, and in a given year 7 million persons are under the supervision or control of correctional services in the United States. These periods of prison construction and reform produced major changes in the structure of prison systems and their missions, the responsibilities of federal and state agencies for administering and supervising them, as well as the legal and political status of prisoners themselves.
To compare the Pennsylvania system to the Auburn system first you have to know the history of them both to know the difference in them both. First according to "Pennsylvania system " (2016), the Pennsylvania system, penal method based on the principle that solitary confinement fosters penitence and encourages reformation. The idea was advocated by the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, whose most active members were Quakers. In 1829 the Eastern State Penitentiary, on Cherry Hill in Philadelphia, applied this so-called separate philosophy. Prisoners were kept in solitary confinement in cells 16 feet high, nearly 12 feet long, and 7.5 feet wide (4.9 by 3.7 by 2.3 m). An exercise yard, completely enclosed to prevent contact among prisoners, was attached to each cell. Prisoners saw no one except institution officers and an occasional visitor. Solitary penitence, however, was soon modified to include the performance of work such as shoemaking or weaving. The Pennsylvania system spread until it predominated in European prisons. Critics in the United States argued that it was too costly and had deleterious effects on the minds of the prisoners. The Pennsylvania system was superseded in the United States by the Auburn system. According to "Pennsylvania system " (2016), the Auburn system, penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, N.Y., as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Later innovations at Auburn were the lockstep (marching in single file, placing the right hand on the shoulder of the man ahead, and facing toward the guard), the striped suit, two-foot extensions of the walls between cells, and special seating arrangements at meals—all designed to insure strict silence. The Auburn and Pennsylvania systems were both based on a belief that criminal habits were learned from and reinforced by other criminals. When it comes to the impact and involvement of prison labor over time you have to look at how many people we have in our prison system to date. Which as of 2008 there was 2,418,352 inmates in the American prison system, and out of that presently 80,000 inmates in the US employed in commercial activity, some earning as little as 21 cents an hour. The US government program Federal Prison Industries (FPI) currently employs 21,000 inmates, an increase of 14 percent in the last two years alone. FPI inmates make a wide variety of products—such as clothing, file cabinets, electronic equipment and military helmets—which are sold to federal agencies and private companies. FPI sales are $600 million annually and rising, with over $37 million in profits. Over the last 20 years 36 different states have passed laws permitting the use of convict labor by commercial enterprises. Some of the jobs that the inmates do in prison get paid a whole lot more than if the were out of prison doing it, for example Honda pays inmates $2 an hour for doing the same work an auto worker would get paid $20 to $30 an hour to do. But they are not the only ones who use inmates for labor Konica, Toys R Us, Microsoft, TWA and even AT&T have all used prisoners for manual labor. Companies have pointed to the tight labor markets as to why the use inmates for work. They also do not have to give them health or unemployment insurance, vacation time, sick leave or overtime, they can hire, fire or reassign inmates as they so desire, and can pay the workers as little as 21 cents an hour. The inmates that refuse to work under these conditions are labeled “uncooperative” and risk losing time off for “good behavior,” as well as privileges such as library access and recreation.

References

http://www.britannica.com/topic/Pennsylvania-system http://www.britannica.com/topic/Auburn-system https://www.wsws.org/en/articles/2000/05/pris-m08.html