History of corrections & its

Impact on Modern Concepts

Imagine an era when stealing was punished by chopping off the
offender’s hand. Or when an offender could lose a finger for interfering
with a neighbors crops.
• Early corrections reaches from 2,000 B.C., all the way through the 19th
century.
- Many different cultures influenced the development of corrections
during those early times, there were many philosophies and practices
used.
• Two important changes shaped the evolution of corrections during
this early period.
1. A shift from vigilante justice to government justice.
- In ancient times Vigilante justice was common. It meant a victim or a
victim’s family would seek revenge for a crime.
- This practice was based on the criminal punishment philosophy of
retribution, Which simply means that a criminal should get what he
or she deserves. Based on the adage “eye for an eye.”
• Eventually, organized governments stepped in through government
justice. This newer philosophy was that the government “owned” the
crime and bore the responsibility for punishing the criminal.
- A crime committed against one citizen was considered to be a wrong
committed against all society.
- This remains the overall philosophy regarding crime and punishment
in most of the world to this day.
2. The second shift was from physical to psychological punishment.

• There were many different ancient and barbaric forms of torture used
as criminal punishment. This practice is generally known as corporal
punishment and includes any kind of physical punishment to inflict
pain or discomfort.
ex. Amputation, beating, shackling, and locking into stocks.
- However most societies settled on flogging which is whipping or
caning.
* Corporal punishment is based on the philosophy of deterrence. If
people are humiliated, or injured, they will not commit another crime.
• By the 18th century, corporal punishment was largely replaced with
psychological punishment.
- Prison became more popular. The early prisons of the 16th and 17th
centuries were more like jails, where criminals were held for short
periods of time while awaiting their trials or punishments.
- The 18th century prisons were a bit closer to what we know today.
* They were correctional facilities used for long term confinement of
criminals, who had been convicted of a crime and were serving a
sentence.
Transportation and Servitude
• Prison wasn’t the only type of psychological punishment option used
at that time.
- In 18th century England, criminals were often sentenced to
Transportation: offenders were banished from England and deported
to the new British colonies in America or to other countries.
- This practice would end when the colonies won independence and
formed the United States.
- This practice was based in the punishment philosophy of
incapacitation: meaning that a criminal can’t commit crimes if he or
she doesn’t have access.
• Two other punishments were commonly used during this time as
well.
1. Hard Labor: a sentence of time to a work house, where inmates
performed manual labor all day, everyday.
2. Penal Servitude: Criminals were sentenced for a period of years to
the military or to plantations where they worked and did not have
access to the outside world.
* Both of these were types of incapacitation and psychological
punishment, but had elements of physical punishment also.
• Of course, the ultimate form of incapacitation is capital punishment,
the death penalty.
- In early times, executions were public and carried out in many
different ways, including burning at the stake, hanging, beheading,
drawing and quartering or impaling.

• Capital Punishment used to be allowable and common for all sorts of

crimes, like stealing or cutting down a tree.
- These days, it has been abolished in more than 140 countries. In
those that continue to allow it, most have tight restrictions on the type
of crime and the method of execution.
Houses of Correction
• Incarceration, or confinement in prison, eventually emerged as the
most popular form of criminal punishment.
• The earliest European prisons, which operated more like jails, all
types of offenders were held together in one large room.
- This meant that children were with adults, and debtors were with
murderers.
- The facilities weren’t maintained, and the prisoners weren’t cared
for. Many died from disease while awaiting their punishments.
- However, by the end of the 17th century, prisons in and around
London began to operate as houses of correction.
• In the United States, we call these correctional facilities. These focus
on restoring offenders and returning them to society.
• This evolution largely began with Bridewell Prison, England’s first
correctional facility.
- Bridewell was innovative because it was the first prison to use an
inmate classification system and separate cells.
• Around this time, three important factors merged to force change in
the correctional system.
1. English philosopher and social reformer Jeremy Bentham advocated
for the strict treatment for prisoners but safe and sanitary.
2. The Quakers initiated the Prison Reform Movement in which they
advocated for humane treatment of prisoners and a move away from
corporal and capital punishments.

3. The 18th century’s Age of enlightenment brought a new view

regarding criminals.
- Offenders were no longer thought to be fundamentally flawed but
widely thought to be capable of correction and rehabilitation.
- Rehabilitation is the philosophy that most criminals can and should be
rehabilitated through treatment, education, and training, so they can
become productive members of society. (Still used today)
Prisons in the U.S.
• By the late 18th century, American prisons resembled work houses but
strived to offer humane living conditions while reforming offenders.
• Our first prison, operating under this new system, opened in
Pennsylvania in 1789 on the site of the Walnut Street jail.
- Pennsylvania adopted the solitary system, or separate system.
Meaning that inmates were kept in separate cells, even for eating,
sleeping, and working.
- New York’s early prisons adopted the congregate system, or silent
system. Meaning that inmates were kept in separate cells, but
allowed to eat and work together, though they had to remain
completely silent.
• The New York system became the most popularly used in the U.S.
Floggings were used in both systems when prisoners failed to follow
prison rules.
• The Prison Reform Movement gained ground and lasted through
about 1930.
- Advocated continued to work to end the torture and inhumane
treatment of prisoners.
- The movement was successful, as corporal punishment and the use of
the silent system was ultimately abandoned.
20th Century Prisons
• During the prison reform movement at full swing, many new prisons
were being built. Including Alcatraz, which was built in 1909 and first
used as a federal prison in 1934.

• The Great Depression led to an increase in crime and our nation’s

prison overcrowding crisis. Inmates were crowded into cells and
dormitories.
- Prison conditions deteriorated and prison violence escalated.
- By the 1970s, the United States had experienced several large prison
riots, including the 1971 Attica riot that left 43 people dead.
- The 70s also marked President Nixon’s “War on Drugs”, which was
followed by other “get tough on Crime” laws, such as “three Strikes
Laws”.
- These laws became popular in the 1990s and order mandatory life
prison sentences for offenders convicted of three violent or serious
felonies.
- Both policies incorporated incapacitation and led to higher inmate
populations.
- Between 1970 and 1999, the U.S. saw a 500% increase in inmate
population.
- The last quarter of the 20th century also saw a marked increase in
prison building.
- Over 200 new prisons built between 1990 and 1995, however,
overcrowding continued to be an issue.

21st Century Prisons:

* At the end of 2010, about 5% of state inmates and 12% of federal
inmates were housed in private prisons. Still overcrowding is a critical
issue.
• Despite overcrowding, 21st century prison conditions are much
improved over years past.
- Inmates have access to health care, mental health treatment. Many
other programs available with offender rehabilitation in mind.
• Modern incarceration is based on a combination of incapacitation,
deterrence, and rehabilitation. Many scholars believe:
- Being placed in prison and away from society incapacitates the most
serious offenders. However, unlike early times, most aren’t
incapacitated for long and will be returning to society.
- The threat of incarceration is meant to act as a deterrent.
- Modern prisons offer a wide variety of rehabilitative opportunities.
This includes drug treatment programs, work programs, and
educational programs designed to aid prisoners in their return to
society.