Essay about Prison Reform In America

Reform movements generally sought to improve American society and reformers wanted to repair the social and political climate of the current day. The statement “Reform Movements in the United States sought to expand democratic ideals”, is valid in that movements like women’s rights, public school, abolitionism and prison reform sought to improve the tight wounds of society and expand the democratic nature of society to even more people. Inspired by the Second Great Awakening and the recent Transcendentalist movement, these reforms were key in expanding the social, cultural and political world between the years of 1825 and 1850.

Capital punishment played a pivotal role in the punishment of criminals in the early colonial period, with William Penn of Pennsylvania being the first responsible leader to utilize imprisonment as a corrective treatment for major offenders. In 1682 his “Great Law” provided the confinement of both major and minor violators of the law to be placed in houses of correction.3 There they would partake in work for moderate compensation, for a period of time proportional to their respective crimes. Soon an amendment was ratified making murder a capital offense, and remained the only capital offense until 1700 when treason could also be punished by death. Up until the death of William Penn in 1718, Pennsylvania largely relied on fines and imprisonment, shifting to a different system of criminal punishment only after the passing of Penn. Soon after conservative groups gained control, and Pennsylvania reimposed the English criminal code, which increased the number of crimes punishable by death to twelve, and allowed punishments such as whipping to be doled out. This system lasted until the post colonial age, when in 1786 the state eliminated the death penalty for robbery and burglary and subsequently only retained capital punishment for first degree murder in 1794.4 Sparking the changes was the

What once was used as a means of rehabilitation has now became a corrupted institution based upon the societal norms of the 21st century. In the novel, “Are Prisons Obsolete” by Angela Davis, she emphasizes the underlining problems faced within modern day prisons. More specifically on how the reformation of these prisons have ultimately backfired causing the number of imprisonments to sky rocket drastically. Which results in the concept of the prison system being a lot more harmful than helpful to the prison-based communities nationwide.

Allen state that solitary confinement is “A punishment program requiring isolation of an inmate in a cell, as known as a “prison with in a prison” (Allen, 32). Prisoners were locked in a room with nothing but themselves and the walls surrounding them for hours upon hours. Solitary confinement is still a debated topic now a days. Hopefully now you have a basic understanding of what prisons in the 1800’s were

Penitentiary Era (1790-1825)—Purpose: Rehabilitation A. Pennsylvania System: a. Kept prisoners separated by using solitary confinement. b. Prisoners were not permitted to talk to one another. c. Rehabilitated inmates through reflection and penitence.

The Penitentiary Era took place in the beginning of the 19th Century. The first view, Pennsylvania System, enforced the idea of solitary confinement, in which prisoners were kept separate from each other. The system did not work out well because prisoners could not work together. The second view under the Penitentiary

You can lead a horse to water, but you can’t make it drink. Everyone knows that you can’t help someone unless they want to help themselves. When the prison system was first established, the possibilities in rehabilitation were nothing like they are

Within this paper, you will find a comprehensive review of the United States prison system, and why it needs to analyzed to better support and reform the people of this country. I plan to persuade the other side (politicians and society) into seeing that the way the prison system is now, is not ethical nor economical and it must change. We have one of the world’s largest prison population, but also a very high rate of recidivism. Recidivism is when the prisoners continuously return to prison without being reformed. They return for the same things that they were doing before. So, this leads us to ask what exactly are we doing wrong? When this happens, we as a nation must continuously pay to house and feed these inmates. The purpose of a prison needs to be examined so we can decide if we really are reforming our inmates, or just continuing a vicious cycle. What is the true purpose of prison besides just holding them in a cell? There must be more we can do for these hopeless members of society.

With the population of the United States prisons growing every day we need to evaluate if they are doing any good. Personally, I believe that we need to keep our prison system, but we need to take steps in reforming them rather than abolish them altogether. The United States has the highest number of incarcerated people than any other country in the world. We must sit down and look at other countries and see what they are doing different than the United States. In this paper, we will first look at what the prison system in America is like and what we can do to improve upon our prison system. Then, we will also look at the Finland prison systems and see if we can learn anything from them, since they have one of the lowest incarceration and crime rate in the world. We will then look at reforming our prison system or abolishing it. Finally, we will investigate other punishment alternatives other than the prison system that we could use.

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

It is common knowledge that the American prison system has grown exponentially in the last few decades. The prison population within the last forty years has risen by two million inmates. Multiple factors such as overcrowding and cost cutting have also decreased the quality of life within prisons by an order of magnitude. With this rising statistic, it becomes increasingly urgent to understand the effect of incarceration on our prisoners and whether the reformation process is actually doing more harm than good.

“In 2007, one percent of American adults were in prison, which is by far the highest incarceration rate in the world.”( Trachtenberg, B., 2009). Why? Trachtenberg believes it’s because prisons do not rehabilitate people. A violent criminal is sent to prison because he is a threat to society. He is supposed to serve a lengthy term so that he will learn his lesson and become a productive member of society. During his time there he is supposed to learn to appreciate work by cooking, doing laundry, or some other prison job. While he is there he can receive his GED so that he can get a job when he gets out. This plan has good intentions but it has been proven to be ineffective.

“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime

Up until 1969 it was believed that criminals did not have any protection from the law, furthermore no constitutional right were given to any felon. After a person was found guilty of a crime, the norm was to give them "civil death"(CJ2015, p226) After the Warren Court (1953-1969) The supreme court ruled that criminals had the right to file lawsuits for the conditions existing where they were housed. The civil death was also forbidden. In the United States we have different places to housed criminals and all exist for the same purpose: Corrections. However, there are differences in how they are run, who works in them, and the security level they have.

The Continental Congress convened for the first time in 1774, however, the constitutional form of government in the United States did not become operational until 1789. Until then, each colony had authority in regards to criminal matters (Keve 1991:4). As a result, two different styles of incarceration emerged in the late 1700s. The first was the Pennsylvania system, also referred to as the solitary system. Pennsylvania reformers aimed to find alternative punishment methods and eliminate the severe methods. Reformers compared crime to an epidemic and how in years prior, an epidemic in Philadelphia was contained by isolation and how isolating the sick, made others less vulnerable to the disease (Kann 2005:111). The Quakers had influenced this penitentiary structure as stone architecture and the philosophy of solitary confinement were embedded. With such a heavy emphasis on solitary confinement, inmates never interacted with one another. Inmates within the facility ate, performed labor, and slept without any contact with other prisoners. The structure of such facilities promoted such strict routines and isolation that there was no risk of corruption due to such a lack of communication amongst inmates (McShane 2008:21). The Walnut Street Jail, Pennsylvania’s first State prison was built during the 1770s. Initially, the jail was meant to house overcrowded