The Early History of Correctional Thought and Practice

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Chapter 1

• The Early History of Correctional Thought and
  Practice

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Overview of Early Punishment

• He is to be taken where on a scaffold that will
  be erected there, the flesh will be torn from his
  breasts, arms, thighs, and calves with red-hot
  pinchers, his right handburnt with sulphur, and
  on those places where the flesh will be torn
  away, poured molten lead, boiling oil, burning
  resin, wax and sulphur molten together and then
  his body drawn and quartered by four horses and
  his limbs and body consumed by fire, reduced to
  ashes, and his ashes thrown to the winds.

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Punishment from the Dawn of Man to the Middle Ages

• Caveman Ugh
• Code of Hammurabi
• Moses (Book of Exodus)
• Draco (ruler of Ancient Greece Draconian)
• Roman Law

• Mamertine Prison-system of dungeons built under
  the main sewer of Rome in 64BCE
• Coliseum of Rome
• Slavery
• Loss of citizenship or properties

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The Middle Ages

• lex talionis- law of retaliation punishment
  should equal the offense eye for an eye
• blood feud- war between two families over a
  perceived wrong initially done to one family
• wergild- man money money paid to a murdered
  persons family for compensation to prevent a
  blood feud

• secular law- the law of a society that is
  separate from church law
• church law- the law of the church that reflected
  the beliefs of the religion
• benefit of clergy- right given to literate
  persons to be tried in a church court were
  punishments were less severe and focused on
  salvation and penance

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Punishment in the Early Middle Ages

• Punishment was often capital and corporal in
  nature to deter and get right with God
• Punishment was done in public to enhance the
  deterrent effect
• Alternative The Dungeon

• Examples
• The Inquisition
• Trial by Ordeal (Fire)
• Witch Hunts
• Or any other crime

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The Dungeon
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Torture Chamber
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The Rack
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Drawn and Quartered
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The Grill
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Skull Crusher
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Other Types

• Iron Mask
• Boiling in Oil
• Iron Maiden
• All of these types of punishments have the same
  purposes
• 1. To inflict pain (for purification)
• 2. To deter future acts by others
• 3. To prevent future acts by the same individual
  (because they are dead)

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Boats

• galley slavery
• - is the forced rowing of ships by those
  convicted of crimes
• prison hulks
• - are old ships placed in the harbor to house
  inmates noted for being disease ridden, dirty,
  and generally unsafe

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Transportation

• Moving offenders to another location, country, or
  penal colony
• Australia
• America
• Russia Siberia
• Found to be effective
• Some allowed to return

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Transportation
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Early Jails

• Used (before 1800s) to house non-convicted
  persons, debtors, and vagrants
• Vagrancy laws of England it was a crime to
  default on unpaid debts or to be a vagrant
• Dirty, disease ridden, and just generally
  unsanitary

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Bridewell Houses

• a/k/a Work Houses
• first houses of correction
• housed minor criminals, the poor, and debtors
• set persons to work on products, religious study,
  and discipline
• noted for cleanliness
• were self sufficient

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The Enlightenment

• also known as the Age of Reason
• 1700s in Europe
• scientific developments
• people began to question their place in society
  and governments role in their lives
• brought about change in political structure
• also led to changes in criminal justice

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Cesare Beccaria

• Essays on Crimes and Punishments
• The Classical School
• the purpose of criminal punishment is to ensure
  the protection and order of society
• persons are equipped with free-will they are
  logical and thinking beings that will choose
  between a continuum of pleasure and pain

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Six Principles of Beccaria

• 1. greatest good for the greatest number of
  people (utilitarianism)
• 2. crime is an injury to society and the measure
  of crime is the measure of harm
• 3. prevention of crime is more important than
  punishment laws should be created and written so
  that they can be understood

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• 4. abolish torture and secret confessions give
  the accused a right to trial and the right to
  provide evidence on their behalf
• 5. punishment is not for revenge therefore
  certainty and swiftness are more important that
  severity
• 6. imprisonment should be more widely utilized
  conditions should be good and prisoners should be
  housed by classification

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Jeremy Bentham

• Hedonistic Calculus
• people will naturally seek the greatest pleasure
  over the greatest pain
• punishments should be created with this idea in
  mind to create deterrence
• also created the panopticon style of prison
  design

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John Howard

• English prison reformer
• His Lord High Sheriff of Bedfordshire (1773)
• The State of the Prisons in England and Wales
• was key in creating the Penitentiary Act of 1779

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Howards Observations

• toured local institutions
• found terrible conditions
• -dirty, unsanitary, disease ridden
• -jail staff had no pay
• -institutions charged inmates some could not
  pay and though not convicted were still being
  housed
• -prison fever

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Penitentiary Act of 1779

• the structure should be secure and sanitary
• it should be inspected regularly on a set system
• inmates should not be charged fees and the staff
  should paid by the public
• life on the inmate should be one of reform hard
  labor (rock crushing, ect.), penitence, and
  discipline
• also included diet, uniform, and hygiene rules