Title: The Early History of Correctional Thought and Practice
1Chapter 2
- The Early History of Correctional Thought and
Practice
2The Early History of Correctional Thought and
Practice
- From the Middle Ages to the American Revolution
- Galley Slavery
- Imprisonment
- Transportation
- Corporal Punishment
- On the Eve of Reform
- The Age of Reason and Correctional Reform
- Cesare Beccaria and the Classical School
- Jeremy Bentham and the Hedonic Calculus
- John Howard and the Birth of Penitentiary
- What Really Motivated Correctional Reform?
3Legal bases of punishment
- Lex talionis
- law of retaliation
- punishment should correspond in degree kind to
the offense - Eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
- Secular law- middle ages
- law of civil society (vs. church law) developed
along feudal system - feudal lords went to war over each others
transgressions
- Wergild- man money
- money paid to relatives of a murdered person or
to crime victim as compensation - to prevent blood feuds
- carried view that punishment should involve
participation of public
4benefit of clergy
- religion early source of leniency
- members of clergy could be tried in
ecclesiastical court, where punishments less
severe than in civil courts(focus of
ecclesiastical court penance salvation) - available from 1200s-1827 to anyone who could
read text of Psalm 54 in court--ostensibly
proved membership in clergy - common thugs availed themselves of the benefit
by reciting verse from memory - Psalm 54 came to be known as neck verse
5punishments in transitionfrom old world ?
penitentiary
- corporal punishments (by various means)
- death (by various means)
- Englands specific contributions
- transportation (banishment)
- prescribed by Vagrancy Act of 1597
- galley slavery
- used as a reprieve from gallows
- imprisonment
- historically, used mostly for
- political prisoners
- those awaiting trial
- debtors
6Vagrancy Act of 1597 (England)
- by 1772 60 male English felons banished!
- 1718-1776 1,000 felons/yr. (n 50,000)
- ? Virginia (1606)
- convicts were given over to companies that had
shipped them to colonies sold their services
(per 1717 law) - ? Australia New S. Wales (after revolution)
- felons served Crown/designee for of years
- then, freed (via pardon or ticket of leave)
- could then choose place of work
- banishment consistent w/ social realities of
time - response to social disorder/upheaval
7early jails product ofsocial upheaval of 16th
century England
- ? manufacturing economy (not agrarian)
- ? breakup of feudalism (serfs, lords, manor)
- ? 1,000s rural poor (wandering country)
- ? urbanization (movement to cities)
- consequences
- ? poverty, homelessness, helplessness, idleness,
illness, beggars, prostitution, crime - ? jails melting pot of dysfunctional population
- plus orphans, insane
8early jails bad!
- combination workhouse, poorhouse, jail
- mixed men, women, children
- conditions abysmal!
- filth
- squalor
- malnutrition
- predatory environment
- reform ? house of correction
- combined elements of all three institutions
- emphasis put idle poor to work!
- from thinking of Protestant Reformationan idle
mind is the devils workshop
9Bridewell House1st house of correction (1553)
- objective to instill a habit of industry more
conducive to an honest livelihood - strategies
- discipline work!
- products to be sold on open market
- facility to be self sufficient
- failure...
- facilities filled w/criminals
- physically deteriorated
- not profitable
- reformative aim vanished
10impact of Bridewell
- replicated in Europe more successful
- Holland, Germany
- France (Maison de Force, in Ghent, 1772 - wheel)
- Italy (Milan House of Corrections, 1775)
- these became precursors to 19th C. prisons in
America - they impressed John Howard, English reformer
- Howard brought ideas back to England!
(popularized in colonies)
11What we will see
- 19th/20th Centuries saw VARIETY of social
experiments re punishment - based on variety of competing social/political
philosophies from 18th, 19th centuries - witnessed general TREND away from brutality of
ancient middle ages - these developments stemmed generally from 5 major
social, economic, political, religious trends
121. breakdown of feudal order move ? industrial
society
- elimination of class of serfs bound by birth to
service of Lord of the manor - demise of agriculture
- population moves to urban centers
- rise of middle class
- emergence of trades commerce
- ? seeds of industrial revolution
132. ideas of the Protestant Reformation
- Martin Luther (1599) man is capable of
interpreting Bible (w/o Pope) - ? elevated man to new status of free thinker
- ? weakened political/economic power of Roman
Catholic Church - ? weakened Churchs role in definition/punishment
of errant citizens - ? weakened Churchs role in creation
administration of law
143. emergence of secular legal systems
- new legal systems were developed by civilian
authority to protect the interests of independent
parties other than the church - new systems (e.g., courts) came to be
administered by non-religious authorities - Exemplified by ? Anglican Church/ of England
Henry VIIIs break from PopeA Man for All
Seasons
154. values of the Enlightenment
- 1600-1700s English/French social/political
writers popularized certain progressive
concepts, e.g. - Liberalism
- Rationality
- Equality
- Individualism
- Limitations on the power of government
- Scientific inquiry.
16Enlightenment (cond)
- ? created new popular belief in
- rights of man
- importance of individual
- concept of free will
- role of government limited! protect rights!
- e.g., Hobbes
- life in state of naturebad
- government/society formed to protect man from
hardships of total independence - e.g., Locke, Montesque
- government as social contract
- man gives up rights enters into union w/ others
for mutual benefit/protection
175. age of science reason
- we are capable of discovering why how things
happen - the world operates according to rules
- we can use science reason to discover those
rules that govern behavior (of both universe
man) - Galileo universe behaves according to
predictable patterns - Newton matter motion governed by certain laws
of physics
18result entirely new ways of viewing world
- new beliefs re
- nature of man human behavior
- faith in our ability to change people
- the relation of man to society
- belief in the rights of man
- equality of treatment (less brutality)
- limited power of state
- new schools of thought re crime punishment
(popularized by writers) - Beccaria, Bentham
- Howard
19Cesare Beccaria (1738 - 1794)
- Father classical school of criminology
- Italian scholar applied rationalist philosophy
of Enlightenment to CJS - Essays on Crimes Punishments, 1764
- writings revolutionized thinking re role of law,
criminal punishment, operation of CJS
20classical school of criminology beliefs
- man has free will
- crime is volitional (willed, intentional)
- man can change his behavior
- man should be punished in proportion to the
severity of the crime he commits - the basis of all social action should be the
utilitarian concept the greatest good for the
greatest number - ? utilitarianism (though Beccaria not thought
of as father of utilitarianism)
21principles of classical school
- sole justification for punishment is its
utility--the safety it provides via crime
prevention - punishment is for deterrence, not revenge
- prevention gt important than punishment
- punishment should be the least possible,
- punishment ? proportionate, dictated by law
- certainty/swiftness gt important than severity
- advocated penal reforms
- avoid torture secret accusations
- right to speedy trial to present evidence
- humane treatment improve prison conditions
- classify offenders age, sex, degree of
criminality - ? Pa. penal law, penitentiary movement
22Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)
- father of utilitarianism
- English advocate of prison reform
- Intro. to the Principles of Morals Legislation,
1789 - applied utilitarian theory to law punishment
- founder of panopticon prison design
- circular building with glass roofcells around
circumference, on each story - e.g., Western State Penitentiary (Pitt,
1825)Stateville (Ill, 1916)
23utilitarianism
- doctrine that the aim of all action should be
the greatest possible balance of pleasure over
pain. This will create the greatest good for the
greatest number.
24Bentham (cond)
- hedonic calculus pleasure/pain principle
- key concept in utilitarianism
- rational persons behave in ways to maximize
pleasure, minimize pain - law should assure that offender will derive more
pain from punishment than pleasure from crime - advocated reforms
- goal of law prevent, not avenge crime
- eliminate barbarity, inconsistency in punishment
- abolish transportation
- segregate by age, sex, seriousness
- improve morals, health, education of prisoners
- ? religious services keep prisoners busy
25John Howard (1726 - 1790)
- The State of Prisons in England Wales, 1777
- (major) English penal reformer
- middle class, country squire, social activist
- appointed Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1773 but
unique took active interest! - visited local facilities shocked by conditions
- most jailers of time non-professional,
unsalaried appointees - indifferent to
care/conditions - collected (e.g., discharge fees) from inmates
- overcrowding, no discipline, unsanitary (prison
fever- typhus - killed 1,000s) - visited hulks, houses of corr. in Eng/Eur
- returned with ideas for reform.
26Howard (cond)
- drafted Penitentiary Act of 1779 with
Blackstone Eden - 4 principles
- secure sanitary structure
- systematic inspection
- abolition of fees
- reformatory regimen
- features
- solitary cells at night
- hard labor in common rooms by day aim --gt
Drudgery! - religious instruction reflection
27effect of Howards work
- slow to catch on in England
- colonies much more susceptible
- new ways of thinking in America
- Declaration of Independence US Constitution
championed - optimistic view of man
- belief in human perfectibility
- belief that crime f (environment)
- individual rights
- limitations on power/authority of govt
- by-products of this thinking
- need to reform of harsh penal codes/punishments
- Mass (1785) Pa (1786) NY (1796)
- preference for incarceration ( hard labor)
28Penitentiary an idea with universal appeal
- legalists ? deter crime
- philanthropists ? save humanity
- conservatives ? save money (inmate-produced
products) - politicians ? solution to disquieting prison
situation - industrialists ? new way of disciplining/
training new working class to serve industrial
society (e.g., John Conley-revisionist
historian)
29emergence of the penitentiary in America
- reform ideas didnt materialize in England until
1842 Pentonville, North London - but, quickly took root in colonies and laid
groundwork for look operation of American
penitentiary - Walnut St. Jail, 1790
- portion of jail was converted to place of
separate confinement in 1790 - quickly overcrowded
- Eastern State Penitentiary (Cherry Hill, 1829)
- Western State Penitentiary (Pittsburgh, 1825)