The History of Corrections in America

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Chapter 3

• The History of Corrections in America

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The History of Corrections

• The Colonial Period
• The Arrival of the Penitentiary
• The Pennsylvania System
• The New York ( Auburn ) System
• Debating the Systems
• Development or Prisons in the South and West
• Southern Penology
• Western Penology
• The Reformatory Movement
• Cincinnati, 1870
• Elmira Reformatory
• Lasting Reforms

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The History of Corrections Cont.

• The Rise of the Progressives
• Individualized Treatment and the Positivist
• School
• Progressive Reforms
• The Rise of the Medical Model
• From Medical Model to Community Model
• The Crime Control Model The Pendulum Swings
  Again
• The Decline of Rehabilitation
• The Emergence of Crime Control

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Evolution of punishment in America, 1600 2000
Flow Chart
Crime Control Model 1970s - 2000
Community Model 1960s - 1970s
Medical Model 1930s - 1960s
Progressive Period 1890s - 1930s
Colonial Period 1600s - 1790s
Reformatory Movement 1870s - 1890s
Prisons in South West 1800s
Arrival of the Penitentiary 1790s - 1860s
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William Penn

• William Penn (16441718) English Quaker who
  arrived in Philadelphia in 1682. Succeeded in
  getting Pennsylvania to adopt The Great Law
  emphasizing hard labor in a house of correction
  as punishment for most crimes

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Penitentiary

• an institution intended to isolate prisoners from
  society and from one another so that they could
  reflect on their past misdeeds, repent, and thus
  undergo reformation.

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Benjamin Rush

• Benjamin Rush (17451813) Physician, patriot,
  signer of the Declaration of Independence, and
  social reformer, Rush advocated the penitentiary
  as replacement for capital and corporal
  punishment.

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principles of the penitentiary

• isolate prisoner from bad influences of society -
  liquor, temptation, people
• penance silent contemplation
• productive labor
• reform (thinking work habits)
• return to society, renewed
• key solitary confinement
• isolate from contagion
• foster quiet reflection
• punishment, since man is social animal
• cheap ? shorter sentence, fewer guards

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Separate Confinement

• A penitentiary system developed in Pennsylvania
  in which each inmate was held in isolation from
  other inmates, with all activities, including
  craft work, carried on in the cells.

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competing models

• Pennsylvania system
• Separate system
• solitary confinement
• eat, sleep, work in cell
• religious instruction
• reflection upon crimes
• reform through
• salvation
• religious enlightenment
• model for Europe
• e.g.
• Walnut St. Jail
• Western Penitentiary
• Eastern State Pen.

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competing models

• Pennsylvania system
• Separate system
• solitary confinement
• eat, sleep, work in cell
• religious instruction
• reflection upon crimes
• reform through
• salvation
• religious enlightenment
• model for Europe
• e.g.
• Walnut St. Jail
• Western Penitentiary
• Eastern State Pen.

• New York system
• evolved into Congregate system
• hard labor in shops-day
• solitary confinement-night
• strict discipline
• rule of silence
• reform through
• good work habits
• discipline
• model for US-economical
• e.g., Auburn Prison, 1816

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and the winner is?

• Pennsylvania/Philadelphia model
• Europeans applauded and replicated
• New York/Auburn model
• won out in US more cost-effective labor state
  negotiated contracts with manufacturers
• but neither curbed crime nor reformed offrs
• various reforms tinkered w/ look, purpose
• but icon of high-walled fortress remained
  Attica, Quentin, Folsom, Sing Sing

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Southern penology

• Devastation of war and economic hardship produced
  2 results
• Lease system
• Private business negotiated with state for labor
  care of inmates--Kentucky (1825)
• Penal farms
• State-run plantations which grew crops
• To feed inmates
• To sell on free market

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Western developments

• penology in west not greatly influenced by the
  ideologies of the east
• prior to statehood, prisoners held in territorial
  facilities or in federal military posts and
  prisons
• 1852 San Quentin - Californias 1st prison
• 1877 Salem, Oregon prison - Auburn model
• western states discontinued use of lease system
  as states entered into the union
• e.g. Oregon, California, Montana, Wyoming

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the Reformatory Movement(1870s - 1890s)

• product of disillusionment with oppressive
  penitentiary system
• focus remained ? inmate change!
• key features
• indeterminate sentences gt fixed
• offender classification should be based on
  character institutional behavior
• use early release as incentive to reform

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Hallmarks of the reformatory movement

• National Prison Association
• precursor American Correctional Asso.
• strong religious influence (still)
• Cincinnati meeting,1870 ? Declaration of
  Principles
• reformation is a work of time and a benevolent
  regard to the good of the criminal himself, as
  well as to the protection of society, requires
  that his sentence be long enough for the
  reformatory process to take effect.
• e.g., Machonochie, Crofton, Brockway

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Reformatory

• an institution for young offenders emphasizing
  training, a mark system of classification,
  indeterminate sentences, and parole

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mark system

• a system for calculating when an offender will be
  released from custody, based on both the crime
  his behavior in prison

• devised by Alexander Maconochie (England),
• at Norfolk Island penal settlement (off
  Australia, 1840)
• at sentencing, offender is given a number of
  marks, based on offense severity(a debt to
  society, to be paid off)
• for release, offender must earn marks via
• voluntary labor
• participation in educational, religious programs
• good behavior
• adopted in Ireland, never England

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the Irish system

• developed by Sir Walter Crofton
• derived from Maconochies mark system
• four-stage program of graduated release, based on
  offender performance
• all sentences served in four stages ? move up
  w/ accumulation of marks
• 1. ? solitary confinement - all start here
• 2. ? public works prison - begin earning marks
• 3. ? intermediate stage - (like half-way
  house)after earning enough marks
• 4. ? ticket of leave - conditional release
  precursor of modern parole

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reformatory Zebulon Brockway

• an institution for young offenders emphasizing
  training, a mark system of classification,
  indeterminate sentences, and parole 1st time
  felons (16-30)
• diagnosis, individualized treatment, reform

• operation
• ? intake interview determine causes of crime
• ? individualized work education program
• ? mark system of classification (work, school,
  behavior).move up OR down, with accumulation of
  marks
• begin at grade 2
• can earn 9 marks/mo. for 6 months
• ? grade 1 or
• ? grade 3
• then, 3 mo. good behavior ? grade 2 again.
• administrators determine release date
• Elmira Reformatory (Zebulon Brockway 1876-1900)

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Reformatory movement ends

• failed to reform (like penitentiary)
• brutality
• corruption
• not administered as planned
• but, important features survived
• inmate classification
• rehabilitation programs
• indeterminate sentences
• parole

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the Progressive Era(1890s - 1930s)

• age of reform set tone for American social
  thought political action until 1960s!
• condemned ills of new urban society--big
  business, big industry, urban blight
• ? faith in science to find answers to crime,
  criminal behavior, treatment
• ? new faith in government action to eliminate
  social problems--slums, crime
• trends of period
• industrialization
• urbanization
• technological change
• scientific advancement

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the Progressives

• socially conscious, politically active, mostly
  upper-class reformers of early 1900s
• attacked excesses of emergent 20th century - big
  business, industry, urban society
• believed science (positivism) state
  intervention could/should solve social
  political problems
• advocated treatment according to the needs of
  the offender, not punishment according to
  severity of the crime
• subscribed to positivism

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positivist school

• an approach to criminology and other social
  sciences based on the assumption that human
  behavior is a product of biological, economic,
  psychological, and social factors, and that the
  scientific method can be applied to ascertain the
  causes of individual behavior
• subscribed to by Progressives

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principles of Positivist School

• behavior (including crime) is NOT the product of
  free will.
• behavior stems from factors beyond control of the
  individual
• criminals can be treated so they can lead
  crime-free lives.
• treatment must focus on the individual his/her
  problem(s).

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progressive reforms

• 2 strategies for CJ reform
• ? improve general social, economic conditions
  that seem to breed crime
• ? rehabilitate individual offenders
• 4 planks in progressive platform
• probation (John Augustus, 1841)
• indeterminate sentencing (by 1920s, 37 states)
• parole (by 1920s, 44 states 80 of releases)
• juvenile courts (1899, Cook County)
• By 1970s, most of these enlightened
  well-meaning reforms seen as having failed to
  live up to their promise

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The Medical Model(1930s - 1960s)

• a model of corrections positing that criminal
  behavior is caused by social, psychological,
  biological deficiencies that require medical
  treatment
• first serious efforts to implement truly medical
  strategies aimed at scientifically classifying,
  treating, rehabilitating criminal offenders
• e.g. medical programs institutions
• psychology (Karl Menninger)
• Maryland Patuxent Institution, 1955
• sexual psychopath, sociopath laws
• crime as sickness

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The Community Model(1960s - 1970s)

• model of corrections positing goal of CJS to
  reintegrate offender into community
• key features
• prisons should be avoided prison artificial
  environment prison frustrates crime-free
  lifestyle
• need to focus on offenders adjustment into
  society not just on psychological treatment
• probation
• intermediate sanctions(alternatives to
  incarceration)
• parole

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The Crime Control Model(1970s - 2000)

• less ambitious, less optimistic, less forgiving
  view of man ability of CJS to change him
• crime better controlled by more incarceration
  strict supervision
• precipitating factors
• public concern over rising crime in 60s
• disillusionment with treatment
• public clamor for longer sentences
• distrust of broad discretion given to
  correctional parole authorities