Trace the historical development of prisons in the United States, beginning with the Pennsylvania system. How has correctional practice in America changed over time? What changes do you predict for the future?

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

The Pennsylvania system, established by the Quakers around 1790, employed solitary confinement, penance, and Bible study to achieve rehabilitation.
The Auburn style, also referred to as the congregate but silent system, was developed around 1820. In this form, prisoners were held in congregate fashion but required to maintain silence.
Around 1876, the reformatory concept used indeterminate sentencing in an effort to rehabilitate inmates. It fell victim to the onset of the industrial prison age, in which states saw the opportunity to capitalize on inmate labor.
Industrial prisons emerged around 1890. The demise of the industrial prison era was brought about by a moratorium on free-market prison industries imposed by the Ashurst-Sumners Act of 1935.
The punitive era followed, characterized by an increased focus on custody and institutional security and an “out of sight, out of mind” philosophy in American attitudes toward inmates.
In 1945, the treatment era evolved. Based upon a medical model of corrections, the philosophy implied that offenders were sick and could be rehabilitated through proper treatment.
The community-based format, begun in the mid-1960s, represented a movement away from traditional confinement and an attempt to reform offenders’ behavior within local communities. High recidivism rates, resulting in public disappointment, ultimately led to a warehousing strategy in the late 1970s. Warehousing seeks to prevent recurring crime but abandons any hope of rehabilitation. It has also resulted in high rates of overcrowding in prisons throughout the country.
The mid-1990s saw the emergence of the just deserts era. Its emphasis is on individual responsibility for one’s actions, with the imposition of deserved punishment as the logical consequence of wrongful actions. In 2012, due to fiscal needs resulting from the recession, the evidence-based era emerged. It is built around the need to employ cost-effective solutions to correctional issues.
Clearly, each era has been based on dissatisfaction with the effects of the preceding philosophy, leading to a “try something different” approach. The eras’ emphases seem to pass repetitively through a punishment–rehabilitation–punishment cycle, with the focus changing to accommodate social attitudes toward crime and criminal offenders. The reemergence of prison industries, efforts to improve the quality of jail life, and the movement toward regional jails and private prisons typify ongoing efforts to find better ways to handle incarceration of convicted offenders.