Elaborate on the history and origins of corrections in the United States, including a discussion of the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems

Question

What will be an ideal response?

Answer 1

Penal institutions have been around since the tenth century in England to hold pretrial detainees and those waiting for their sentence to be carried out. During the twelfth century, King Henry II of England constructed a series of jails to hold thieves and vagrants prior to the disposition of their sentence. The jailer of penal institutions historically was a shire reeve who ran the jail under the "fee system" in which inmates were required to pay for their own food and services. After the American Revolution, abandoned ships or hulks were used to house prisoners. The first American jail was built in James City in the Virginia colonies in the early seventeenth century. However, the "modern" American correctional concept has its origin in Pennsylvania under the leadership of William Penn. Pennsylvania took the radical step of establishing a prison that placed each inmate in a single cell for the duration of their sentence. In 1816, New York built the Auburn Prison, which became known as the tier system or the congregate system as most prisoners ate and worked in groups. The philosophy of the Auburn system was crime prevention through fear of punishment and silent confinement. Inmates were kept in separate cells at night but worked together during the day, and hard work and silence became the foundation of this system. Many debates occurred between the advocates of the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems. Auburn advocates claimed that it was the cheapest and most productive way to reform prisoners and criticized the Pennsylvania system as cruel and inhumane. On the other hand, Pennsylvania advocates argued that their system was quiet, efficient, humane, and well-ordered and accused the Auburn system of being a breeding place for criminal association.