Preview

Compare and Contrast Federal and State Prisons

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
706 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Compare and Contrast Federal and State Prisons
A penitentiary is an institution established and controlled by the government. The penitentiary system in the United Stated has as its primary goal of detaining, housing and punishing individuals who have been convicted of felony crimes. Up until the 19th century, prison systems were not common. The common jail dates back to ancient times, but was used to detain persons temporarily until he or she was found innocent, fined, or subjected to corporal punishment. Generally, corporal punishment was most often reserved for the lower classes, since those with means were able to most fines levied against them. Those crimes that were not deemed capital crimes were punishable by means of public whippings, maiming, or being shamed. Historically, there have been two types of prisons or penitentiary systems in the United States. The Pennsylvania and the New York penitentiary systems form the basis are penitentiary systems in the United States. Although the two share some of the same principles, they differ in many respects and it is not surprising that supporters of each type believe strongly that his or her preferred system is the most desirable and best represents that which characterizes the penal system. (Hattery, 2007)
The Pennsylvania system was introduced into American society by the Quakers and is far and away the more conservative of the two penitentiary systems. The religious Quakers sought to replace the existing cruel methods of punishment that had been associated with corporal punishment with mandated yet productive labor intensive methods. Prior to the enlightened Quakers entry into the penal system, criminals were abused at the hands of both formal and informal governments. Punishment included branding, mutilation, whipping and other harsh punishments. Under the Pennsylvania system, prisoners are housed in individual cells. Prisoners are required to engage in unpaid laborious service for as long as he or she is housed in the government run institution.


Cited: Haslam, J. (2008). Pits, Pendulums, and Penitentiaries: Reframing the Detained Subject. Texas Studies In Literature and Language, 268-284. Hattery, E. S. (2007). If We Build it They Will Come: Human Rights Violations and the Prison Industrial Complex 1 . Societies Without Borders 2, 273 –288.
Continue Reading
View Writing Issues

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Satisfactory Essays

    Federal Vs State Prison Case Study
    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Federal Vs State Prison Case Study

    |What issues affect state versus federal |When released you usually get probation. As in a state prison you can be released on |…

    • 490 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Crjs215 Unit 1 Ip Assignment
    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages

    Crjs215 Unit 1 Ip Assignment

    The Quakers are the ones that actually formed these ideas, due to the fact they wanted more human treatment for criminals. I believe that the five principles were implemented due to the kind of treatment that the criminals were getting at that time period. “Until the late 1700's, criminals were put to death, shipped to other countries to become slaves, and were thrown to wild animals just so society could literally get rid of them.” (http://voices.yahoo.com/the-early-american-correction-system-326781.html?cat=17) Then when the Pennsylvania system took hold the prisoners were able to carry out a certain amount of time in jail instead of getting hung/ killed.…

    • 1278 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Corrections Rough Draft 2
    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Corrections Rough Draft 2

    This system stayed in place throughout prisons for a very long time, because it gave the inmates something to do but it also gave them a reason to stay alive, because if they did not work, they didn’t get any food and they wound up dying shortly thereafter. The 19th century saw a much more organized type of prison system, a lot more inmates were kept in the same facility and new buildings were being built all the time to serve as more prisons and penitentiaries. The first national penitentiary was built in Millbank in London, in 1816. It held 860 prisoners, kept in separate cells. Work in this prison was mainly centered on simple tasks such as picking 'coir ' (tarred rope) and weaving. The work was a lot less harsh but there were still a lot of work for the inmates to accomplish and if they did it well enough they might even get there sentence shortened, and it would also make their stay in the prison a whole lot easier.…

    • 832 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Comparing The Ideal And Models Of American Prison
    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Comparing The Ideal And Models Of American Prison

    The penitentiary was supposed to be a place for humane punishment not the physical punishment that was imposed in those days. It was supposed to be a place the inmates asked for forgiveness for the sins they committed. They were supposed to reform from their old ways. The main goal was for the prison system to help the inmates find spiritual transformation that was associated with the medieval monastery. They wanted the inmates to find healing and spirituality.…

    • 795 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Cjs/230 Prison Research Paper
    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Cjs/230 Prison Research Paper

    The purpose behind this transaction was for offenders to penance and come to amends and take control over their actions and wrongdoing in society (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13). Rehabilitation and deterrence was seen as the foundation this is still seen today (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13). Bible study was a key element surrounding penance and seeking rehabilitation, and just as Auburn System enforced silence so did the Quakers (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13). Minimally contact between staff and inmates was also a key factor (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13).The penitentiary that was opened in Pittsburgh Pennsylvania back in 1826 correlates back to the Philadelphia model (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13). The Pittsburgh model was highly favored and seen as the ideal prison because it was humane and provided the correct amount of displine towards punishment yet having the opportunity for offenders to focus on rehabilitating (Schmalleger, 2011, Chapter 13). The prison era that began between 1825 through 1876 all connect back to the Pennsylvania’s model; Vermont, Massachusetts, Maryland, New York, and many more can be seen…

    • 855 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Cjs/230
    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Cjs/230

    Prisons, unlike jails, confine felons sentenced to longer then a year to serve their sentence within the facilities. They are operated by state governments but the Federal Bureau of Prisons also houses federal offenders in Federal penitentiaries. Since its establishment of prisons within the United States, over-crowding has always been a growing problem in both state and federal prisons. Since the beginning of the first state penitentiary in America, which was Walnut Street Jail led by Dr. Benjamin Rush in Philadelphia in 1790, officials and scholars have always been looking for more humane and reformed alternatives to punishments for criminals. Through the years state prisons have found ways of making the penitentiaries more humane and reformed through public work services and other forms of labor. In the 1930s, state prisons developed prison work camps in which inmates would be made to work various labor jobs as “slaves of the state”. Today prisons are much different where they do offer labor programs in some states, prisons are more for reforming the criminals through educational and religious programs. As well as work there is also the variety of security levels for prisons present today which are: Maximum-security prisons, Close high-security prisons, Medium-security prisons, Minimum-security prisons, and Open-security prisons. Most state prisons have multilevel prisons to house various levels of securities depending on the offender. State prisons aren’t the only one that has history throughout the years, as there is also Federal prison. Congress passed the “Three Prisons Act” in 1891, establishing the Federal Prison System implementing the first three prisons: USP Leavenworth, USP Atlanta, and USP McNeil Island. Throughout the years of federal prisons…

    • 443 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Summary Of Overcrowded Prisons
    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Summary Of Overcrowded Prisons

    Although criminals should pay the consequence for their behavior, it should not mean that they should live in overcrowded prisons. An example of an overcrowded prison is shown in Angola, where the max occupancy was for 800 prisoners, yet they had 1,750 prisoners (Stern, 2006). When this happens, the lack of resources, space, and training from needed officers increases. Therefore, conditions become hazardous and prisoners and officers are at higher risk for diseases such as HIV and Tuberculosis (Stern, 2006). Although society feels safe with criminals locked up, they have to realize that a main purpose for prisons is to help reduce crime by showing prisoners that breaking the law will cause them the loss of freedom. Ultimately, leading those criminals who are able to get out, to come out with a sense of a change behavior. However, the system that puts these women, men, and young people in overcrowded prisons are not even worried about the criminal. Instead, they keep increasing the definition of “crime”, which increase the number of criminals in an ineffective prison…

    • 1526 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Ideals of the Penitentiary
    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Ideals of the Penitentiary

    Penitentiaries in today’s society are like resorts compared to those of the 1800s and before. “Beginning in the eighteenth century, British society started to move away from corporal punishment and toward imprisonment with the hope of reforming the mind and body” (Jackson, 1997). Most prisoners today receive three square meals a day, recreation time for about an hour, relatively clean facilities, and no need to maintain utilities. Which everything is taken care of by the taxpayers? In opinion the prisoners should have to work for their punishment, not freeload. “Prisons are often seen as “the punishment”, “the default sanction” although the other kinds of punishment are only alternatives. In our individual, rational and secular society, the deprivation of liberty is the most severe punishment” (Giroux, 2011).…

    • 969 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    The Us Correctional System: Final Essay Draft
    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages

    The Us Correctional System: Final Essay Draft

    “Our correctional system punishes offenders, by putting them in jail, or in prison. In the early times, before prisons punishments were often cruel and torturous. The unsettling description of a man broken in half on a rack in the early 1700’s is just one of the ways crimes were punished at that time. Flogging was another. The last flogging was in Delaware on June 16, 1952. When a burglar got 20 lashes.”(2013, 07. How We Punish Offenders in Our System.)…

    • 419 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    CJS/230
    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages

    CJS/230

    In the late 1700’s prison was an idea that had not taken on form. Serving time was a set idea of principals and many saw the need for change. As time went on a penitentiary became a more solid idea that began to take shape.…

    • 706 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    Federal Prison Comparison Paper
    • 1290 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Federal Prison Comparison Paper

    Each individual prison, whether it is at the state or federal level, portrays a set of specific characteristics. Traits such as an individual’s social standing, crime record, and severity of offense have played a role in assigning these characteristics for centuries. A prime example of this ideal can be seen in the sentencing’s of such offenders as Martha Stewart, Ivan Boesky, Michael Milken, Manual Noriega, Timothy McVeigh, Terry Nichols, Al Capone, and John Gotti. The conditions under which Stewart, Boesky, Milken, and Noriega were incarcerated could be called luxurious in comparison to those in which McVeigh, Nichols, Capone, and Gotti were held. It is easily noticed that the people placed into these two groups bare several similarities in not only there social standing, but in the nature of their offense as well.…

    • 1290 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Discipline And Punishment: The Birth Of Prison
    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Discipline And Punishment: The Birth Of Prison

    Throughout the centuries, both the system and the concept of prison have undergone many radical changes that eventually led to the formation of the prison as we know it now. In the 16th and 17th centuries, prison tended to be a place where criminals were kept in it while awaiting their punishment. It was a place, where criminals were held, rather than a means of punishment. In fact, criminals, at that time, were publically punished, rather than imprisoned, in the most torturous ways such as whipping, and slaughtering. However, in the 18th century, people in charge decided to put an end to these cruel methods of punishing. They came up with new methods of punishing instead of using torture in punishing criminals. In fact, the incarceration with hard labor was the new method of punishing criminals. Thus, the prison itself became a tool of punishment.…

    • 625 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Good Essays

    Supermax Prison History
    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages

    Supermax Prison History

    According to cite, up until the early 1800’s, actions taken towards criminals were, in general, strictly punishment. At this time, a fairly common way of being punished for a crime, from steeling to murder, was to be hanged publically. It was not until the late 1700’s and early 1800’s that prisons began to develop and be widely used. One of the largest differences that came with this century-turn was the idea that along with punishment, criminals could, and should, be rehabilitated. It was not until 1790, when the Quakers built a prison serving for both reasons, that the idea was seriously introduced in the United States. This prison, The Walnut Jail in Philadelphia, “Is considered the birthplace of the modern prison system.” (Biggs). Over…

    • 1039 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
    Read More
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Beyond the prison bubble
    • 259 Words
    • 1 Page

    Beyond the prison bubble

    In, “Beyond the Prison Bubble,” published in the Wilson Quarterly in the winter 2011, Joan Petersilia shows different choices about the imprisonment systems. The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any free nation (para.1). The crime rate over a thirty year span had grown by five times since 1960 to 1990. There are more people of color or Hispanics in federal and state institutions then there are of any other nationality. The prison system is growing more than ever; the growth in twenty years has been about 21 new prisons. Mass imprisonment has reduced crime but, has not helped the inmate to gradually return back to society with skills or education. But the offenders leaving prison now are more likely to have fairly long criminal records, lengthy histories of alcohol and drug abuse, significant periods of unemployment and homelessness, and physical or mental disability (par.12).…

    • 259 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
    Read More
  • Better Essays

    History of Corrections
    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages

    History of Corrections

    The Pennsylvania system of the penitentiary was based on inmate isolation so that they could ponder their past behavioral choices. In this system the inmates were confined to labor on their own. In New York they had a different system, known as the Auburn system. This system differed from the Pennsylvania system because inmates would come together during the day to do their work and labor but were otherwise held in isolation.…

    • 1751 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Better Essays
    Read More

Related Topics