History of Prisons
During this course we have learned a lot about America has grown and changed over the past few hundred years. We started back in the 1780’s were punishments focused on public humiliation, workhouses, and corporal punishments, then in colonial times (1790s) we began to institute more humane practices that included incarceration. In 1825 we entered the mass prison era, prisons then focused on efficiency, communal meals, no eye contact, and other minor changes. In the reform era (1876) we started the early release program and solitary confinement. Again in 1890’s we had another evolutionary step in the industrial era of prison history, the government began using prisoners to create an income for the government. During the punitive era (1938) we stepped back a bit in the name of progress and focused more on the long term sentences, but this lead to more riots and fights. In 1945 a new philosophy was introduced, the treatment era focused on curing the disease of social sickness. People were given medical treatments in order to cure them, such as castration. In 1967 the community era began focusing on bringing the criminals in with the community in order to rehabilitate them. In 1980 the warehouse era immerged where hope for rehabilitation was again lost and again prisons focused on time served. Now in today’s times 1995-to present we are focusing on the just desert, time to fit the crime.
Prisons and Jails
In our judicial system we have many different units, we have or local forces that capture the offenders, the court systems to sentence the criminals, then next are the prison system. Just like in law forces and the court system the prison system is split between different parts as well. The two major programs are the prisons and the jails. There are major differences in the criminals sentenced to each penitentiary. The first and major difference between the two is that prisons are run by state and federal, while