PRISION OVERCROWDING AND THE BIRTH OF AB109 Edited
HISTORY OF PRISIONS -OVERCROWDING AND THE BIRTH OF AB109
Introduction
Due to the passing of the Tthree -Sstrikes Llaw, California State prisons have become increasinglyen overcrowded. The enactment has caused a snowball effect of pandemonium throughout the sState from politicians, social scientists, activists, prison inmates, and a number of lobbyists. My paper will discuss the history of punishment and imprisonments, the Tthree Sstrikes Llaw, system capacity, overcrowding of prison overcrowding,s and their relationship to system capacity.
History of Punishment The last execution by quartering was done performed in France on March 2, 1757 and was performed on Robert-Francois Damiens, a French domestic servant whose crime was the attempted assassination of King Louis XV of France. Damiens’ execution was so particularly gruesome and was met with such controversy that France ceased conducting this form of the death penalty. In Michel Foucault’s book, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucaulthe describes execution by quartering as the process through which the limbs of the individual is are tied to a horse. The executioner would then whip the horses, causing them to pull until each limb was torn off the condemned individual’s torso. In this Damiens’ case, four horses were not strong enough to perform the execution; two additional horses were added, but the servant’s limbs still failed to tear apart because his fibrous thigh tissues held on tighttogether tightly. The executioner had to use a pincer to hack the limb off Damiens’ body. This public spectacle of dismembering played a significant role in contributing to the new ideas for punishment that began to surface in the 18th century (Foucault).
During the 18th century, the idea that punishment could be used for crime deterrence began to evolve. Today, deterrence is one method that is used by the judicial system to discourage criminal behavior. Many Americans believe that the death
Introduction
Due to the passing of the Tthree -Sstrikes Llaw, California State prisons have become increasinglyen overcrowded. The enactment has caused a snowball effect of pandemonium throughout the sState from politicians, social scientists, activists, prison inmates, and a number of lobbyists. My paper will discuss the history of punishment and imprisonments, the Tthree Sstrikes Llaw, system capacity, overcrowding of prison overcrowding,s and their relationship to system capacity.
History of Punishment The last execution by quartering was done performed in France on March 2, 1757 and was performed on Robert-Francois Damiens, a French domestic servant whose crime was the attempted assassination of King Louis XV of France. Damiens’ execution was so particularly gruesome and was met with such controversy that France ceased conducting this form of the death penalty. In Michel Foucault’s book, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, Michel Foucaulthe describes execution by quartering as the process through which the limbs of the individual is are tied to a horse. The executioner would then whip the horses, causing them to pull until each limb was torn off the condemned individual’s torso. In this Damiens’ case, four horses were not strong enough to perform the execution; two additional horses were added, but the servant’s limbs still failed to tear apart because his fibrous thigh tissues held on tighttogether tightly. The executioner had to use a pincer to hack the limb off Damiens’ body. This public spectacle of dismembering played a significant role in contributing to the new ideas for punishment that began to surface in the 18th century (Foucault).
During the 18th century, the idea that punishment could be used for crime deterrence began to evolve. Today, deterrence is one method that is used by the judicial system to discourage criminal behavior. Many Americans believe that the death