American prison system - Essay Example

? Running Head: American prison system American prison system of The American prison system History While United States of America has the largest corrections system in the world, the history of its prisons and jails goes back to the British prison system. However, the corporal punishment was largely absent in the old correction system and “bridewells”, as prisons in UK were called during 18th century. The American colonies had similar correctional system, largely, with the exception of colonial administrators using more corporal punishment in America, than followed by their counter parts in the motherland. This resulted in more death penalties, during that period. However, William Penn had a different viewpoint, as he adopted “The Great Law” in Pennsylvania in 1682, which restricted the use of torture as a punishment method, while it allowed felons paying for restitution of property to their victims. While Walnut Street prison became the first penitentiary, Pennsylvania passed legislation, in 1776, which made way for reforming and rehabilitation of offenders, instead of using torture or execution. However, reformist methods like silence and labor could not help much, as prison authorities were forced to accommodate more than one prisoner in a cell, necessitated by the overcrowding of prisons. The same reason kept many prisoners without work in jails.(Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Prisons and Jails, pp313) Great Penitentiary Rivalry After gaining from the experience of Pennsylvania prison system, many American states tried to implement the concept of silence and labor, while interpreting the same in their own peculiar ways. In the process, the Pennsylvania Penitentiary and New York prison systems engaged in some sort of debate, over the correct and result-oriented method of prison administration. This gave birth to two known separate systems. The Pennsylvania Penitentiary system was entirely based on the “separate confinement” concept, as the prison had cells for inmates, built in such a manner that no prisoner could come under the influence of other inmate, during the confinement. While the New York system followed the Pennsylvania model of separate confinement, the authorities witnessed rise in sickness, insanity and suicide among inmates. Therefore the system was abandoned in 1822, as Elam Lynds adopted the “congregate system”, during his tenure as warden at Auburn. (Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Prisons and Jails, pp314-5) Rivalry has influenced American thinking about prison system As America saw progressive movement in criminal justice, it started from the adoption of the “new penology”. This concept was put into practice at New York’s Elmira State Prison, in 1876, which introduced three-grade system for punishment, as well as, rewarding inmates displaying food behavior with early release. The theories adopted by Elmira model were incorporated during first few decades of twentieth century. Working on more reforms, progressive elements in the correctional system operations adopted “medical model” for prisoners, which made way for offering medical therapies to inmates for correcting their “ills”. However, most of the prison administrators did not agree to this level of rehabilitation in their systems. Further, many tough measures, for dealing with incurable criminals, were incorporated; as criminologists and politicians tried to counter the menace of sharp rise in crime, during 1970s. Accordingly, four types of prisons were formulated; depending on the required security level, starting from minimum security to super-maximum security. (Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Prisons and Jails, reassertion of punishment, pp313 & 331) Comparison between publicly funded and privately funded prisons Privatization, as applicable to goods and service sector may not be completely compatible to the prison system, any where in the world. However, for discussions on privatization, the prison system can come under the purview of “services”. The aim of such service, within the Penitentiary system, is the rehabilitation and reforming of criminals. At the same time, treating human beings, like goods or commodities would not be morally and ethically correct. Hence, critics do not favor privatization of prison systems.(Campbell, 2009) However, there are reasons to believe that running of private prisons is always cost-effective. The arguments, in support of this line of thinking, include lower labor costs, as the private employees are non-unionized and they may not claim health care or other social benefits. The purpose of privatization, in itself, brings the concept of competition, which means operating the whole system at lowest possible cost index. In addition, the interference of politicians and government officials, visible under the public system would be absent in private prisons, which means lesser red tape and quicker decisions. (Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Prisons and Jails, reassertion of punishment, pp331-2) Privatization debate Apart from the arguments forwarded above against privatization of prisons, the debate continues with certain observers feeling that providing a fee by the state to the private poisons for maintenance of each inmate can serve as an incentive for the management to increase the jail term of prisoners, which may result in a dubious bias. In addition, it is felt that private organizers may resort to cost-cutting measures, there-by jeopardizing the security of inmates. (Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Prisons and Jails, reassertion of punishment, pp324) WORKS-CITED Campbell J J, 2009, “On the Evils of Privatizing America’s Prison System”, Accessed on 23rd Jan 2011 from: http://blogcritics.org/politics/article/on-the-evils-of-privatizing-americas/page-2/ Criminal Justice in Action: The Core, Part four, Chapter 12, “Prisons and Jails”, reassertion of punishment, pp331-2, Accessed on 23rd Jan 2011 from: http://www.academia-research.com/filecache/instr/r/e/496000_reading_on_jails_and_prisons.pdf Read More