Solitary Confinement and Prison Essay

History Of Penitentiaries

With nearly 10% of its population incarcerated, it is important for Americans to understand the purpose and history of penitentiaries in this country. To this end, this paper reviews the relevant literature to provide a history of punishment, the history of prison development, and a comparison of the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn systems. Finally, an analysis of the impact and involvement of prison labor over time is followed by a summary of the research and important findings concerning the purpose and history of penitentiaries in the conclusion.

History of punishment

Although humans have used various punishments for different purposes such as infractions of social, religious or legal codes such as the Code of Hammurabi for millennia (Voglis, 2002), the term has assumed a formalized modern meaning that includes a legal process. For instance, according to the definition provided by Black's Law Dictionary (1990), punishment is "any fine, penalty, or confinement inflicted upon a person by the authority of the law and the judgment and sentence by a court, for some crime or offense committed by him, or for the omission of duty enjoined by law" (p. 1234). While crimes of omission are rare (i.e., failure to pay taxes), the punishments for either case may include incarceration as discussed below.

History of prison development

Like punishment, buildings that were specifically designed for involuntary physical confinement also date to antiquity (Morris & Rothman, 1999). Although the buildings that can be regarded today as prisons date to antiquity, the historical sources for these early prisons have been lost or remain fragmented, and they can only be explained today in terms of modern penology (Morris & Rothman, 1999). Nevertheless, it is clear that humans have recognized the need to separate certain types of criminal offenders from the general population for thousands of years. For instance, Morris and Rothman report that, "In the Western tradition the practice occurs as early as the Greek myths and the Book of Genesis, and it is usually classified as part of the wider category of physical punishments that restrict an individual's freedom of movement" (p. 3).

Comparison of the Pennsylvania system and the Auburn system

In the early 19th century, the Quakers were responsible for developing the Pennsylvania system for penitentiaries, while the Auburn system that followed a few years later incorporated some innovations that were intended to improve the field of corrections…