Friday, December 14, 2007
Jails and Prisons - A Brief History of Incarceration
Prisons and jails have never been the monastic establishments they were at first intended to be. Since the first house of correction in 1556, at the former palace of Bridewell in the City of London the corrections system did little to rehabilitate. As early as the fourth century, popes began to decree that delinquent monks and nuns should be forced to serve a term of penitential confinement and by the twelfth century each monastery in Europe was expected to contain its own special cells for deviant clergy. What was life like in these early prisons? One story about the Nun of Watton describes the conditions.
Around 1160 (the Nun of Watton) became pregnant by another member of the religious order. Her condition was discovered, and she was fettered and placed in a cell with only bread and water to live on. She remained in prison after her lover had been castrated. But, as the story goes, through an act of divine intervention all traces of her pregnancy disappeared and her chains and fetters miraculously fell off.
Her story remains an important historical milestone to this day because it represents one of the first instances of confinement for a specific period for the purpose of moral correction, which remains the stated goal of the modern American department of correction. Moral correction may still be the stated objective of our criminal justice system, but the reality of our current penology is something vastly different.
The Quakers were the first to establish prisons in America around the early 1800's. The idea of the penitentiary as a place for penance was a concept first developed by this strict religious sect. Originally, the prisoners cell was designed as a place where the criminal could contemplate his sinful actions and repent for his sins. Prisoners were required to sit in their cell in complete silence. They were only given a Bible and something to work on with their hands. The cell experience was intended to produce a change of heart in the criminal, but often the person went insane instead.
Around 1850, prisoners were held in large holding tanks. The term "Big House" was coined during this time period in reference to the large warehouse style buildings the prisoners were housed in. By allowing the prisoners to interact with each other, the environment facilitated a highly crimineogenic atmosphere. The close contact prisoners had with one another turned prison life into a college for crime, much like todays prisons and jails. During this period, prisoners were forced to work outdoors on chain gangs. The focus was on deterrence and the idea of rehabilitation had been swept under the rug.
During the 1900's, the idea of rehabilitation briefly resurfaced. Prisons were called "reformatories" instead of big houses, and the focus was on curing the social problems that were thought to be at the heart of criminal behavior. Sociologists convinced the nation that criminals were basically good people who turned to a life of crime as a result of poor social conditions.
In the 1950's, psychology and the medical model set the stage for a prison system that was focused on correcting the individual and not society. "Prisoners were to be 'rehabilitated' through new scientific methods". The term "correctional facility" replaced the name reformatory, parole boards and intermediate sanctioning were created, and the modern prison and jail system began to take shape.
In the 1970's, after a couple of decades spent trying to rehabilitate the criminal, the general attitude was that nothing worked. Social scientists who studied the results of rehabilitation came to the conclusion that sentences were increased and many inhumane programs and routines were practiced. To everyone concerned, rehabilitation was an expensive failure. Society and government policy makers gave up on rehabilitating criminals and began warehousing them once more. Today, we are a society bent on incapacitation and retribution and we continue to stubbornly hold on to the idea that nothing works, but we are on the frontier of a new era that might force us to reexamine the way we approach crime and criminals, not because we have had a change of heart, but because we have no other choice.
Or do we?
Around 1160 (the Nun of Watton) became pregnant by another member of the religious order. Her condition was discovered, and she was fettered and placed in a cell with only bread and water to live on. She remained in prison after her lover had been castrated. But, as the story goes, through an act of divine intervention all traces of her pregnancy disappeared and her chains and fetters miraculously fell off.
Her story remains an important historical milestone to this day because it represents one of the first instances of confinement for a specific period for the purpose of moral correction, which remains the stated goal of the modern American department of correction. Moral correction may still be the stated objective of our criminal justice system, but the reality of our current penology is something vastly different.
The Quakers were the first to establish prisons in America around the early 1800's. The idea of the penitentiary as a place for penance was a concept first developed by this strict religious sect. Originally, the prisoners cell was designed as a place where the criminal could contemplate his sinful actions and repent for his sins. Prisoners were required to sit in their cell in complete silence. They were only given a Bible and something to work on with their hands. The cell experience was intended to produce a change of heart in the criminal, but often the person went insane instead.
Around 1850, prisoners were held in large holding tanks. The term "Big House" was coined during this time period in reference to the large warehouse style buildings the prisoners were housed in. By allowing the prisoners to interact with each other, the environment facilitated a highly crimineogenic atmosphere. The close contact prisoners had with one another turned prison life into a college for crime, much like todays prisons and jails. During this period, prisoners were forced to work outdoors on chain gangs. The focus was on deterrence and the idea of rehabilitation had been swept under the rug.
During the 1900's, the idea of rehabilitation briefly resurfaced. Prisons were called "reformatories" instead of big houses, and the focus was on curing the social problems that were thought to be at the heart of criminal behavior. Sociologists convinced the nation that criminals were basically good people who turned to a life of crime as a result of poor social conditions.
In the 1950's, psychology and the medical model set the stage for a prison system that was focused on correcting the individual and not society. "Prisoners were to be 'rehabilitated' through new scientific methods". The term "correctional facility" replaced the name reformatory, parole boards and intermediate sanctioning were created, and the modern prison and jail system began to take shape.
In the 1970's, after a couple of decades spent trying to rehabilitate the criminal, the general attitude was that nothing worked. Social scientists who studied the results of rehabilitation came to the conclusion that sentences were increased and many inhumane programs and routines were practiced. To everyone concerned, rehabilitation was an expensive failure. Society and government policy makers gave up on rehabilitating criminals and began warehousing them once more. Today, we are a society bent on incapacitation and retribution and we continue to stubbornly hold on to the idea that nothing works, but we are on the frontier of a new era that might force us to reexamine the way we approach crime and criminals, not because we have had a change of heart, but because we have no other choice.
Or do we?
Labels: incarceration, jail, prison
