Prisons Before the American Revolution, the Penal Essay

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Prisons

Before the American Revolution, the penal system in the colonies was brutal and harsh. Capital punishment was normative, and crimes were defined rather arbitrarily. As Edge (2009) points out, the colonial American mentality deemed "every crime a sin and every sin a crime," (p. 7). Not going to church on Sundays was sometimes viewed as a punishable offense (Edge 2009). After the Declaration of Independence was signed and the Constitution of the United States was ratified, the penal code in the former colonies improved rapidly and dramatically. Concepts of individual rights permeated the discourse on the penal system, reducing the number of crimes that were punishable by death. Likewise, the practice of public hanging and similar forms of humiliation were banned in the United States. According to the Howard League for Prison Reform (n.d.), Jeremey Bentham was a premier representative of prison reform during the 18th century. "Jeremy Bentham, and other penal reformers of the time, believed that the prisoner should suffer a severe regime, but that it should not be detrimental to the prisoner's health," (Howard League for Prison Reform n.d.). As a result, sanitary conditions in prisons would improve even as the prison system became highly regimented and institutionalized. The "panopticon"-style prison model that prevails was also initiated as a result of Bentham's philosophy. In 1799, the Penitentiary Act was passed, specifying that cells would hold one inmate at a time instead of placing convicted felons together in dormitory-style housing.

Edge (2009) points out that Benjamin Rush also had a major impact on the American prison system. In 1787, Rush noted "All public punishments tend to make bad men worse, and to increase crimes," (cited by Edge 2009, p. 16). Rush suggested private incarceration, as well as "labor and penitence" (Edge 2009, p. 16). In 1790, the first formal penitentiary in the United States was built: the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia.

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The Walnut Street Jail was essentially a state prison "designed to reform convicted felons…rehabilitate prisoners, or restore them to crime-free lives" (Edge 2009, p. 17). Thus was born the modern American penal system.

Also embedded in early models of state and federal penitentiaries included the notion that different types of prisons could be built for different types of crime; and that inmates would be housed according to the severity of their offenses. The Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia became a model for prison reform and throughout the nineteenth century, similar institutions were built. Manual labor was, and remains, a major part of the state and federal prison system in the United States. The Auburn Prison, completed in 1821, operated with a system "based on silence, separation, and hard labor" (Edge 2009, p. 19). The Edge code included "rigorous discipline and corporal punishment for those who broke the rules," (Edge 2009, p. 19).

The population of the United States increased tremendously by the end of the nineteenth century due to a number of factors including Westward expansion and burgeoning immigration. Increasing population gave rise to the need for a greater number of correctional facilities. By the early twentieth century, the federal government created the Federal Bureau of Prisons.

The creation of the Federal Bureau of Prisons highlights the balance of powers between the state and federal governments with regards to the criminal justice system. County, state, and federal governments operate prisons concurrently. The Federal Bureau of Prisons, which was created in 1930, defines that institution's role as administrator of all federal prisons. "Pursuant to Pub. L. No. 71-218, 46 Stat. 325 (1930), the Bureau of Prisons was established within the Department of Justice and charged with the "management and regulation of all Federal penal and correctional institutions." This responsibility covered the administration of.....

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