Purpose and History Paper

Purpose and History Paper

Amy Johnson

CJA/23

September 26th, 2016

Ken Salmon

Purpose and History Paper

For my purpose and history paper, we will evaluate and examine the American criminal court system. This paper will provide some history of our penitentiaries and the purposes that they serve. In this paper, I will also compare the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems. We will also take a look at the impact as well as the involvement of the prison labor era.

It is unclear when exactly human civilization started our punishment system, but I personally feel that the history of punishment has been around since the beginning of time. Punishment was a lot more severe at the beginning of time than it is now, and there was also no chance of rehabilitation or a belief that a criminal should be given a second chance. The punishment at that time was based on the crime that was committed. For example, if you were caught stealing, your hand would be cut off. If you were caught lying, then your tongue would be cut out. Some other different forms of punishment include stoning, mutilation, branding, and even torture. Punishment can give the criminal offender a chance to think about their crime as well as give them time to about how they can change their lives. Punishment can also help the criminal offenders towards reformation.

An exact date and year of the development of the history of prisons is ancient. During that time, prisons were called houses of corrections and many of them were established and built in England. During this period, being in prison was not a form of punishment. This was a place where criminals were being kept while they awaited to hear the verdict and to find out if they were guilty or innocent. Also during this time, the prisons were very poorly maintained and controlled by leaders who were considered not very responsible. During the 18th century though, solitary confinement was considered a form of punishment. The idea of solitary confinement was first tried out in the United States, at the Eastern State Penitentiary, which first opened in Cherry Hill, in Philadelphia in 1829. The managers of this type of system was called the Separate system.

According to Seiter (2011), Auburn is a prison system, also known as a congregate system. In this system, all prisoners would work together, eat their meals together, and at the end of the night, they put into different cells and separated from each other. This was done to prevent the criminals from the possibility of committing other criminal acts between themselves. Silence at Auburn was kept and maintained. They also had works, which included hard labor, such as building roads. The Auburn system built the tier model, which allowed different cells were built on top of each other, sometimes having cells up to five tiers high. This allowed the separation of criminal offenders to be separated by their criminal offenses. According to Seiter (2011), the Pennsylvania system was known as the “separate and silent system.”  In the separate and silent system, prisoners were not even allowed to see or talk to one another. The Pennsylvania system had a huge impact and was a leading influence in penology for over a century. Prisoners were kept separated, even during their work and in order to avoid any sort of distraction.