History of the American Prison System
The history of U.S. prisons from the late 1700s to the late 1800s was marked by a
shift from a penitentiary system primarily concerned with rehabilitation to one concerned
more with warehousing prisoners. The failure of reform minded wardens to justify
rehabilitation caused state legislatures to set economic profitability as the new goal for
prisons. This resulted in a worsening of prison conditions during this period.
Early colonial criminal law was a curious mix of religion, English barbarity, and
pragmatism. The relatively small populations of the early American colonies probably
determined much of the character of the criminal law. As late as 1765, the majority of
Massachusetts towns had fewer than 1000 inhabitants and only fifteen had over 2500.
Pennsylvania had fewer than 50,000 inhabitants in the entire province until well after
1730.With populations so low, the colonists could neither afford nor probably felt the
need to institutionalize convicts. Correspondingly, the character of criminal punishments
was immediate and depended on self-policing in the communities. Some scholars have
even argued that membership in the local church was so stressed because it provided an
effective way of keeping track of community members and enforcing criminal
codes. Whatever the merits of this argument, there is little dispute that many colonial
criminal punishments depended on the criminal being recognized as a part of the
community. Most punishments were public and involved either quick, corporal tortures
or more prolonged humiliation. Among the punishments designed to deter crime by
inflicting pain, the colonials often used the whipping post, branding and maiming, gags,
and a device known as the ducking stool. The latter device was essentially a chair
connected to a pulley system where "slanderers, `makebayts, ' `chyderers, ' brawlers, and
women of light carriage were restrained
shift from a penitentiary system primarily concerned with rehabilitation to one concerned
more with warehousing prisoners. The failure of reform minded wardens to justify
rehabilitation caused state legislatures to set economic profitability as the new goal for
prisons. This resulted in a worsening of prison conditions during this period.
Early colonial criminal law was a curious mix of religion, English barbarity, and
pragmatism. The relatively small populations of the early American colonies probably
determined much of the character of the criminal law. As late as 1765, the majority of
Massachusetts towns had fewer than 1000 inhabitants and only fifteen had over 2500.
Pennsylvania had fewer than 50,000 inhabitants in the entire province until well after
1730.With populations so low, the colonists could neither afford nor probably felt the
need to institutionalize convicts. Correspondingly, the character of criminal punishments
was immediate and depended on self-policing in the communities. Some scholars have
even argued that membership in the local church was so stressed because it provided an
effective way of keeping track of community members and enforcing criminal
codes. Whatever the merits of this argument, there is little dispute that many colonial
criminal punishments depended on the criminal being recognized as a part of the
community. Most punishments were public and involved either quick, corporal tortures
or more prolonged humiliation. Among the punishments designed to deter crime by
inflicting pain, the colonials often used the whipping post, branding and maiming, gags,
and a device known as the ducking stool. The latter device was essentially a chair
connected to a pulley system where "slanderers, `makebayts, ' `chyderers, ' brawlers, and
women of light carriage were restrained
References: Abadinsky, H (2006). Probation and Parole: Theory and Practice. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson custom publishing. Morris, N (1995). The Oxford History of the prison: The Practice of punishment in western society. New York, NY: Oxford University press, Inc. Retrieved June 20, 2008, Web site: http://www.unicor.gov/about/organization/history/prison_work_programs.cfm