Jails and Prisons History and Development Final
Jails and Prisons History and Development
Introduction
Jails and prisons lay at the heart of the Criminal Justice System. These facilities helped forge the concept of rehabilitation. These institutions have changed over time and now reflect the modern methods of housing convicted individuals who need to be reformed or punished.
Description of jails
The clear concise difference between a jail and a prison is the time limit a convicted person is sentenced to and what offenses were committed. In a jail, prisoners are usually confined because they were convicted of a lesser or petty offense. Examples of petty offenses are driving without a license or a misdemeanor drug possession charge. Most of these offenses come with a sentence of a year or less and anyone with over a year sentence is usually sent to a prison facility (Seiter, 2011). Jails act as holding facilities where inmates rarely get time to be out of their cells, to reflect, or to engage in recreational time. Because jails are so short term the focus is on inward reflection of crime through solitude. Some of these restrictions are a product themselves of the lesser amount of time spent in the correctional facilities. Criminals are charged more in a jail facility with reflecting on their crime by being exposed to sheer solitude. Furthermore, jails rarely have any vocational or rehabilitation programs utilized within their walls. On the other hand, prisons have an ample amount of time to work with, rehabilitate, and reform offenders. Prisons do this with the hope that offenders can eventually be placed back into society and limit their recidivism back to crime.
History of state and federal prisons
The jail component of the American corrections system came well before the initiation of any prisons, probation, parole, or even halfway houses. The historical origins of jails or local corrections facilities in America come from England. American jails have developed and progressed so much further than that
Introduction
Jails and prisons lay at the heart of the Criminal Justice System. These facilities helped forge the concept of rehabilitation. These institutions have changed over time and now reflect the modern methods of housing convicted individuals who need to be reformed or punished.
Description of jails
The clear concise difference between a jail and a prison is the time limit a convicted person is sentenced to and what offenses were committed. In a jail, prisoners are usually confined because they were convicted of a lesser or petty offense. Examples of petty offenses are driving without a license or a misdemeanor drug possession charge. Most of these offenses come with a sentence of a year or less and anyone with over a year sentence is usually sent to a prison facility (Seiter, 2011). Jails act as holding facilities where inmates rarely get time to be out of their cells, to reflect, or to engage in recreational time. Because jails are so short term the focus is on inward reflection of crime through solitude. Some of these restrictions are a product themselves of the lesser amount of time spent in the correctional facilities. Criminals are charged more in a jail facility with reflecting on their crime by being exposed to sheer solitude. Furthermore, jails rarely have any vocational or rehabilitation programs utilized within their walls. On the other hand, prisons have an ample amount of time to work with, rehabilitate, and reform offenders. Prisons do this with the hope that offenders can eventually be placed back into society and limit their recidivism back to crime.
History of state and federal prisons
The jail component of the American corrections system came well before the initiation of any prisons, probation, parole, or even halfway houses. The historical origins of jails or local corrections facilities in America come from England. American jails have developed and progressed so much further than that
References: Prison Types & General Information. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.bop.gov/locations/institutions/index.jsp Ruddel, R. (2011). American Jails: A Retrospective Examination. U.S. Prison populations-trends and implications. (2012). Retrieved from http://www.prisonpolicy.org/scans/sp/1044.pdf Mackenzie, D. L. (2001). Sentencing and Corrections in the 21st Century:Setting the Stage for the Future. College Park, Maryland: Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice. Seiter, R. (2011). Corrections an Introduction (3rd ed.). Upper saddle Hall, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.