American Prison Model
2012
Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Thomas King
Emmalee J Mead
Looking back at history, there have been countless ideals to reform and rehabilitate convicted criminals to attempt to make them “normal” enough to rejoin society. I think it is important to look and all of the past options and modes of reform and rehabilitation and compare them to how criminals are treated in prisons in today’s society. This paper will discuss the ideals behind penitentiaries, as well as the goals and benefits to them and other American prisons from the 1800’s.
The idea behind penitentiaries was to incarcerate and reform individuals that committed a crime and were sentenced. The goal of the penitentiary ideal was for those who are/were …show more content…
“The purists agreed that the Pennsylvania model was closer to ideal. The environment was more penance inducing. The prison was orderly, quiet, and controlled. The prisoners were managed individually rather than in the congregate.” (Foster, 2006) It is my opinion that the Pennsylvania model was more of a spiritual model whereas the Auburn system, described as, “cheaper to build and operate, requiring fewer guards to service and control the prisoners, and used the space within the walls more intensively. Most important, group labor made it economically more productive. A hundred men working with machinery in a prison shop were vastly more productive than a hundred men working alone in individual cells” (Foster, 2006) was more towards having the inmates work off their time rather than simply waste tax payer’s dollars. I feel that both systems have the benefits and drawbacks but both could work. A benefit of the Pennsylvania model system would be peaceful and happy inmates but the drawback, in my opinion would be that they are in prison for a reason and this would make it seem like more of a separation from society as a vacation rather than with the Auburn system where each day makes them remember that they committed a crime and are being punished for it. That would also be the benefit of the Auburn system, they pay for their crimes as well as working while in prison at places that would ultimately benefit the vast majority of society. A drawback of the Pennsylvania, depending on how you viewed things, would be that while it makes happier inmates and helps spiritually rehabilitate the criminal, it kind of doesn’t serve its purpose in my opinion. The Auburn system would make angry or noncompliant inmates and could ultimately end up not helping in the rehabilitation of the
Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Thomas King
Emmalee J Mead
Looking back at history, there have been countless ideals to reform and rehabilitate convicted criminals to attempt to make them “normal” enough to rejoin society. I think it is important to look and all of the past options and modes of reform and rehabilitation and compare them to how criminals are treated in prisons in today’s society. This paper will discuss the ideals behind penitentiaries, as well as the goals and benefits to them and other American prisons from the 1800’s.
The idea behind penitentiaries was to incarcerate and reform individuals that committed a crime and were sentenced. The goal of the penitentiary ideal was for those who are/were …show more content…
“The purists agreed that the Pennsylvania model was closer to ideal. The environment was more penance inducing. The prison was orderly, quiet, and controlled. The prisoners were managed individually rather than in the congregate.” (Foster, 2006) It is my opinion that the Pennsylvania model was more of a spiritual model whereas the Auburn system, described as, “cheaper to build and operate, requiring fewer guards to service and control the prisoners, and used the space within the walls more intensively. Most important, group labor made it economically more productive. A hundred men working with machinery in a prison shop were vastly more productive than a hundred men working alone in individual cells” (Foster, 2006) was more towards having the inmates work off their time rather than simply waste tax payer’s dollars. I feel that both systems have the benefits and drawbacks but both could work. A benefit of the Pennsylvania model system would be peaceful and happy inmates but the drawback, in my opinion would be that they are in prison for a reason and this would make it seem like more of a separation from society as a vacation rather than with the Auburn system where each day makes them remember that they committed a crime and are being punished for it. That would also be the benefit of the Auburn system, they pay for their crimes as well as working while in prison at places that would ultimately benefit the vast majority of society. A drawback of the Pennsylvania, depending on how you viewed things, would be that while it makes happier inmates and helps spiritually rehabilitate the criminal, it kind of doesn’t serve its purpose in my opinion. The Auburn system would make angry or noncompliant inmates and could ultimately end up not helping in the rehabilitation of the