Major Events in California
Prison Management
1862-1870
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1862 Mass Escape from San Quentin
1864 First Good Time Law
1865 Prison Stripes Introduced
1879 Convict Labor Law passes
Good Time Law
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  Good time laws are the first visible form of early release.
  Good time is the reduction of a sentence as a reward for good behavior.
  New York was the first state to put this theory into action. Prison
inspectors were given the power to release when the inmate had served
three-fourths of his sentence. This only applied to convicts who were
sentenced to not less than five years.
  In California the warden was permitted to give the prisoner up to five
days a month off his sentence for good behavior.
  California warden rarely exercised the option.
The search for a more humane and effective
penal system
AN INSTITUTION FOR YOUNG OFFENDERS
EMPHASIZING TRAINING, CLASSIFICATION,
INDETERMINATE SENTENCES AND PAROLE
The evolution of the
Reformatory Movement:
European antecedants
"
Alexandra Maconochie and the creation of the mark
system and the indeterminate sentence
Sir Walter Crofton and the ticket of leave
Mark System
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A system in which offenders are assessed a certain number of
points,
based on the severity of their crime, at the time of sentencing.
Prisoners could reduce their term and gain release by earning
marks through labor, good behavior, and educational
achievement
Penitentiary Movement Leaders in
America
"
Zebulon Brockway
Enoch Cobb Wines
 Congregationalist minister
and president of the New
York Prison Commission and
the National Prison
Association
National Congress on Penitentiary and Reformatory
Discipline and the United States Reformatory Movement
(Cincinnati 1870)
"
National Prison Association
Declaration of Principles
NATIONAL CONGRESS ON PENITENTIARY AND REFORMATORY DISCIPLINE 1870
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
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  REFORMATION, NOT VINDICTIVE SUFFERING, SHOULD BE THE PURPOSE
OF PENAL TREATMENT
  CLASSIFICATION SHOULD BE MADE ON THE BASIS OF A MARK SYSTEM,
PATTERNED AFTER THE IRISH SYSTEM
  REWARDS SHOULD BE PROVIDED FOR GOOD CONDUCT
  THE PRISONER SHOLD BE MADE TO REALIZE THAT HIS DESTINY IS IN HIS
HANDS
  THE CHIEF OBSTACLES TO PRISON REFORM ARE THE POLITICAL
APPOINTMENT OF PRISON OFFICIALS, AND THE INSTABILITY OF
MANAGEMENT
  PRISON OFFICIALS SHOULD BE TRAINED FOR THEIR JOBS
  INDETERMINATE SENTENCES SHOULD BE SUBSTITUTED FOR FIXED
SENTENCES AND GROSS DISPARITIES IN PRISON SENTENCES SHOULD BE
REMOVED
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
cont.
"
  RELIGION AND EDUCATION WERE CITED AS THE MOST IMPORTANT
AGENCIES OF REFORMATION
  PRISON DISCIPLINE SHOULD BE SUCH AS TO GAIN THE WILL OF THE
PRISONER AND CONSERVE HIS SELF-RESPECT
  THE AIM OF THE PRISON SHOULD BE TO MAKE INDUSTRIOUS
FREEMEN RATHER THAN ORDERLY PRISONERS
  INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SHOULD BE PROVIDED
  SYSTEM OF CONTRACT LABOR SHOUL D BE ABOLISHED
DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES
cont.
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 Prisons should be small and there should be different types of
offenders
 These should be revision of the laws in regards to treatment of
insane criminals
 Should be system for collection of penal statistics
 A more adequate architecture should be developed, providing
sufficiently for air and sunlight and for prison hospitals and school
rooms
The New Penology
Elmira Reformatory circa (1900)
ELIMIRA THE FIRST REFORMATORY PRISON
ESTABLISHED 1877
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  YOUTHFUL OFFENDERS
  DISCIPLINE
  GRADE SYSTEM
  INDETERMINATE SENTENCING
  EDUCATION
  GRADE SYSTEM
  INDUSTRIAL TRAINING
  PAROLE
  RECREATION
The Exercise Yard
Elmira Reformatory
California Prison
Commission (Established 1865)
"
•  Formed under the leadership on James Woodworth, a
Presbyterian minister
•  Modeled on East Coast Prison Aide Society
•  Based its approach to reforming California s prison system on
the Declaration of Principles
The California Prison Commission pursued its
mission through:
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 Policy Advocacy
 Prison Inspection
 Director prisoner relief
California Prison Commission proposes bill
to create Elmira style reformatory at San
Quentin (1872)
"
•  Included education requirement and
increased good time
•  Support withdrawn when legislature
proposed Folsom site for new prison
James A. Johnson
San Quentin Warden and
Lieutenant-Governor
 Argued to create an Auburn style prison as the fundamental
goal in authorizing a new branch prison – rather than a
reformatory.
 Attempt to atone for the failure of San Quentin to adopt the
Auburn model
 Johnson advocated for single cell design to allow inmates time
to reflect because every man has within him a germ of
goodness.
The Building of Folsom
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Authorization Act passed in 1858
Response to the overcrowding at San Quentin
Designed based on the Auburn penitentiary system
Desire to save money
Rejected by California Prison Commission
The Folsom site
"
Located along American River
Large granite quarry nearby
Folsom Prison
(opened 1880)
Massive granite cellhouse
with inside cell blocks
Thick perimeter wall
surrounded by guard tower
Folsom Prison Cell Block
Reflects the Auburn inside cell block design
The Folsom Prison Rock Quarry
Folsom rejected major
elements of new penology
including
"
•  Indeterminate sentence
•  Grading and classification
•  Productive prison labor
Punishment at Folsom
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 Isolation in darkened cells
 Food deprivation
 Shackling
 Flogging
  Tricing and the derrick
The conditional release of an inmate from
prison under supervision after a portion of the
sentence has been served
California’s first parole
law - 1893
"
•  Board of Prison Directors
•  Response to chronic overcrowding and
disproportionate sentences
•  By 1906 only 233 inmates of the more than 720
eligible were paroled during the first years of its
existence.
Expansion of Parole
"
 Crowding at San Quentin and Folsom led to relaxing of parole
criteria. By 1914, there were approximately 600 felons on parole
with only three parole agents.
 Parole initially was introduced in California and used for over 10
years to relieve governors of part of the burden of exercising
clemency to reduce the sentences of selected State prisoners.
 The emergence of a rehabilitative justification for parole did not
come until 1914, after the hiring of more parole officers to
assure public safety.