Chris Valcarce
Criminal Justice
Term Paper
Prisons
Originating in the 18th century, a jail or prison would not be a likely place where anyone
would want to spend their time. Prisons are commonly interpreted by criminals as places of
confinement, loss of freedom and punishment, however in reality prisons offer more than just
punishment. The primary purpose of any prison facility is to remove criminals who may be
dangerous from society and attempt to rehabilitate these individuals through methods such as
detainment and education.
Prison facilities hold a long history dating back to the 18th century. However it is
apparent that the primary purpose of prisons has not always been punishment. According to the
textbook “The prisons of eighteenth century England, known as bridewells after Londons
Bridewell Palace, actually had little to do with punishment. These facilities were mainly used to
hold debtors or those awaiting trial, execution, or banishment from the community” (p. 461).
Early American prisons acted very much like the prisons of England beginning with the concept
of the “Great Law” established by William Penn. The “Great Law” was an early criminal code of
Quaker ideals in humanity and rehabilitation. It was not until later in 1790 that America’s first
penitentiary opened known as the Walnut Street Prison. This prison went off of the theory that
silence was a way of giving inmates a way to reflect upon the wrongdoings of their crimes.
It is from the concept of the Walnut Street Prison that two new prison systems will evolve
in 19th century America. After the ideology behind the Walnut Street Prison collapsed, The
Pennsylvania system was established. Pennsylvania reconstructed a this system utilizing the
concept of “separate confinement “in which inmates were kept separate from each other at all
times, the only exception during religious education. The New York or Auburn system took a
different approach however under the “congregate system” allowing inmates to work, and eat
together under enforced silence. Both systems worked well, however “the Auburn system proved
more popular and a majority of the new prisons built during the first half of the nineteenth
century followed New York’s lead, though mainly for economic reasons rather than
philosophical ones” (p. 462)
Even with the Auburn System serving to be as effective as it was, people still attempted
to challenge it and find a better system. In the late 19th century reformers began to debate about
the Auburn System and how it did nothing to rehabilitate or help prisoners. Utilizing tactics
similar to the Quakers, a new system was developed in which bad behavior of inmates would add
more time a sentence where good behavior of inmates would reward them with less time in
prison. This was later classified as the “Elmira Model” which utilized a three-grade system to
label prisoners with one being the best ranking, two ranking in the middle, and three being the
worst.
In the Early 20th century (also known as the Progressive Era) the Progressives developed
a theory that stated that the main reason that criminal behavior was caused by a specific
individual was due to social, economic, and biological factors in that individual’s life. It is from
this belief that the “Medical Model” is developed. This model took the belief that institutions
should offer a variety of programs and types of therapy to cure inmates.
In 1974 a man named Robert Martinson published an essay titled “What Works?” that
challenged the medical model using evidence that stated that rehabilitation of the inmates had
little to no effect on their recidivism rates. According to the text “Attempts by Martinson and
others to set the record straight went largely unnoticed, however, as a sharp rise in crime in the
early 1970’s led many criminologists and politicians to champion get tough measures to deal
with criminals they now considered incurable” (p.464).
It is from this that prison construction will skyrocket as well as inmate population. The
text states that the number of inmates in prison has more than tripled since 1985. “According to
accepted theory, rising incarceration rates should be the result of a rise in crime, leaving one
expert to comment that America’s prison population is defying gravity”(p. 464)
There are numerous reasons as to why the prison population continues to grow at such a
dramatic incline. One of the main reasons for this is due to the enhancement and harsher
enforcement of the nation’s drug laws. The book states that there are more people in prisons and
jails today on drug offenses than any other offense whether the individual has been involved in
buying illicit drugs or selling them. Another reason for increased prison population is because of
increased probability of incarceration. This has to do with the fact that the odds of a person
getting arrested today are much higher than they may have been in the past.
The building of more prisons in the U.S. has also led to a greater growth in prisoner
populations since there has to be facilities to keep the many inmates detained. In addition there
are rising rates in the trend of women prisoners. While women prisoners may only make up
seven percent of all prisoners in the U.S., the population of women inmates is growing at double
the speed of the men.
Prisons and Jails have been constructed and built to withstand the task of performing
many roles. However it is apparent that the main reason that any prison exists is to help make
society a safer place. There are three different but equally important models of prisons that each
plays their own unique role in society. The first model is the “custodial model” having originated
in the 1930’s. This model is based on the assumption that the main reason prisoners are detained
is due to reasons of incapacitation, deterrence, and retribution. Any decision made within the
prison will be made involving the concepts of security and discipline, and the life of any inmate
within the prison is strictly limited and controlled.
The second model is known as the “rehabilitation model” which was established during
the 1950’s. This model focuses more on the treatment of individuals than the other two models.
Inmates are offered programs to aid them in their transition to when they will be released.
Security concerns in a prison of this model would often be a secondary concern. The third and
last of the models is the “reintegration model”. In this model the prison acts as a training facility
for inmates to prepare in making their transition back into society. Prisons that utilize this model
give prisoners more freedom and responsibility during incarceration. Programs such as halfway
houses and work programs are offered to inmates to help them reincorporate themselves back in
society more effectively.
In addition to the three models of prisons there are also different types of prisons
depending mainly on the type of security that a prison may have to the type of inmates residing
within that prison. According to the book “In federal prisons, this led to a system with six levels
based on the security needs of the inmates, from level 1 facilities with the lowest amount of
security to level 6 with the harshest security measures” (p. 468). Prisons are also ranked on a
scale of three levels, those levels being minimum, medium, and maximum. Maximum-security
prisons are constructed utilizing the concepts of security and surveillance. These prisons usually
contain individual cell blocks for each inmate that are surrounded by bars, security guards, and
gates.
Medium-security prisons focus less on security issues and more on reforming the inmates
within them and inmates are allowed to talk and interact with each other. These prisons still will
contain a type of security such as a high wall around the compound. Minimum-security prisons
have the least strict rules of all the prison types. Prisoners in a minimum-security prison typically
are allowed more privileges than they would be at higher level prisons. This type of prison could
be considered like an open campus allowing prisoners to leave for labor or educational purposes.
There are also supermax prisons in thirty of the fifty states which contain the nation’s most
notorious criminals. In a supermax prison, prisoners will be kept in a one-person cell for up to
twenty-two and a half hours every day under camera surveillance.
Every prison in the U.S. has been assigned a budget by a government agency due to the
fact that most modern day prisons are directed by federal and state governments. As a result
many prisons have discovered the option to privatize. Today, there are fourteen detention firms
operating in more than two-hundred privately owned facilities across the U.S. According to the
book “The two largest corrections companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and
the GEO Group, Inc., have contracted to supervise more than 100,000 inmates”(p.477). The
book states that labor costs and competitive bidding have helped to make private prisons cheaper
to operate although private firms will pay less in wages when compared to state run facilities.
Federal and state prisons have recently been faced with the concept of overcrowding of
inmates in certain facilities. Therefore these government facilities have begun seeking out the
private institutions to help them out. There have in fact even been arguments made that privately
owned detention facilities offer a higher quality of service that federal and state prisons. This is
due to the fact that contracts for private facilities can be canceled out due to poor performance
thus offering more of an incentive.
There have however been certain individuals who argue that private prisons are not as
effective as the federal and state level prisons. According to statistics there have been riots
conducted by inmates due to a lack of recreation inside a detention facility in Arizona and
Indiana. One man, Gregorio De La Rosa Jr. was even beat to death at the Willacy County State
Jail. In addition there had been evidence and various prison studies that have shown unusual
patterns of behavior inside private prisons. There was a reference to inmate violence and drug
abuse in California at the Taft Correctional Institute. To top it all off, it was later discovered that
a prisoner in a private corrections facility was twice as likely to be assaulted as in a state or
federal prison.
The level of security in any prison is the general factor for determining how the facility
should be managed. Charles Logan an author stated “The mission of a prison is to keep
prisoners-to keep them in, keep them safe, keep them in line, keep them healthy, and keep them
busy-and to do it with fairness, without undue suffering and as efficiently as possible”(p. 474).
A strong attitude is necessary for any team that manages a prison. The warden, or superintendent,
is the main individual that helps a prison to run. The warden assumes responsibility for
everything that occurs within the prison walls. According to John Dilulio the governing of prison
facilities involves three topics.
The first topic is order and order can be defined as the missing of a lack of conduct such
as murder, assault and rape. The state therefore has the obligation and duty to protect any person
from disorder in the correctional facility. The second topic is Amenities which involve the things
that make life worth living, like clean living, decent food, and recreation. Without basic
amenities such as those that I just listed, prison life would be rather boring and rough. The third
and final topic is services which include programs designed to improve an inmate’s thoughts and
ideals once released. Services can include drug treatment, vocational training, and religious
courses. Dilulio states that in the absence of order, amenities, and services inmates will not only
begin to realize that their sentence is unpleasant, but also that it is not fair. As a result inmates
will become much harder to control.
Sources
“A Tale of Two Systems: Cost, Quality, and Accountability in Private Prisons,”
Harvard Law Review (May 2002), 1872
Gaines, Larry K., and Rodger LeRoy Miller. Criminal Justice. Mason,OH: Cengage
Learning, 2011.
John MacCormack, “Court Upholds Much of Jury Award”, San Antonio Express-News
(April 8, 2009), 5B
Michael Meranze, Laboratories of Virtue: Punishment, Revolution, and Authority in
Philadelphia, 1700-1835 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press,
1996), 55