Chapter 2
The Early History of
Correctional Thought
and Practice
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
The Early History of Correctional Thought
and Practice
From the Middle Ages to the American Revolution
 Galley Slavery
 Imprisonment
 Transportation
 Corporal Punishment
 On the Eve of Reform
 The Age of Reason and Correctional Reform
 Cesare Beccaria and the Classical School
 Jeremy Bentham and the “Hedonic Calculus”
 John Howard and the Birth of Penitentiary
 What Really Motivated Correctional Reform?

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Legal bases of punishment

Lex talionis

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

law of retaliation
punishment should
correspond in degree &
kind to the offense
“Eye for an eye and a
tooth for a tooth”
Secular law- middle ages


law of civil society (vs.
church law) developed
along feudal system
feudal lords went to war
over each others’
transgressions
Wergild- “man money”



money paid to relatives of a murdered person or
to crime victim as compensation
to prevent blood feuds
carried view that punishment should involve
participation of public
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
“benefit of clergy”
 religion: early source of leniency
 members of clergy could be tried
in
ecclesiastical court, where punishments
less severe than in civil courts
(focus of ecclesiastical court = penance & salvation)
available from 1200’s-1827 to anyone who
could “read” text of Psalm 54 in court-ostensibly “proved” membership in clergy
 common thugs availed themselves of the
“benefit” by reciting verse from memory
 Psalm 54 came to be known as “neck verse”

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
punishments in transition:
from old world  penitentiary
 corporal punishments (by various means)
 death (by various means)
England’s specific contributions:
 transportation (banishment)

prescribed by Vagrancy Act of 1597

used as a reprieve from gallows

historically, used mostly for:
 galley
slavery
 imprisonment
 political prisoners
 those awaiting trial
 debtors
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Vagrancy Act of 1597 (England)
 by
1772: 60% male English felons: banished!
1718-1776: 1,000 felons/yr. (n = 50,000)
 Virginia (1606)
 convicts were given over to companies that had
shipped them to colonies & sold their services

(per 1717 law)

Australia & New S. Wales (after revolution)


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felons served Crown/designee for # of years
then, freed (via pardon or “ticket of leave”)
could then choose place of work
 banishment
= consistent w/ social realities
of time - response to social
disorder/upheaval
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
early jails = product of
social upheaval of 16th century England
manufacturing economy (not agrarian)
 breakup of feudalism (serfs, lords, manor)
 1,000’s rural poor (wandering country)
 urbanization (movement to cities)
consequences:

poverty, homelessness, helplessness, idleness,
illness, beggars, prostitution, crime
 jails = melting pot of dysfunctional population

 plus orphans, insane
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
early jails = bad!
 combination: workhouse, poorhouse,
 mixed men, women, children
 conditions = abysmal!
jail
filth
 squalor
 malnutrition
 predatory environment

 reform  “house
of correction”
combined elements of all three institutions
 emphasis: put idle poor to work!

 from thinking of Protestant Reformation
“an idle mind is the devil’s workshop”
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Bridewell House
1st house of correction (1553)
 objective:
“to instill a habit of industry more
conducive to an honest livelihood”
 strategies:
discipline + work!
 products to be sold on open market
 facility to be self sufficient

 failure...
facilities filled w/criminals
 physically deteriorated
 not profitable
 reformative aim vanished

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
impact of Bridewell
 replicated
in Europe; more successful
 Holland, Germany
 France (Maison de Force, in Ghent, 1772 - wheel)
 Italy (Milan House of Corrections, 1775)
 these
became precursors to 19th C.
prisons in America
 they impressed John Howard,
English reformer
 Howard brought ideas back to
England! (popularized in colonies)
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
What we will see…
 19th/20th
Centuries saw VARIETY of social
experiments re: punishment

based on variety of competing social/political
philosophies from 18th, 19th centuries
 witnessed
general TREND away from
brutality of ancient & middle ages
 these developments stemmed generally
from 5 major social, economic, political, &
religious trends …
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
1. breakdown of feudal order &
move  industrial society
 elimination
of class of serfs bound
by birth to service of Lord of the
manor
 demise of agriculture
 population moves to urban centers
 rise of middle class
 emergence of trades; commerce
 seeds of industrial revolution
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
2. ideas of the
Protestant Reformation
 Martin
Luther (1599): man is capable of
interpreting Bible (w/o Pope);
 elevated man to new status of free thinker
 weakened political/economic
power of Roman Catholic Church
 weakened Church’s role in
definition/punishment of errant citizens
 weakened Church’s role in creation &
administration of law…
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
3. emergence of
secular legal systems
 new
legal systems were developed by
civilian authority to protect the interests of
independent parties other than the church
 new systems (e.g., courts) came to be
administered by non-religious authorities
 Exemplified by  Anglican Church/ of
England; Henry VIII’s break from Pope;
A Man for All Seasons
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
4. values of the Enlightenment
 1600-1700’s:
English/French
social/political writers popularized
certain “progressive” concepts, e.g.:
Liberalism
Rationality
Equality
Individualism
Limitations
on the power of
government
Scientific inquiry….
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Enlightenment … (con’d)
 
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rights of man
importance of individual
concept of free will
role of government: limited! protect rights!
e.g., Hobbes:



created new popular belief in:
“life in state of nature…[bad]”
government/society formed to protect man from
hardships of total independence
e.g., Locke, Montesque:


government as “social contract”
man gives up rights & enters into union w/ others
for mutual benefit/protection
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
5. age of science & reason
 we
are capable of discovering why & how
things happen
 the world operates according to rules
 we can use science & reason to discover
those rules that govern behavior (of both
universe & man)
Galileo: universe behaves according to
predictable patterns
 Newton: matter & motion governed by certain
“laws of physics”

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
result: entirely new ways
of viewing world
 new
beliefs re:
nature of man & human behavior
 faith in our ability to change people
 the relation of man to society
 belief in the rights of man
 equality of treatment (less brutality)
 limited power of state

 new
schools of thought re: crime &
punishment (popularized by writers)
Beccaria, Bentham
 Howard …

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Cesare Beccaria (1738 - 1794)
 Father:
classical school of criminology
 Italian scholar; applied rationalist
philosophy of Enlightenment to CJS
 Essays on Crimes & Punishments,
1764
 writings revolutionized thinking re:
role of law, criminal punishment, &
operation of CJS
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
classical school of criminology:
beliefs
 man has free will
 crime is volitional (willed, intentional)
 man can change his behavior
 man should be punished in proportion
to the severity of the crime he
commits
 the basis of all social action should be
the utilitarian concept: “the greatest
good for the greatest number”
 “utilitarianism” (though Beccaria not
thought of as father of utilitarianism)
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
principles of classical school
sole justification for punishment is its utility-the safety it provides via crime prevention
 punishment is for deterrence, not revenge
 prevention > important than punishment
 punishment should be the least possible,
 punishment  proportionate, dictated by law
 certainty/swiftness > important than severity
 advocated penal reforms:

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avoid torture & secret accusations
right to speedy trial & to present evidence
humane treatment; improve prison conditions
classify offenders: age, sex, degree of criminality
 Pa.
penal law, penitentiary movement
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Jeremy Bentham (1748 - 1832)
 father
of utilitarianism
 English advocate of prison reform

Intro. to the Principles of Morals & Legislation, 1789
 applied
utilitarian theory to law &
punishment
 founder of “panopticon” prison design
circular building with glass roof;
cells around circumference, on each story
 e.g., Western State Penitentiary (Pitt, 1825);
Stateville (Ill, 1916)

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
“utilitarianism”
doctrine that the aim of all action
should be the greatest possible
balance of pleasure over pain. This
will create the “greatest good for the
greatest number.”
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Bentham … (con’d)

“hedonic calculus” = pleasure/pain principle

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

key concept in utilitarianism
rational persons behave in ways to maximize
pleasure, minimize pain
law should assure that offender will derive more pain
from punishment than pleasure from crime
advocated reforms:
goal of law: prevent, not avenge crime
 eliminate barbarity, inconsistency in punishment
 abolish transportation
 segregate by age, sex, seriousness
 improve morals, health, education of prisoners
 religious services; keep prisoners busy

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
John Howard (1726 - 1790)
The State of Prisons in England & Wales, 1777
 (major) English penal reformer
 middle class, country squire, social activist
 appointed Sheriff of Bedfordshire, 1773;
but unique: took active interest!
 visited local facilities; shocked by conditions

 most jailers of time: non-professional, unsalaried
appointees - indifferent to care/conditions
 collected $$ (e.g., discharge fees) from inmates
 overcrowding, no discipline, unsanitary (“prison
fever”- typhus - killed 1,000’s)

visited hulks, houses of corr. in Eng/Eur
 returned with ideas for reform….
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Howard … (con’d)
 drafted
Penitentiary Act of 1779;
with Blackstone & Eden
 4 principles:
 secure & sanitary structure
 systematic inspection
 abolition of fees
 reformatory regimen
 features:
 solitary cells at night
 hard labor in common rooms
by day;
aim --> Drudgery!
 religious instruction & reflection
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
effect of Howard’s work:
 slow to catch on in England
 colonies much more susceptible
 new ways of thinking in America:

Declaration of Independence &
US Constitution championed:
 optimistic view of man
 belief in human perfectibility
 belief that crime = f (environment)
 individual rights
 limitations on power/authority of gov’t

by-products of this thinking:
 need to reform of harsh penal codes/punishments
Mass (1785); Pa (1786); NY (1796)
 preference for incarceration (+ hard labor)
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
Penitentiary: an idea with
universal appeal
legalists
philanthropists
conservatives
politicians
industrialists
 deter
crime
 save humanity
 save money
(inmate-produced products)
 solution to disquieting
prison situation
 new way of disciplining/
training new working class to
serve industrial society;
(e.g., John Conley-revisionist historian)
Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th
emergence of the penitentiary in
America
 reform
ideas didn’t materialize in England
until 1842: Pentonville, North London
 but, quickly took root in colonies and laid
groundwork for look & operation of
American penitentiary

Walnut St. Jail, 1790
 portion of jail was converted to place of separate
confinement in 1790
 quickly overcrowded
Eastern State Penitentiary (Cherry Hill, 1829)
 Western State Penitentiary (Pittsburgh, 1825)

Clear & Cole, American Corrections, 8th