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The Evolution of the Prison

The Evolution of the Prison: From Rehabilitation to Punishment

While there was an intellectual basis for using prisons as a way to ‘rehabilitate’ prisoners, there were soon major changes in prisons. Due to a series of changes, the prison became a place, not for a criminal to be rehabilitated, but rather, for them to be punished.


Prisons began to change after the Revolutionary War. In Philadelphia, due to prisoners being engaged in hard labor and this causing fear among the populace, people began to form groups such as The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Misery of Public Prisons, which argued for prison reform. This push for prison reform culminated in the creation of the Walnut Street prison.


Two major figures involved in Walnut Street were Caleb Lownes and Dr. Benjamin Rush. Rush would eventually become involved in the Walnut Street Prison, but he came into the world of prisons when he went to Europe in 1768 where he “mingled among scientists, philosophers and literati, listening to progressive European theories about such issues as crime and punishment that would eventually follow him to America.” [1] In Europe he was exposed to the notion that crime was a ‘moral disease.’ This thought would stay with him when he came back to the States and began to argue that crime could be solved by creating a ‘house of repentance’ which would allow for the rehabilitation of criminals.

Once back in the United States, Rush wrote a book entitled An Enquiry Into The Effects Of Public Punishment Upon Criminals, And Upon Society. In it he argued that criminals could not be reformed by public punishments, such as floggings, due to the fact that such punishments “[are] always connected with infamy [and thus destroy] in him the sense of shame, which is one of the strongest out-posts of virtue” and “[are] generally of such short duration, as to produce none of those changes in body or mind, which are absolutely necessary to reform obstinate habits of vice.” Rush’s final argument was that public punishments actually increase crime as “the man who has lost his character at a whipping-post has nothing valuable left to lose” and due to his punishment, the criminal

probably feels a spirit of revenge against t he w hole community whose laws have inflicted his punishment upon him; and hence he is stimulated to add to the number and enormity of his outrages upon society. [2]


From this manner of thinking he then argued that the only way this situation could be remedied was to fix punishment. He argued that the punishments “if they were moderate, just, and private” and the fact of the certainty of being punished “would lead [the criminal] to connect the beginning of his repentance with the last words of his sentence of condemnation [the length of the punishment].” [3] In his mind, this goal could be achieved by building “a large house” to hold those who violated the law.

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In my mind, prisons serve two purposes.

1. To remove the criminal from society, thus preventing him or her from repeating their offense on more victims.

2. To PUNISH the criminal for the crime commited.

Prison was never meant to be a cushy little vacation spot where criminals could go to be rehabilitated. Prison is meant to be an unenjoyable stretch punishment, devoid of all but the basic needs for survival. Its supposed to serve as a deterent to crime.

Im not sure what your advocating for here because frankly, your post is to long and boring for me to finish it, but i just wanted to reply that i dont agree with the notion that prison should be used as anything other than the two purposes previously mentioned.
 
Dpetty;bt1419 said:
In my mind, prisons serve two purposes.

1. To remove the criminal from society, thus preventing him or her from repeating their offense on more victims.

2. To PUNISH the criminal for the crime commited.

Prison was never meant to be a cushy little vacation spot where criminals could go to be rehabilitated. Prison is meant to be an unenjoyable stretch punishment, devoid of all but the basic needs for survival. Its supposed to serve as a deterent to crime.

Im not sure what your advocating for here because frankly, your post is to long and boring for me to finish it, but i just wanted to reply that i dont agree with the notion that prison should be used as anything other than the two purposes previously mentioned.

Which wouldn't be as much of an issue if we didn't criminalize so many things that shouldn't be criminalized. Recreational drugs and prostitution are two examples of this.

If we were to legalize drugs we would take the money out of black market cartels and end gang violence. It would also allow the employment of laborers to grow natural drugs, factories to manufacture synthesized drugs, clinics to dispense them, bars and coffeehouses to partake them, etc. It would legalize that economy and take those people out of the prison system.

Same thing in regards to legalized prostitution. Depending on the method and means in which it is done, it could end underage prostitution and sex trafficking. It would also provide safety for prostitutes and their clients.

Also, in ancient times, there were no prisons. This was because many societies were hunter-gatherers, and so crimes were punished not by incarceration but rather by restitution.

I've heard that in some Native American and possibly African tribes, if someone murdered another that person would be punished by having to marry that person's wife and taking that person's children as their own. So they were tasked with having to work to feed, clothe, and educate not only his own children and wife but also the wife and children of his victim.

Back then, this was a severe economic strain on people, as the majority of their labor was focused on cultivating food. Just getting enough to eat was a struggle in and of itself.

So, personally, I'd rather that method of punishment be used instead. Require people to personally pay back their victims rather than incarcerate them. Especially those people who are younger.

That way the victims will get a revenue stream, the criminal will be busy working, we will save money on incarceration costs, and we will break up the prison system being used as recruiting ground and training center for criminal gangs.

And that's not even getting into how guards will take bribes for smuggling items to the prisoners or how they work with each other in other ways.
 
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