Crime and Law

Personal Responsibility Essay: Jails and Prisons

Michael Huntoon

CJA/204

May 5, 2014

Mr. Carlos Zuniga

Prisons have always been around, some of the earliest prison which date back to the 1700’s. In Colonia America prisons used public humiliation, workhouses and whips to punish criminals. By the 1790’s prisons in Pennsylvania used inmates for public projects, this is when the ball and chain came into play. Convicts even wore unstylish clothes to prevent them from running away from the projects. Soon after, other colonies started to replace public humiliation of convicts with incarceration. Early lock ups were usually controlled by the local government. During this time the guards would mix female inmates with men, and even petty thieves with violent offenders. Even with these mix ups prisons seemed like an improvement from earlier punishments.

Once the nation started to take form local states and counties would start to maintain its own incarceration systems. Jails were managed by the local sheriff’s department and this is where inmates were held until they went to court. The inmates that would be held in the jails would be anywhere from small petty crimes like loitering to serve crimes such as murder. These jails would also hold inmates that had sentences less than one year. The prisons that were managed by the state or federal authorities held inmates that had sentences over one year of incarceration.

The Penitentiary Era started in Pennsylvania in 1790 and lasted until 1825. This era started when the Quakers converted the Walnut Street Jail to a more humane response to the social standards such as whipping, stocks or public humiliation. Along with converting the Walnut Street Jail, the Quakers hoped to use religious principles to rehabilitate the prisons. Prisoners were house in penitentiaries in which they served their time and were rehabilitated back into productive citizens.

The Mass Prison Era was from 1825 until 1876....