The Prison System

The Prison System

Lashonda Rollins

CJS/200

January 31, 2010 (uploaded due to computer virus on Feb. 1, 2010

Shawn Collins

The Prison System

The Great Penitentiary Rivalry has a great effect on our current prison system. In the 1800s they were two types of systems that prisons went by: the Pennsylvania System and the New York System.

The Pennsylvania System believed that inmates should serve their time in separate confinement. Separate Confinement meant that inmates were kept separate from each other at all times. Prisoners worked, slept, and ate alone in their cells. With this system, inmates only came in contact with others when visiting a prison official or a clergyman. This system was a way to spare each inmate from the corrupting influence of others.

The New York System believed that inmates should not be subjected to separate confinement, but able to interact with each other in general population but only while being obedient. This act was known as the congregate system also known as the Auburn System. The Congregate System also believed in silence and labor but with this system everyone ate and worked together. Silence was enforced by prison guards.

The most popular system today is the congregate system although not prisoners are able to converse with other inmates as long as they act civil to each other. Prisoners are only placed in solitary confinement (the hole) when conducting themselves disorderly.

Two groups known as the Reformers and the Progressives have a great effect on our current prison system as well. These two groups challenged the Auburn System. Reformers argued that fixed sentences, imposed silence, and isolation didn’t improve prisoners’ (CJS/200). The Reformers believed that prisoners should be rehabilitated by offering early release upon good behavior. Our prison system today; depending on the crime committed, offers early release for good...