Development of Corrections

Development of Corrections

Shelley Spiegel

CJS/230

September 13, 2011

Kay Lantow, MA

Women’s Prisons

Unlike, today the 1800s incarceration rate for women was infinitesimal. Because there were so few female prisoners, there was not a special place to house them. This created issues, therefore men, women, and juveniles were all housed in the same prisons. Women and juveniles were treated in the same harsh manner as men, with the exception of pregnant women. One of the difficulties faced by women was the fact they were exploited and abused by male jailers.

. Upon Elizabeth Fry, a woman’s advocate, entering the prison she was horror-struck by what she had seen. She noticed half -naked women and their children in very unsanitary conditions. Everything was done in the same area from washing to eating, sleeping, and (Day, 1997).

In 1873, the first separate women’s prison, Indiana State Reformatory, was established. The reformatory appeared like a campus as there were not cells any longer, they were now in cottages. Over the next few years more women’s reformatories were established.

Juvenile Prisons

Some 19th century activists helped women, but there were those who also had concerns for juveniles. Children of young age were punished as adults if they knew right from wrong. In the first part of the 1800s it was argued juveniles had no place in an institution. The three basic arguments were;

a. The regimen in the penitentiary was too harsh for children.

b. Habits unflattering to youths would be learned and acrimonious because of confinement

c. Youth could be reformed if taken from that environment at an early enough age

It was thought that juveniles would be punished with confinement rather than banishment, physical punishments or other...