History of State and Federal Prisons

History of State and Federal Prisons

Melissa Eichelberger

December 14, 2011

CJS 230

History of State Prisons

The state government runs the state prison system. With both federal and state prisons they have the problem of becoming overcrowded. By the end of the year in 2001, state prisons were overcrowded between one and sixteen percent over capacity of inmates. With having that many inmates within the prison it makes it much more difficult to operate because it puts the health and also the safety of the inmates and also the staff at risk. The Department of Corrections is the common name of the prisons today. There are over one million men and women in confinements that are operated by the state. The Auburn model was used to base the prisons off of, and then it was expanded from there all based on the special needs of women and younger offenders.

History of Federal Prisons

The Federal Bureau of Prisons was created in the nineteen thirties by President Herbert Hoover. In eighteen ninety five the first penitentiary was made from an old military prison in Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Then in nineteen two in Atlanta, Georgia the third federal penitentiary was constructed. The very famous Alcatraz was opened in nineteen thirty four. Edger Hoover of the Federal Bureau of Investigations or the FBI and the attorney general and the key congressional officials had Alcatraz created even though some thought Alcatraz was an unnecessary “political stunt”.

References

Odier, Odier (1982). The Rock: A History of Alcatraz: The Fort/The Prison. L'Image Odier

.