Prison_Reform_Past

Prison Reform 19th Century toc

** The beginning of Prison Reform, the two methods: **
Pennsylvania System: Auburn System:
 * The first Penitentiary, Known as the Walnut Street Jail, was established in 1790 just before the 19th century, but introduced the Pennsylvania System
 * The Pennsylvania System was basically solitary confinement, which encompassed a single corridor with cells on either side.
 * This system introduced small time segregation by age, gender, and type of offenses[[image:http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/images/19464.jpg width="240" height="153" align="right" caption="Photo from University of Sandiego" link="http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/images/19464.jpg"]]
 * Some institutions revised the Pennsylvania System by taking it to the extreme, The Eastern State Penitentiary was known for this
 * The Eastern State Penitentiary was a fortress with thick walls, and required prisoners to wear hoods to avoid seeing prisoners
 * Prisoners walked in lockstep with their heads turned right.
 * The Auburn Prison was established in 1821 by the New York Law of 1816
 * Auburn had a similar approach but a different goal, to try to reform the prisoners themselves
 * The Auburn method separated the prisoners from all forms of corruption, and enforced strict discipline by forcing the convicts to 10 hours of labor a day, six days a week
 * Work included cutting stone in the baking sun[[image:http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/images/lockstep.gif width="178" height="108" align="right" caption="Prisoners in lockstep, Cayuga Museum" link="http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/images/lockstep.gif"]]
 * The Auburn Prison influenced new reformation facilities, for example in 1825 The New york House of Refuge was built, which separated the juveniles from the adults

**Second Wave of Prison Reform:**
===<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 18px;">Convict Leasing Sytem: === <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;"> Under the system prisoners would work for outside firms, which would then sell the products the prisoners made or worked on. The outside firms would pay the state to house and work prisoners.This was unfair competition to private buisnesses and and labor workers becuse prison labor was cheap and it was readily avaliable. So in 1887 Congress prohibited the use of federal prisoners for work. Therefore the first federal prisons were established because state prisons could no longer profit from federal prisoners, amoung them was Leavenworth Penitentiary. A new system was developed in which prisoners could work in prisons, but their products could only be sold to the state and not to the public. ==<span style="font-family: Verdana,Geneva,sans-serif; font-size: 37px; font-weight: normal;"> ==
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The second wave of prison reform began in 1870, with the founding of the National Prison Association, which today is known as the American Correctional Association
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The Elmira Reformatory was built in 1876, and the warden was Zebulon Brockway, who was even called the father of prison reform
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Brockway rejected the previous prison systems including the pointless hard labor, a regime of silence, religious and morality lectures, and strict obedience enforced by brutality.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Under Zebulon the focus of the prisoners was shifted to individual treatment rather than punishment.
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">The overall conditions improved because education was introduced such as elementary classes, and advanced classes such as geometry and physiology
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">A moral director was introduced to teach ethics and psychology[[image:http://www.csusb.edu/coe/images/brokway-portrait.jpg width="100" height="147" align="right" caption="Brockway, San Bernardino University" link="http://www.csusb.edu/coe/images/brokway-portrait.jpg"]]
 * <span style="font-family: Arial,Helvetica,sans-serif; font-size: 14px;">Overcrowding led to the creation of women's only prisons, such as the Female Prison and reformatory Institution for Girls and Women in Indianapolis in 1874

Prison Conditions
One major reason why the prison reform occurred was because the conditions of the jails and what people were subjected to.
 * John Howard was the sheriff of Bedfordshire and wrote a book called The State of the Prisons. In the book, he thought that prisoners wouldn't change their ways unless the awful conditions of the jails also changed. He said they should be able to stay clean, have fresh food, and get clean water. Many of Howard's ideas were used in the first penitentiaries, but were used much stricter.

**Prison Hulks:**

 * Hulks were old sailing ships that were originally used to transport prisoners between jails.
 * During the years of the French wars, crime rates in the United States increased. This caused a shortage of room in the jails, so many prisoners were put on the hulks to serve their time. At one point, over two-thirds of all prisoners were aboard hulks.
 * The conditions on the Hulks were awful. Diseases such as cholera spread throughout the ships and caused many deaths. The diseases spread throughout the hulks due to the unsanitary conditions and from people drinking from the polluted rivers that the ships are on.
 * The prisoners on the hulks were chained to their beds at night, and had to do hard labor on the shore during the day.

**Prison Diet:**

 * At the beginning of the 19th century, prisoners were responsible to pay or bring their own food into the jails. Some prisoners had relatives bring food in for them. They did this so they could keep the cost and quality of the inmates life lower.
 * In the 1820's food was finally given to the prisoners, and they had charts to keep track of what each person ate. Even though the inmates got food, the quality was still extremely low.
 * In 1843, the government expected a minimum standard of food for each prisoner. the quantity of the food depended on the work they were doing and the length of their sentence. Prisoners were still expected to receive a lower standard of food than the poorest people outside of prison.

Overflowing Prisons and Prison Work:

 * Many of the prisons in the 19th century were filled past the capacity in which it was capable to hold. People were put in jail for crimes that weren't that harsh. An example would be when someone got thrown in jail for spitting on the street.
 * In the mid 1800's, inmates were given work so it would punish them.

Reformists, Some Important Figures:
In order: Dorothea Dix Horace Mann, and Samuel Gridley Howe
 * Zebulon Brockway is referred to the "father of prison reform." In 1861, Zebulon Brockway became the head of prison in Detroit, and introduced a new idea called the intermediate sentence. He was then the warden at Elmira from 1876-1900,and implemented education, an incentive program, and physical activity programs.
 * Louis Dwight was one of the first prison reformers in the 19th century. He founded the Boston Discipline Prison Society. Louis Dwight also added salvation and sabbath schools to jails in America.
 * Horace Mann was an early innovator for American Education. He believed that people in prison weren't mentally nourished enough because there was a lack of access to libraries and books in the prisons. He said that libraries in prisons would bring men and women together and unify the country through common knowledge.
 * Francis Lieber and Samuel Gridley Howe were reformers who wanted basic literacy through prison libraries, reduction of painful punishment such as beatings and whippings, and separation of women, children and the sick.
 * Dorothea Dix was a women who believed in prison reform. In 1841, she made a speech before the Massachusetts state legislature to address the prisons. She said the sick and insane in Massachusetts were put into cages, closets, cellars, stalls, and pens. Also, the inmates were beaten with rods and chained to their rooms. She believed the insane people should be put into psychiatric hospitals, so they could get treatment to help them. Dorothea Dix helped create five psychiatric hospitals which used drugs,talk therapy, and advocating outplacement instead of lifelong stays.

How Successful was the Prison Reform in the 19th Century?
=== The prison reform was successful in many ways during the 19th century because the lifestyle and living conditions of the prisoners changed dramatically. An example of this would be that food was finally given to prisoners in jail. The conditions of prison improved as well which made the reform successful because it gave the inmates a reasonable quality if life instead of what prisoners had before. Also, the prison reform was as successful as it was because of all the people helping to improve the prisons such as Dorothea Dix or Zebulon Brockway. They tried to increase the standard of living and tried to reward prisoners for good behavior. The reform didn't solve every problem because there was another prison reform in the 20th century, so clearly some problems weren't solved and new problems arose as well. But overall, I give a lot of credit to the reformers for the improvements they made to help the prisoners and the conditions in the prisons. ===