The History of the Penitentiary from 1776-Present
Lezlie M. Lucas
CJA/234
January 6, 2011
Christopher Dericco
The Penitentiary in England and Wales The phrase prison is used when relating to the penitentiaries used to imprison criminal persons. Originating in England and Wales during the eighteenth century was the drive for penitentiaries as an alternative for penal compounds. Set into motion during this period, the British culture began to shift from physical penalty and in the direction of internment with the optimism of alteration of the mentality and essence. These modifications in due course helped to lead the system for penitentiaries for Europe and throughout the world (Ignatieff, 1978). In 1776 the United States was successful in becoming independent from England, and during this time the British did not have any outpost to incarcerate persons devoid of it costing a vast amount of money. According to Ignatieff (1978), “Henry Fielding thought it was necessary to find an intermediate penalty, combining 'correction of the body' and 'correction of the mind’” (Ignatieff, 1978, p. 45-46). An innovative book published in 1777 by John Howard, "The State of Prisons in England and Wales" (Ignatieff, 1978, p. 46) provided crucial information on the condition of penitentiaries and the inmates confined there. Subsequent to reading his book, society’s attention was changed direction regarding the penalizing circumstance in England. Recognized as the founder of the progressive prison, John Howard fell upon an idea that was significant in society’s view (Ignatieff, 1978). During this period, according to McGowen (1995) “there were two types of prisons, the jail and the house of correction” (McConville & McGowen, 1995 p. 114). In the late twentieth century, the detention center was not dissimilar than a detention center in the eighteenth century. It was also the center that accommodated persons pending a court hearing who may possibly not afford to pay for a surety bond and those sent to prison briefly. Barnes (1972) illustrates the jail as follows: “The jails or prisons were chiefly used for the detention of those accused of crime pending their trial and for the confinement of debtors and religious political offenders. They were rarely used for the incarceration of the criminal classes” (Barnes, 1972, p. 114).
Abingdon Jail Between 1804 through 1812

Jeremy Bentham, a health reformer used John Howard's work as a basis and moved into the penal complex environment. He had deduced that there were three categories of penitentiaries. He had increased upon what formerly subsist as the conditions that existed during that time. According to Semple (1993), “the three types of prisons where the House of Safe Custody, the Penitentiary House, and the Black Prison” (Semple, 1993, p. 28). The first one was comparable to a lock up of the eighteenth century. He believed its individual function was to hold an accused person and persons awaiting their hearings. The differentiation among “a lockup and the House of Safe Custody was that the House of Safe Custody did not sentence to prison those persons who had brief punishment conditions to complete” (Semple 1993, p. 29). The Penitentiary House was the second type of penitentiary Bentham instituted. This institution was a phase above the first. Here the provisional incarceration transpired. He had divided the responsibilities of the lockup by separating responsibilities between the two institutions. The last type of penitentiary was the “Black Prison” that he instituted. This penitentiary presented extensive incarceration than the second penitentiary house. According to Semple (1993) who illustrates this penitentiary as, “In the Black Prison, to strike terror into the hearts of its inmates, two skeletons were to lie slumped together, one either side of an iron door, thus reminding them that they were indeed an abode of death from which there was no escape” (Semple 1993, p. 29).
Bentham goes into detail on the varieties of penitentiaries; Bentham also expanded a precise form of structural design with the purpose of it being beneficial toward the penitentiary atmosphere. This kind of structural design was called the “panopticon” (Semple1993 p. 29). According to Semplen (1993), the panopticon is, “the concept of the design is to allow an observer to observe all prisoners without the incarcerated being able to tell whether they are being watched, thereby conveying what one architect has called the "sentiment of an invisible omniscience" (Semple1993, p. 29).
Subsequent to him releasing his thoughts of what a penitentiary should be, England made quite a few modifications inside the criminal structure. The foremost modification was the court case era in 1834 of the silent system. According to Semple (1993), “The silent system gave slightly more freedom to prisoners but any type of communication was completely forbidden. Prisoners were not confined to cells but they worked together on various outdoor projects. If the silence was broken, a severe punishment would be issued” (Semple1993, p. 32).
The system ultimately broke the ground for the more accepted unattached organization. The introduction of the separate system was the second major change. This system was promoted by Jonas Hanway, a reformer who established the system between 1835 and 1850. This system was a rare system in that every inmate had his own small room and was locked up there for majority of time throughout the period of confinement. According to McGowen (1995) Hanway thought, "the separate system provided an opportunity for the prisoner to 'commune with his conscience'" (McConville & McGowen, 1995 p. 99-100). Throughout England and the world the division organization was accepted and is today the major process of incarceration (McConville & McGowen, 1995).
Pentonville Prison Pentonville prison was opened in 1842 using the blueprint of the ‘separate system’. According to McGowen (1995), Hanway contemplated, "Pentonville represented the apotheosis of the idea that a totally controlled environment could produce a reformed and autonomous individual" (McConville & McGowen, 1995, p. 101). This prison used the panopticon idea fulfilling the goals of the separate system (McConville & McGowen, 1995). During the birth of the industrial revolution and toward the midpoint of the nineteenth century, Joshua Jebb renovated the penal colony into its contemporary counterpart. According to McGowen (1995) “Jebb was chairman of the Directors of Convict Prisons from the late 1840s until his death in 1863” (McConville & McGowen, 1995 p. 104). Throughout his control as sovereign of the penitentiaries, his long-lasting marks exist in today’s penitentiaries. He formed the three stage tier of incarceration in the criminal penitentiary organization that merged the “separate system with the silent system” (McConville & McGowen, 1995 p. 104). He also formed provisions of the separate system. The inmates were lock up in their small room for the period of their punishment as part of the separate system. The period of confinement as part of the punishment was nine months long (McConville & McGowen, 1995). The second tier of incarceration Jebb established was the use of a community facility penitentiary. Dispatching inmates to the community facility upon completion of the nine months in isolated incarceration and would work on arduous duties that would help the community. These duties differed in character but, the fundamental objective was to cause the inmate to work agonizingly difficult jobs. According to McGowen (1995), Jebb illustrated these stages as "imprisonment with hard labor had become a near universal substitute for flogging and other corporal punishments by the middle of the nineteenth century" (McConville & McGowen, 1995, p. 146). The final phase of Jebb's incarceration was a provisional release. The prior two stages of imprisonment was contingent upon this release. The inmate must demonstrate good behavior to obtain each level (McConville & McGowen, 1995). World War I was a major way that prisons began to erode. National funds were entirely devastated at the same time as the world's financial system was crippled during the Great Depression. With scarcely any currency to use, penitentiary finances were the first to go. On the other hand, during this time there were crucial opinions that revolutionized the prison system institution formation. McConville (1995) described the factors of the dissemination of the prison system as follows: “The first was the vast and pressing program of repairing war damages; the second was the social and penal reformers' assurance that successive governments could not be blamed for wanting to believe. . . that crime would yield to social amelioration, that it was part of the passing turmoil of wartime upheaval, and that the need for prisons would decline” (McConville & McGowen, 1995, p. 154-155). In England today and throughout the United Stated the penitentiaries have progressed into facilities of two categories that the objective is restructuring the criminal into a successful component of humanity, if their actions, or prison term permit it (McConville & McGowen, 1995).
Conclusion
When Citizens who are watching out for the greatest concentration of those less prosperous than themselves, the penitentiary has developed into a humanitarian system however, it is far apart from the real world. The prison system has evolved throughout history from inhumane to a more humane system however, crime continues and as such the prison system becomes an overcrowded system.

References
Barnes, H. E. (1972). The story of punishment: A record of man's inhumanity to man. Montclair, New Jersey: Patterson Smith Publishing.
Ignatieff, M. (1978). A just measure of pain: The penitentiary in the industrial revolution 1750-1850. New York: Pantheon Books.
McConville, S. & McGowen, E. (1995). The Oxford history of the prison: The practice of punishment in western society. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Semple, J. (1993). Bentham's prison. Oxford: Clarendon Press

Addendum
The submitted assignment is my original work through research and reading and revisions. I have acknowledged all materials, ideas, and words of others that I have used, adapted, or paraphrased in this document.