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Ethical Treatment

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Ethical Treatment of Prisoners Scott Bain
SOC120: Introduction to Ethics and Social Responsibility
Instructor: Steven Smith
7/29/2013

Ethical Treatment of Prisoners The word prisoner, or as the correctional institutions refer to their population, inmates, is defined as a person who is deprived of liberty and kept under involuntary restraint, confinement, or custody (na, 2013, Merriam Webster Dictionary). If convicted by a jury of your peers of a crime in the United States you automatically forfeit certain privileges guaranteed to all citizens. The constitution however does assure that prisoners have basic rights and protections which must be observed. We are all members of the human race and the ethical treatment of everyone, incrassated or free, must continue in order to maintain balance and order in a free democratic society. Incrassation as punishment for committing a crime was rarely used up until the 18 century; instead sentences were normally decided on the spot, usually the accused was either sent to the gallows or set free from lack of evidence. Capital punishment was used regularly and was thought to be a justifiable deterrent to violent crimes in the early years of the United States. Although prisons were some of the first structures built by the early Americans, they were not built as a place intended for punishment of the general population, instead they were reserved for high ranking political figures convicted of crimes, or for individuals in debt or behind in taxes to the government. (Lynch, J. 2007). The Pennsylvania Quakers were one of the first groups to speak out against capital punishment and instead suggested incrassation as an alternate form of punishment. In the years leading up to the American Revolution and especially right after, state after state began reducing the number of death penalty offences and instead the

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