Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideals and Models

In:

Submitted By Mickermoo1
Words 940
Pages 4
“Assignment: Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper” The word penitentiary falls back on the story of Creation. In the Bible, the chapter Genesis 1:2 says, “And the Earth was without form.” This is how a penitentiary was back in the 1700’s; it was merely an idea that had not been concrete to others yet. According to chapter 2 of the textbook; The Penitentiary and the 1800’s, “The penitentiary was more of an idea or set of principles than a physical institution with shape or form.” (Burk Foster, 2006). The only strange questions asked throughout is, what should a penitentiary be? A penitentiary had purposes to be both secular and spiritual. Instead of a penitentiary being all about physical punishment, it was supposed to be a place of humane punishment for wrong doers. Instead of prisoners being bunched together, the true penitentiary was meant to have them separated from each other to avoid contamination of the body and spirit. I personally think that a penitentiary should be more like a place to make an inmate know that they did wrong by breaking the law. Today in the 20th century, many prisons are giving inmates too many privileges. It seems as if they are trying to make their sentence spent in a penitentiary more like spending it at home. For example, inmates are allowed to watch television, have visitation form their families on the weekends, yard time, work out, work different kinds of jobs for a certain amount of money a month, and receive packages from families that contain new clothing, jewelry, and hotpots to make tea with. I think that a prison should make an inmate’s like behind bars torment, so that they are unlikely to become repeat offenders and land themselves a sentence back in prison. According to chapter 2 of the textbook; The Penitentiary and the 1800’s, “The principle goal of a

Similar Documents

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of U.S. Pr CJS/230 Based on the ideals of a penitentiary, what should it be like? Penitentiaries were built to separate criminals from other criminals once they were incarcerated. The ideas of how a penitentiary should be back in the early 1700’s, was a place to basically separate criminals and keep them from one another.   Based on what people thought, a penitentiary was a dark and dingy place. The buildings that held prisoners did not really look like prisons. But since people knew that the buildings held criminals they assumed the worst. Penitentiaries were meant to be a place people were punished for their crimes. They were supposed to be clean and healthy but most of them were dirty and dark. Criminals were treated for their acts. They were make them realize about their worst behavior and also treatment is given to them so that they don’t repeat their sin again in life. It ultimately makes the guilty ones realize their sin and at the same time make them the productive part of the society. What was the principal goal of a penitentiary? The principle goal of a penitentiary was to attain some kind of spiritual guidance while being incarcerated.   Several reformers came to the penitentiaries to sit and talk with the prisoners teaching them about different religions. They say the stepping stones in the new evolution of the prison system was the penitentiary. This model gave them new directions to the prisons. Although the very first attempts...

Words: 797 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prisons

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prisons Randi Olds CJS/ 230 Penitentiaries were built to separate criminals from other criminals once they were incarcerated. The ideas of how a penitentiary should be back in the early 1700’s, was a place to basically separate criminals and keep them from one another. Based on what people thought, a penitentiary was a dark and dingy place. The buildings that held prisoners did not really look like prisons. But since people knew that the buildings held criminals they assumed the worst. Penitentiaries were meant to be a place people were punished for their crimes. They were supposed to be clean and healthy but most of them were dirty and dark. The principle goal of a penitentiary was to attain some kind of spiritual guidance while being incarcerated. Several reformers came to the penitentiaries to sit and talk with the prisoners teaching them about different religions. Auburn Auburn penitentiary opened in 1817 just thirty miles north of New York City. This penitentiary was small cells stacked on top of each other. The cells measured seven feet long by three and a half feet wide and were seven foot tall. The prisoners were not allowed outside because there was no courtyard. This penitentiary divided the prisoners into three groups. They were divided only to be controlled better. There were divided by solitary confinement, group work during the day, and slept in single cells at night. This penitentiary used solitary confinement...

Words: 718 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideals and Models of American Prison

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Hope Washington CJS/230 Introduction to Corrections May 5, 2013 John Feltgen The punishment ideals of penitentiary is for punishment, to remove those who are a danger to others from society and to reform those that can be released back in to society ideal of a penitentiary. Most criminals go to prison and come out and be better than before and then you have those individuals that still don’t the same thing and go right back to prison. Prison is suppose too reform criminals but when you really don’t have a care in the world it really does not matter if you go to prison. The principal goal of a penitentiary was for the offender to think about what they have done in isolation with no other prisoner contact. The American prison system was divided amongst two different types: Eastern State and Auburn. Both prisons were run in very different manors and my intentions are to explain each prison and the goals that they had in mind. The penitentiary was designed to be a place where punishment would be given in a humane way to people who had committed a crime. People who were incarcerated could receive rehabilitation as well as gain spiritual improvement while serving their sentence. The prisons should be a place where an individual would do their time as well as reflect on the events that led them to incarceration and make a choice to change their life around. Prisons were not made to be a comfortable living space so punishments and...

Words: 877 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideals and Models of American Prison

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison CJS/230 April 27, 2014 Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison The Eastern State Penitentiary ideal was supposed to be both a spiritual and non-spiritual place of punishment, mostly created and intended for repentance. The punishment that was delivered was to be considered humane, as opposed to physical, corporal punishment delivered in the jails. (Foster, 2006) The idea of the penitentiary was to create a particular punishment that would be considered a common upon all serious offenders. It was intended to replace the many different types of punishment that was handed down by the Judges when prisoners were sentenced to jail. One goal of the penitentiary was to be a completely different concept than that of a jail, the vision was for the penitentiary to be a clean and humane place where inmates could be housed. Inmates were kept separate and away from each other, in solitary confinement in an effort to help them maintain a clean body and clean spirit. Discipline that was used in the penitentiary was intended to correct the inmate’s behavior by strictly enforcing particular rules. The penitentiary model allowed prisoners to be productive by laboring and making handmade items, such as shoes and leather goods. Prisoners were just not permitted to just sit around all day; similar to what was happening in the jails. Although, the penitentiary was a secular place, it was created with a more spiritual intent. The...

Words: 930 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison ? CJS/230 June ?, 2012 ? Abstract In this overview the following points will be addressed: based on the ideals of the penitentiary, what it should be like, the principal goal of a penitentiary, the differences between the two prison models, the benefits and the drawbacks of those models, and the model considered to be the winning model. Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Unlike American prisons and penitentiary’s we see today, they were much different as we look back into our history in the early eras of how prisons, penitentiaries, and inmates were handled. Penitentiary is defined as a prison or place of confinement where persons convicted of felonies serve their term of imprisonment. Based on the ideals of a penitentiary it is supposed to be a place of humane punishments instead of the harsh physical type. Furthermore, it was supposed to be a specific punishment. It was to be clean and sanitary in comparison to jails. The most important focus and principal goal of the penitentiary was to practice corrective discipline by the creation of habits of industry by the enforcement of rules. Inmates were to work consistently and not idle. It seemed like good intentions and motive went into trying to organize this type of system. The two prison models according to Corrections: The Fundamentals, by Burk Foster. Published by Prentice-Hall. Copyright © 2006 by Pearson Education, Inc, Chapter 2 reading...

Words: 783 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison A prison is in place to confine and deprive people from their basic freedoms. A prison is an institution that is part of the criminal justice system that is imposed for the conviction of a crime. A criminal that is charged or going to be charged will be held in a prison if unable to come up with the money for bail. A criminal defendant is also placed in a prison if they are found guilty of a crime (Americanprisonsystem.com, 2009). Throughout this paper the history of a prison, the Penitentiary Rivalry between Pennsylvania and New York and the effect these have had on the prison system we have in place today. The American prison system has been in place since the late 18th century. “Bridewells” were the first prisons and they were found in England. These prisons had very little to do with any form of punishment and were mainly used as holding cells for those facing a trial or those about to be executed, or those being banished from their community. The Walnut Street jail was the first penitentiary to be opened by the state of Pennsylvania in 1790.This particular jail was ran on the ideal that silence from the inmates would encourage them to think about their crime and then their conscience would lead them to repent for their crimes (Gaines & Miller, 2009). Being isolated from one another and being kept busy with different tasks was how the inmates lived. The prison eventually began to experience the same problems that...

Words: 985 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison

...The ideal for penitentiary as its core is confinement and imprisonment in order to keep the criminals off the streets so that he or she cannot continue to commit a crime in the society. It was also the main form of punishment for crimes that were committed. Taking away a person’s freedom and subjecting them to confinement as a means of punishment. Penitentiary ideal purposes were both secular and spiritual (Foster 2006). Prisons were in basic terms designed to give criminals a place that isolated him or her away from other people. Designed to be safe not only health wise, but also for the inmate’s safety from themselves and others. It was also a place that ensured the punishment the court system deemed equal to the crimes committed. The judge/courts administer a sentence to the criminals and other punishment while in the penitentiary (Foster 2006). During this time it was thought the criminal would consider and think about the wrongdoings that were committed, and try to accomplish a change in their life choices before being released. In the penitentiary, it should be rough because people cannot do what he or she pleases. Inmates have to follow certain rules to avoided punishment or lock up in solitary confinement. The people who work in the penitentiary has a little freedom than inmates who refuse to work while he or she locked up. Penitentiary is a safe place to keep criminals so that people who been caught is not out on the street to keep committing a crime in the society...

Words: 913 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prisons

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prisons Name Institution * The penitentiary was a stepping stone in the evolution of the prison. The penitentiary, however, was the first attempt to use confinement as the punishment itself. In England, one of the first models for the modern prison was intended to provide a place of penance for prostitutes. No matter where most of us live in the world the modern day penitentiary has some philosophy and design history thanks to such British thinkers (philosophers) as John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism) and those who took some of his writings a step or two further: Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Robert Malthus. This radical experiment was based on principles of separation from the moral contagion of their former lives, religious contemplation, and rigid structure. * * The state can respond to crime in a number of ways; together, the responses of the criminal justice system constitute one set of possible actions. The American Prison Association changed its name to American Correctional Association. This name change reflected the growing role of probation, parole, and other non-institutional methods of supervising and helping criminals. But symbolically it gave prisons a new mission: rehabilitation. Prisons offered an unprecedented number of programs designed to change the behavior of men and women in prison-to turn their law-breaking behavior into law-abiding citizens...

Words: 745 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideals and Models of American Prison

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Hope Washington CJS/230 Introduction to Corrections May 5, 2013 John Feltgen The punishment ideals of penitentiary is for punishment, to remove those who are a danger to others from society and to reform those that can be released back in to society ideal of a penitentiary. Most criminals go to prison and come out and be better than before and then you have those individuals that still don’t the same thing and go right back to prison. Prison is suppose too reform criminals but when you really don’t have a care in the world it really does not matter if you go to prison. The principal goal of a penitentiary was for the offender to think about what they have done in isolation with no other prisoner contact. The American prison system was divided amongst two different types: Eastern State and Auburn. Both prisons were run in very different manors and my intentions are to explain each prison and the goals that they had in mind. The penitentiary was designed to be a place where punishment would be given in a humane way to people who had committed a crime. People who were incarcerated could receive rehabilitation as well as gain spiritual improvement while serving their sentence. The prisons should be a place where an individual would do their time as well as reflect on the events that led them to incarceration and make a choice to change their life around. Prisons were not made to be a comfortable living space so punishments and...

Words: 877 - Pages: 4

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of Amercan Prisons Paper

...(Americanprisonsystem.com, 2009). The penitentiary was a stepping stone in the evolution of the prison. The penitentiary, however, was the first attempt to use confinement as the punishment itself. In England, one of the first models for the modern prison was intended to provide a place of penance for prostitutes. No matter where most of us live in the world the modern day penitentiary has some philosophy and design history. The penitentiary is a place that posted to be clean and healthy for the inmates. In addition, it a place that ensures the punishment the judge gives to the criminals and other punishment while in the penitentiary (Foster, "Chapter 2/The Penitentiary Ideal," 2006). The criminals are able to think about his or her wrongdoing and try to accomplish a change in life while incarcerated. The ideal for penitentiary is to keep the criminals off the streets, so that he or she cannot continue to commit crime in the society. Penitentiary ideal purposes were both secular and spiritual (Foster, "Chapter 2/The Penitentiary Ideal," 2006). A penitentiary had purposes to be both secular and spiritual. Instead of a penitentiary being all about physical punishment, it was supposed to be a place of humane punishment for wrong doers. Instead of prisoners being bunched together, the true penitentiary was meant to have them separated from each other to avoid contamination of the body and spirit. I personally think that a penitentiary should be more like a place...

Words: 751 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper Patricia Ann Long CJS/230 November 20, 2011 Amanda Eicher Abstract The ideal for penitentiary is to keep the criminals off the streets, so that he or she cannot continue to commit crime in the society. Penitentiary ideal purposes were both secular and spiritual (Foster, "Chapter 2/The Penitentiary Ideal," 2006). The two prison models are Eastern State and Auburn. Explain the difference between both of the two prison models. The differences are the cell’s size, exercise yard, confinement to the cells, and the places that the inmates work at in the penitentiary. Penitentiary has its own benefits and drawback because no system is perfect. Some benefits are inmates not allowed to communicate with the other inmates, way that the penitentiary has the inmates working instead of his or her staying in the cell doing nothing during the day. Some drawback is that the inmates at Eastern State do not see other people during the day and for Auburn the inmates are interacting with each other on a daily basic, and it could cause problem with some of the inmates. The winning model is the Auburn because of it is affordable, productivity, and efficient management. The Eastern State is the idea penitentiary but the government has to use the affordable method that found. Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper The ideal of penitentiary is for the criminals have a place that isolated him or her away from other...

Words: 999 - Pages: 4

Free Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and the Two Models of American Prisons

...Penitentiary Ideal and The Two Models of American Prisons Based on the ideals of a penitentiary, what should it be like? What was the principle goal of a penitentiary? What were the differences between the two prison models? What were the benefits and the drawbacks of each model? Which model was considered to be the winning model? The penitentiary was a stepping stone in the evolution of the prison. The penitentiary, however, was the first attempt to use confinement as the punishment itself. In England, one of the first models for the modern prison was intended to provide a place of penance for prostitutes. No matter where most of us live in the world the modern day penitentiary has some philosophy and design history thanks to such British thinkers (philosophers) as John Stuart Mill (Utilitarianism) and those who took some of his writings a step or two further: Jeremy Bentham and Thomas Robert Malthus. This radical experiment was based on principles of separation from the moral contagion of their former lives, religious contemplation, and rigid structure. The state can respond to crime in a number of ways; together, the responses of the criminal justice system constitute one set of possible actions. The American Prison Association changed its name to American Correctional Association. This name change reflected the growing role of probation, parole, and other non-institutional methods of supervising and helping criminals. But symbolically it gave prisons a new mission:...

Words: 287 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper

...Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper Angelenette Perham AAEW11ZEZ1 February 26, 2012 Edward Harris Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper The main goal of the penitentiary ideal was for individuals that were in lock-up to achieve some kind of spiritual transformation, within a criminals mind. The prison was meant to be a place where an individual was taught discipline through strict enforced rules (Foster, 2006). Instead of this being the way that a penitentiary or prison should be conducted, it was conducted with harsh punishments. Sometimes the punishments were so harsh and cruel that it caused several inmates to go insane. The penitentiary is a place where an individual should be allowed to go and rehabilitate themselves on all levels for any crime that they may have committed. It was meant to be a place where a criminal could make a spiritual and scholar connection. The penitentiary was created to be a place of humane punishment and should not be a place for physical punishment. It was meant to be a clean and healthy environment unlike the common jails that usually housed criminals (Foster, 2006). There were two models of American prisons created back in the middle 1700-1800’s among several other prisons. The two models were known as the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems. These two systems were said to be built from the main ideal of what a penitentiary should be like, but these two prisons...

Words: 746 - Pages: 3

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison

...Capstone: reflections on Nutrition Michelle A. Lilley SCI/241 May 25, 2011 Mike Esposito Capstone: reflections on Nutrition This class has been very enlightening for me and I have truly enjoyed it, but I think that the assignment I liked most was the human digestion system in week two. This was very interesting to me to see exactly how this process works and all the different areas that we have that work as one for the digestion process to occur. I did try a new diet plan that USDA Food Guide Pyramid suggested and ate more different kinds of foods that were recommended out of my normal routine. I felt that it just was not for me. Although I did start eating more dark green vegetables and other types of vegetables that I normally would not eat because of the type of diet lifestyle I was on, and I feel it has made me feel better about myself that I am getting the nutrients that I need to be healthy. I started this in the week one assignment: Fundamentals of health and diet. This lesson also taught me the importance that introducing the different kinds of vegetables and foods to my diet was more healthful to me. I also learned this in week five: The impact of water, Vitamins and Minerals. I feel this week was the most useful to me and helped me understand the importance of water in our diets and the importance of vitamins and minerals to keep us healthy. Overall I truly enjoyed everything I learned in this class and hope to use all the tools for the rest...

Words: 311 - Pages: 2

Premium Essay

Penitentiary Ideal and Models of American Prison Paper

...State and local courts are established by a state. Federal courts are established under the U.S. Constitution to decide disputes involving the Constitution and laws passed by Congress. Here in the state of California, the differences between federal and state courts are defined mainly by jurisdiction. Jurisdiction refers to the kinds of cases a court is authorized to hear. California State courts have a broad jurisdiction, so the cases individual citizens are most likely to be involved in such as robberies, traffic violations, broken contracts, and family disputes, are usually tried in the states court. The only cases that the state court is not allowed to hear are lawsuits against the United States and those involving certain specific federal laws such as criminal, antitrust, bankruptcy, patent, copyright, and some maritime cases. The Federal courts may hear cases concerning state laws if the issue is whether the state law violates the federal Constitution. Suppose a California State law forbids slaughtering animals outside of certain areas. A neighborhood association brings a case in state court against a defendant who sacrifices goats in his backyard. When the court issues an order (called an injunction) forbidding the defendant from further sacrifices, the defendant challenges the state law in federal court as an unconstitutional infringement of his religious freedom. Some kinds of conduct are illegal under both federal and state laws here in California. For example...

Words: 275 - Pages: 2