Prison Reform Essay

When people think of reform movements, they often look for one key sign, and ask one key question of whether that the reform was a success. Did the reform create a lasting change in the way people view the institution that was reformed? All the great reformation movements, from Horace Mann and his education reforms, to Martin Luther, and the Protestant Reformation, to the civil rights movement, all created lasting change in the minds of the average person. One other reform, often overlooked historically is the Prison Reform movement. As the world shifted from 18th to 19th century ways of life, many key aspects of life underwent tremendous change. As the United States gained their independence from Britain and began to shape their own identity,

They did so by isolating prisoners from one another at all times. Interaction between guards and inmates was minimized, and each prisoner was given a single cell room. Feeding doors opened up to grant the prisoner food and water, and were sound-proofed as well as possible to prevent noise from entering. The entire purpose of this plan was to leave the prisoner time of quiet meditation, allowing him to think about the error in their ways, and eventually become rehabilitated. Alex de Tocqueville praised the concept, writing about his 1831 trip: "Can there be a combination more powerful for reformation than solitude...leads [a prisoner] through reflection to remorse, through religion to hope; makes him industrious by...idleness?"8 The plan was a grand success, attracting officials and tourists to study the architecture, and led to the adoption of the same system in over three-hundred prisons throughout Europe, South America, Russia, China and Japan. While many supported the system, many others felt the system of solitary confinement was counter-productive, and in fact led to further mental distress, rather than helping the prisoner to reform. Charles Dickens, after his visit in 1842, wrote critically: "I am persuaded that those who designed this system... do not know what it

The New York House of Refuge was the first juvenile reformatory in the nation, and opened its doors on New Years Day, January 1st, 1825. With the opening in New York, it led to a House of refuge being built in Boston in 1826, followed by Philadelphia opening one of their own in 1828.11 The prison was funded by a philanthropic association called the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, which conducted a survey in 1820 which extensively surveyed prisons across the country, and their findings led to the creation of the House of Refuge.12 In particular, the finding discovered that revenge was often a primary motivation for dealing with prisoners, and that age or severity of the crime committed rarely influenced the severity of punishment doled out. In short, the punishment did not always fit the crime. On the opening day of the prison, only a total of nine children, six boys and three girls were admitted. This number soon exploded, as within only a decade 1,678 inmates occupied the prison.13 Two key features definitively distinguished this institution from those in Britain and Pennsylvania, including that children were committed for not only vagrancy, but petty crimes as well. Second of all, rather then having a specific sentence, The House of Refuge admitted children