The idea behind prisons is to rehabilitate as well as punish offenders that have committed an offence which is deemed against the law. (Oxford dictionary, 2017). The stay at the prison varies depending on the severity of the offence that was committed and weather the offender is perceived to be likely to commit another crime if they were to be released, this is for the court to decide.
The first prison named The Newgate Prison, was built in 1166 by King Henry II and ran till 1902. This prison was set in dungeons that was mainly used by Army or Military Officers, eventually people who committed crimes were located at this prison which had poor conditions. In 1782 due to the poor conditions, it meant that a regeneration had to be done, the prison
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The penal reformists like Maconochie Alexander saw the wrong in the treatment of offenders and wrote a report ‘The state of Prison Discipline in Van Diemen’s Land’ 1838. The report stated the improvements that should be made in the prison service however it needed authorisation by the British Authority to take power in the UK. Maconochie made two main theories based on penal punishment and the sentence that offenders should get after being charged with an offence.
Firstly, Maconochie said that punishment should be a source of rehabilitation for the offender to get them back onto the right path in life. The second theory that was created is that a convict’s sentence should not be determined by the offence they committed but the behaviour and exertion when incarcerated. The report that was published, was sent to the Home Office by Franklin whom had knowledge of the severity of the prisons and was therefore published as a parliamentary
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This prison had strict rules such as the males and females being separated, different cell rooms for different severity of offences, uniforms were to be worn always and prisoners were taught to read and write. (VCP, 2017).
In 1990, Lord Woolf that worked for the criminal justice human rights committee argued that the prison service is still not providing justice for offenders, he stated “These themes must come together in the programmes provided for prisoners and in the way, they are treated in prison. They must come together also in what is expected of prisoners… were these proposals to be followed, then we believe that they would substantially influence the way that prisoners come to view the prison system.’’
In 1995, a prison reform charity was set up to help people work together in reforming the prison service and making it better for both the workers and the convicts. They introduced a behaviour scheme were convicts could be rewarded for good behaviour and punished if they done something wrong. (Prison Reform Trust, 2017). The Charity believed that the behaviour scheme will increase the discipline that is reinforced and allow staff to have a connection with the
The conditions of prisons were a bit dreadful. In some prisons, prisoners had their feet fasten together by iron bars and had chains around their necks. Most prisoner cells had very little furniture and bedding, prisoners had to sleep on the floor or unless had their friends supply them with furniture and bedding. Most cells did not have a toilet, prisoners were given buckets. A prisoner was giving a small loaf of bread unless they had money to buy more food but that was a bit expensive. Even children were allowed in prisons. Some prison...
When envisioning a prison, one often conceptualizes a grisly scene of hardened rapists and murderers wandering aimlessly down the darkened halls of Alcatraz, as opposed to a pleasant facility catering to the needs of troubled souls. Prisons have long been a source of punishment for inmates in America and the debate continues as to whether or not an overhaul of the US prison system should occur. Such an overhaul would readjust the focuses of prison to rehabilitation and incarceration of inmates instead of the current focuses of punishment and incarceration. Altering the goal of the entire state and federal prison system for the purpose of rehabilitation is an unrealistic objective, however. Rehabilitation should not be the main purpose of prison because there are outlying factors that negatively affect the success of rehabilitation programs and such programs would be too costly for prisons currently struggling to accommodate additional inmate needs.
Morris, Norval, and David Rothman. The Oxford History of the Prison. New York: Oxford University Press, 1995.
Throughout the nineteenth century, penology was characterized by a debate between two 'schools'. The first was the system of "solitary" and "segregation" proposed by the Pennsylvania penitentiary. The second, that of which will be discussed in this paper, the "silent" and "congregate" system was designed for the Auburn penitentiary in New York State.
The credit for establishing the early parole system goes to Alexander Maconochie who was in charge of the English penal colony at Norfolk Island, off the coast of Australia and Sir Walter Crofton, director of Ireland’s prisons.
This type of legislation has been devised to allow for the detention of people based upon assessments of risk of re-offending, this essay will explore the concerns with these practices. This essay further aims to explore the moral and practical implications of such sentencing provisions and the impact it has on the whole Justice System. The writer will also address the conflicting goals of Corrections and the purpose and impact of indefinite sentencing while exploring the justifications against such legislation. This essay also aims to show that even though we may feel disgust for these types of offences we must remember the fundamentals of the Criminal Law system and understand that people are entitled to equality and fairness in the eyes of the law.
Eighteenth Century Prison Conditions Eighteenth century prisons had appalling conditions. The conditions in every aspect were horrendous, the cells were bare, empty rooms except for a bed and if you were lucky a fireplace with overcrowding in most prisons affecting conditions, prison was not the best place to be living unless you were rich. Most conditions were due to the fact that no one tried or attempted to rehabilitate the prisoners, prisons were just built to hold people until they were either hung or had paid off their debt. Some prisons didn't even segregate prisoners according to their crime, age or sex. This led to young children being influenced by the older more 'experienced' prisoners.
Three walls of the house. One toilet seat and one toilet. Bars made of mild steel and a lock only accessible to men who government calls authority figures. Prison systems are known for three things: to protect the people, to punish the criminal and to rehabilitate the prisoner so that a crime will not be further committed. However, it has been causing ongoing controversy on whether or not it has been stripping away the earned rights of citizens or indeed helping them become “better” for society.
Over the past couple of decades the UK’s prison population has exploded, causing an overcrowding crisis. Statistics show that intake has doubled since 1993 and the UK now has the largest population of prison inmates in Western Europe at 85,108. The Certified Normal Accommodation (CAN) for UK prisons is 75,440, so ‘the prison estate is currently holding just under 10,000 more people than it was designed to’ as reported by the Prison Reform Trust. Their research shows that ‘the 30 most overcrowded prisons in England and Wales are twice as likely to be rated as failing by the prison service’. Overcrowding is having a negative impact on the effectiveness and safety of the prisons which has been amplified by ‘cuts of more than 20% to the prison budget’ and ‘reformers argue that the best way to improve the system is to reduce both the number of people sent to prison and the amount of time they spend there’. According to The Howard League for Penal Reform, imposing community sentences on offenders rather than prison sentences, immediately diverts them away from ‘rivers of crime’, where ‘prisons are sinking under a tide of violence and rampant drug abuse’ and they argue that by simply putting people in prison they can be swept ‘deeper and
What are prisons for? This is a question that must be asked in order to understand the problems facing prisons. Prisons serve two main functions; separation and rehabilitation. Criminals cannot be allowed to walk around with everyone else without being punished; they must be separated from society. The thought of going to prison helps deter most people from crime. Rehabilitation is the main goal of prison; making a bad person into a good person by the time they are released. These seem like cut and dry functions, but as of late some believe that prisons in the United States have failed in their attempts to separate and rehabilitate.
For many years, there have been a huge debate on the ideal of reform versus punishment. Many of these debates consist of the treatment and conditioning of individuals serving time in prison. Should prison facilities be a place solely to derogate freewill and punish prisoners as a design ideology of deterrence? Should prison facilities be design for rehabilitation and conditioning, aim to educate prisoners to integrate back into society.
Punishing criminals by putting them in a correctional facility such as prisons can be successful in repenting the criminal as they would reflect on their own actions, allowing the guilt to make them better people, probably even seeing their own faults through other prisoners. Prisons give criminals a chance to rehabilitate themselves by using the facilities there present such as the counseling and seminars given. The fact that prisons house a lot of criminals that associate with each other has created a “criminal community”, an atmosphere where crime inhibits; therefore criminals can only aid each other out to become better “crims”, learning the tricks of the trade as well as toughening each other up through the highly abusive nature of the criminals there. Health wise, prisons can highly be dangerous and lethal to the prisoners; such diseases as AIDS from homosexual relationships and drug use is prevalent, as well as male rape, and even female rape, even some become mentally insane. In general however, prisons aren’t a nice place to be.
The origin of the word prison comes from the Latin word to seize. It is fair to say that the traditionally use of prison correspond well with the origin of the word; as traditionally prison was a place for holding people whilst they were awaiting trail. Now, centuries on and prisons today is used as a very popular, and severe form of punishment offered to those that have been convicted. With the exception however, of the death penalty and corporal punishment that still takes place in some countries. Being that Prison is a very popular form of punishment used in today's society to tackle crime and punish offenders, this essay will then be examining whether prison works, by drawing on relevant sociological factors. Furthermore, it will be looking at whether punishment could be re-imagined, and if so, what would it entail?
A commonplace shows the difference in the similarity while a counter-place represents the similarity in the difference, according to Dung Kai-Cheung in his fiction Atlas, the Archaeology of an Imaginary City. Although confusing, the adaptation of the Merchant of Venice and the original script are great examples that will aid in comprehending the author's theories. Through these works, the idea of counter-place is put forth, along with commonplace. The adaptation, in itself, is a commonplace as it derives from the original playwright by William Shakespeare.
Throughout the decades of correction, there has been an argument between rehabilitation and retribution. Although people think of prison as a reformatory, a place where criminals who have committed crimes pay their debt to society and learn their lessons, in order to return to society. People think of prison as a place of punishment, where the loss of freedom, limited privileges and rights are undertaken to enforce a punishment on criminals and to protect society. The question is which of these beliefs, retribution or rehabilitation, is more effective or important.