Walnut Street Jail Janice Tighe Harrison College History of Criminal Justice Mr. Royer 10/17/11 As a Criminal Justice student it is important to know and understand some of the history of our Criminal Justice system. One aspect to know would be the history of our correctional system, in particular the Walnut Street Jail. Before the creation of the Walnut Street Jail life for prisoners was cruel and inhumane. As our text states “By the late eighteenth century, men, women, and children were till mixed together in many American jails. Before the birth of the modern penitentiary at Walnut Street (Philadelphia) in 1790, prisoners endured unimaginable squalor” (Roth, 2011, p. 86).
The obvious examples in the past were when police officers have a power to arrest with ‘sus’ laws, under the 1824 Vagrancy Act (s4 and s6). Many people saw and ethnic minorities felt the abuse of this practice. Police officer stop and search and arrest people based on ‘intent to commit an arrestable offence’ for people grouping in public area. Hunte (1966: 12) mentioned ‘nigger hunting’ activity by junior police officer. Due to this problem, Scarman Report suggested to reform ‘recruitment and training’ because of racism in young police officers.
During the Eighteenth century English justice used a wide variety of measures to punish crime, including fines, the pillory and whipping. Transportation to America was often offered, until 1776, as an alternative to the death penalty, which could be imposed for many offenses including pilfering. When they ran out of prisons in 1776 they used old sailing vessels which came to be called hulks as places of temporary confinement. Jails contained both felons and debtors - the latter were allowed to bring in wives and children. The jailer made his money by charging the inmates for food and drink and legal services and the whole system was corrupt.
Prisons are consistently overflowing with repeat offenders and minor criminals. In addition to repeat offenders and perpetrators of minor crimes clogging up the system, the cost of keeping a prisoner is astronomical compared to the author’s suggested form of punishment. However, I do see the need for prisons, or someplace comparable, to keep the most violent criminals out of society. I believe Moskos should have stated hard facts regarding the ineffectiveness of prisons and given pertinent details about the productive use of corporal punishment. I’m not sure there are any “appropriate” forms of punishment.
The law was also adapted in order to get more violent individuals off of the street, instead it filled the prisons with nonviolent, low priority felons. In North Carolina a habitual felon is defined as "any person who has been convicted of or pled guilty to three felony offenses in any federal or state court
These beliefs became heavily challenged in congress because they made the criminal justice system responsible for turning criminals into law abiding citizens. During the 1970’s indeterminate period the emphasis was rehabilitation, community treatment, diversion, reintegration, and education and employment programs (Mackenzie, D.
It served as the town hall and law court. The central hall, surrounded by a colonnade and passages, was a popular meeting place for citizens. (Ganeri 32) Two people found guilty of the same crime might be treated very differently. Penalties for wealthy Romans were less severe than those for the poor. (Sheehan and Levy 21) Slaves received the harshest punishments.
The holding cell was so boring, cozy, very well lit and the bed was very uncomfortable from the one I was use to laying in at my house, which made it hard for me to go to sleep. The food was terrible and unsatisfying it had no season even the drink was unflavorable and had an unpleasant smell. The smell in the jail was unpleasant also because other inmates wasn’t grooming and washing their bodies like they suppose to have been doing. The guards was huge and so were some of the other inmates I saw passing by my cell and jail was so noisy and loud because of the guards and inmates yelling and screaming all they and night at one another. I figured that the jail was filthy and filled with bacteria because of the different racist and inmates coming and going, so I was afraid to touch anything because I didn’t want to become seriously ill.
Moreover, the constitution which is responsible for the peace and safety of society also becomes the scene of violance. While the use of torture in order to make people confess and make them say the truth is critisized, violance is now seen obviously in streets and also in police cars to punish people. Decedents, who are died because of not to obey “stop warning” of the police, people who are beaten in jail and who are coshed in actions even if the action is legal, etc are the victims of violance. 2-CASE OF ENGIN CEBER For a concrete and contemporary instance, the death of Engin Ceber can be given. While Engin Ceber was allocating magazines in Sarıyer during an action, he was putting in jail.
Indeed, the executions in Kilmainham made them react because of their barbarity: one of the leaders, who was hurt to the leg, could not get up, so the people who ran the jail, who still wanted to execute him, tied him up to a chair, and shot him that way. The barbarity of that execution made Irish People react. The jail, on top of that, made the prisoners live in terrible conditions : there were not enough cells for every prisoner, so they had to put many people in the same room, women, men and children together : they were also treated the same way. There were a lot of children in that jail, but they had to do everything that an adult would do, and if they would disobey, they would receive the same treatment as adults: the prisoners were beaten with a whip, and vinegar was put on their wounds afterwards. A week later, when the wounds began to heal, the guards would beat them over.