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 Pennsylvania prison society is said to be the first prison to be formed to respond to the conditions that were in oppressive and this led to walnut street jail in Philadelphia being built (Roth, 2011). The majority of the prisoners had no clothing because they had exchanged their clothing for liquor as the disorderliness of the place had led to corruption where alcohol and drugs were being sold in the prisons. During this time, the prisoners were kept in large, crowded rooms and minor and major offenders were kept in the same room. After the reforms, the prisoners were then sorted in accordance with their crimes or offenses and the overcrowding was addressed and minimized. At the same time, workshops were started to help the prisoners acquire skills in the trade.
Zimbardo-Stanford Prison Experiment The Stanford Prison Experiment was made because Zimbardo was interested in finding out whether the brutality reported among guards in American prisons was due to the sadistic personalities of the guards or had more to do with the prison environment. Since Zimbardo wanted the experiment to feel real, he had the students, who were assigned as prisoners, to be arrested at their own homes, without any warnings. They were first taken to a real jail where they were fingerprinted, photographed and “booked” before being blindfolded and taken to the “prison” where the experiment would take place. Each prisoner had their personal possessions removed and locked away; they were given prison clothes and were referred to by their number on their uniform. The Stanford Prison Experiment was a mock prison experiment where they had chosen 24 Male Students selected from the 75 who volunteered to join the experiment.
Philip Zimbardo actually played the role of the warden and looked over the behavior inside the prison. The Stanford experiment was originally supposed to last for 14 days but had to be cut short due to what was occurring inside the mock prison. The guards became abusive and the prisoners began experiencing stress and anxiety. The guards and prisoners were never instructed in how to behave and were left with that freedom. Instead of behaving in a positive manner the guards started to become aggressive and abusive towards prisoners and the prisoners started to become passive
The building itself was based on a new design where prison cells do not touch the outside walls of the cell block. The cells were small compared to Eastern and were meant for sleeping. Discipline was small individual cells, large work area for group labor, and enforced silence. Solitary confinement as a punishment led to sickness and insanity. The regimen at Auburn included group work in the shops during the day, separation of prisoners into small individual cells at night, silence at all times, lockstep marching formation, and a group meal at which the prisoners sat face to back (Allen, Latessa, & Ponder,
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 demographic group most affected by the war on drugs and the incarceration boom are the juveniles. Youth who turn to drugs and alcohol abuse are faced with harsh reality at YSI Facilities, another branch of the private prison industry. Rather than being charged with fines appropriate to their offenses and being sent to rehabilitation or other forms of drug treatment, non-violent offenders are locked away with long, harsh sentences. This profit-driven war on drugs and other substance abuse ruins the lives of the inmates, turning them into harder criminals by exposing them to such environments. According to a project run by The Huffington Post, 40% of juvenile offenders sent to private prisons on account of drug related crimes are arrested and convicted of harsher crimes in less than a year from their release (Kirkham).
The public had no idea what went on inside the prison even though the public is typically the one determining the fate of these criminals as the jury. The public should know because it is deterrence for the rest of the public so they don’t wind up in
Between the years 1934 and 1963 one of the most infamous prisons in history was operated. Alcatraz Island Federal Penitentiary earned a reputation for being one of the most feared prisons in the world. Its maximum-security “escape-proof” environment was built to house the most villainous criminals of its time. For 29 years, under four wardens, Alcatraz Penitentiary succeeded as being a place of isolation and reformation for a total of 1,567 inmates. During the 1930’s a crime wave crashed through American towns and cities.
Prison Environment CJS/230 Prison Environment To define a prison accurately would be dependent upon the security level; the different levels change the atmosphere and design. Generally, a prison is an overcrowded, confined, dreary, stressful, and depressing milieu. Many of the cells have bunk beds, within a several feet of the inmates bunk is the sink and toilet. There is not any way impossible to have any privacy as there are normally two inmates to a cell. Prison life can be very treacherous.