A. Corporal and capital punishment were commonly employed for most offenses.

1. Hanging, branding, banishment, etc.
2. Incarceration was an uncommon practice and was never used as the sole means of punishment.
3. Jails held people awaiting trial, those sentenced but not yet punished, and debtors

II. Post-Revolution Methods Of Social Control

A. Founding fathers did not accept the British methods of social control. Felt a system in which punishment was sure but humane would act as a deterrent to crime to all but a few. Many sought the development of prisons, not because they thought that prisons would/could reform criminals, but that prisons would be more humane than whipping or hanging.

B. Penitentiaries Were Developed As Places To Reform Criminals(86)

A. The Pennsylvania Reformers Experimented With Several Different Systems

a. The Jail divided its inmates into two separately housed groups:
    i. More serious offenders were housed in separate solitary cells.
    ii. Less serious offenders were congregately housed in large rooms and allowed to labor at common occupations
b. Prisoners were given early releases as well as wages as incentives to good conduct.
c. System worked well for 10 years. Crime fell in the city. System failed due to lax discipline and overcrowding.

2. The Pennsylvania System -1829, The Eastern Penitentiary at Cherry Hill

a. Based upon solitary confinement. Each inmate housed separately and not allowed any contact with other inmates, family or friends. Only contact was with staff members and members of charitable prison organizations.
b. Inmates work in the cells - to alleviate boredom and to allow the inmate to, in part, pay his way.
c. Penitence. Solitary confinement would lead an inmate to reflect upon his sins and thus learn not to repeat them.
d. Failed in part because of cost of housing inmates individually and because their solitary labor was not very productive.

A. The System Devised At Auburn, New York Became The Model For U.S. Prisons

1. Auburn experimented with a threefold classification system assigning prisoners to one of three programs:

a. Least serious criminals allowed to work together in silence during the day and to be housed in separate cells at night
b. The more serious and hardened criminals were house in solitary cells until showing signs of repentance. They were then kept in solitary at night but allowed to work in cells during the day.
c. The most vicious and hardened criminals were to be held in solitary confinement without being allowed to work.

2. The Auburn Plan Of Congregate Work, Silence, Separate-Cell Confinement And Corporal Punishment for any rules infractions was adopted as an acceptable confinement method by most U.S. jurisdictions.

3. The Auburn Model prevailed for economic reasons and because of the rehabilitation doctrine of that time. (90)

1. Introduction

1.   By the end of the Civil War the Pennsylvania and Auburn Systems had largely failed due to overcrowding and lack of adequate staff. Also, prison labor and the goods produced for private contractors became the focus of the prisons as opposed to reforming the inmates.

a. Punishment for past behavior
b. Training to prepare offenders to return to society as contributors to society

2. Developed The Mark System which enabled inmates to work their way out of prison. Felt demonstrated good behavior more than a definite/specific length of sentence should control.

a. Offenses were assigned a value in marks. Represented a debt which the inmate could work off and thus win release
b. Inmates had to work through stages:
    i. Penal Stage - punishment state
    ii. Associational Stage - allowed to associate with other inmates and to work towards release
    iii. Social Stage - when small percentage of marks left to be earned could group with 5 other inmates each of whom were responsible for the behavior of the others. Designed to teach social responsibility.
    iv. Ticket Of Leave - a conditional pardon when debt had been erased. Not parole, as not supervised.

3. The Mark System first applied at Norfolk Island Prison, Australia.

5. The Mark System also implemented at Birmingham Borough Prison in 1849 by Maconochie. Again he was recalled as viewed as too lenient.

6. Early example of indeterminate sentencing.

1. The Irish System involved increasing privileges and phased release:

a. Solitary Confinement Stage - punishment
b. Associational Stage - placed in public works prisons. Could earn marks.
c. Intermediate Stage - forerunner of work release. Inmates had minimal supervision during this stage.
d. Conditional Release Stage conditional pardon. First extensive use of supervised parole.

2. The Irish System reduced recidivism.(94/95)

A. At the 1870 National Congress On Penitentiary And Reformatory Discipline, prominent reformers proposed a new system (95)

B. Elmira (N.Y. 1877) was the first Reformatory

1. Inmates were to be first time offenders, 16 to 30; capable of being reformed; and, were given modified intermediate sentences - confined until reformed or had served the maximum.

2. Inmates could progress through a "Grade" System, which resulted in early release

a. Entered at grade 2 - after earning a total of 54 marks (9) per month, could be promoted to grade 1.
b. 6 months of good behavior at grade 1 could earn parole.
c. Uncooperative inmates were demoted to grade 3. 3 months of good behavior required to return to grade 2.

3. Elmira had a number of innovative programs (96)

a. A school system - basics +
b. An industrial arts program
c. First use of organized sports as a means of reforming the inmates.

4. Elmira had the first Parole System in the United States. (96)

5. Warden Brockway used regressive methods of discipline - principally flogging.(96)

C. Reformatory goals at Elmira and in the 13 others state which built similar facilities between 1877 and 1913 were never achieved.

1. Factors which prevented success

a. Most designed as maximum security facilities with a staff trained in same
b. The educational/vocations programs were limited because of the desire to make money from the shops and/or inadequate staff and equipment.
c. The court system did not restrict inmates to just first offenders in the 16 to 30 age range.
d. The grade system was complicated and was used against the inmates as punishment rather than a mechanism to gain early release.
e. All inmates were not given indeterminate sentences and most states failed to organize a professional parole system to supervise those released on parole.