Prisons and Jails Chapter 12 & 13 In Your Textbook John Massey Criminal Justice

Prisons  Instruments of punishment  Over 200 years  Walnut Street Jail (1790) Pennsylvania Silence and labor provide the best hope for rehabilitation Separated inmates from society and each other Eventually overcrowding  Penn System (1820’s) Result of the failure of the Walnut Street Jail Prisoners worked, slept, and ate alone in their cells Very little contact with other humans  New York System (1831) Congregate system or the Auburn System Silence and labor but inmates worked and ate together More popular, prisons afterwards followed this system

Reform  The Progressives Positivist school of criminology Crime is caused by social, economic and biological factors Medical model of prisons emerged Treatment and programs  Robert Martinson “What Works” Prisons had remained unchanged 1960’s, more rehab/treatment, less punishment Martinson’s report showed that no rehab programs work This led to the first “get-tough” programs  The 1980’s Prison population boom Crime increasing

1990’s  Crime rates begin to drop  Prison populations still on the rise  4 reasons for this: More likely to be sentenced to prison (get tough) More likely to serve more time for your crime (three-strikes, truth-in- sentencing, reduction of good time) Community corrections programs either cut or underfunded Rising numbers for female offenders

Types of Prisons  Four types – maximum, medium, minimum, supermax  Supermax Most severe form Red Onion, Wallens Ridge  Maximum Dangerous inmates/felons Built to prevent escape, intense supervision  Medium Less dangerous offenders Less restrictive than max prison, most offenders here  Minimum Inmates who pose little threat Great deal of freedom/movement, resembles college campus 1 st time offenders, non-violent, well-behavd

Inside the prison  Most offenders don’t stay in one prison during their entire sentence Classification  Warden Superintendent of prison  Privatizing Prisons Ran by private organizations instead of govt. Efficiency and cost-effectiveness Save the government money  Jails Different from prisons Counties and cities Awaiting trial, charged w/ misdemeanors, sentences less than 1 year – 700,000 people in jail on any given day Overflow from prisons

Total institutions  Think of prisons as total institutions  Provide all necessities for existence  Encompass every aspect of inmate’s life  Prisoner cannot leave institution  Prisonization Adapt and accept the prison society and subculture  Prison Code Social norms and values, the do’s and don’ts  Parole Conditional release of a prisoner after portion of sentence served Abolished in many states Dependant on a number of factors

The rabble hypothesis  John Irwin, “The Jail”  Those in jail are the sewer of society Not members of organizations Few social networks Unusual values and beliefs The jail is the holding place for the “sewage”