1. Goals/Justifications for Corrections
Deterrence
General vs. Specific
Contrast Effect
Incapacitation
Selective vs. General
Rehabilitation/Reintegration
Restorative Justice
Retribution/Just Desert
Non-utilitarian
Goals/Justifications for Corrections

2. The History of Corrections
Importance
Many issues/problems have been a part of corrections sine the earliest written records
Many failed ideas get repeated
Understand the current corrections landscape
The History of Corrections

3. Earliest Written Legal Codes
Code of Hammurabi (1772 BC), Roman 12 Tables (450 BC)
Emphasized retribution (lex talionis)
Punishments ranged from fines to death
Generally, crime was a private matter
Exception = Hammurabi
Different sanctions based on status
Earliest Written Legal Codes

4. Feudal Society Europe 9th-15th Century AD Subordinates
Slaves, serfs, etc. dealt with by the lord of the manor  absolute authority
Freedmen settle conflicts “personally”
Revenge / vengeance + feuds
Reconciliation (buy off revenge)
Feudal Society

5. 1st SHIFT: Private  Public
First “principalities” in 12th Century
Shift from private to territorial lords
Princes powerful enough to monopolize punishment and push back private vengence
By 1500, government “corrections” overcomes traditions of private restitution and/or revenge
Uneven and slow process
Inquisitorial court system wins out over accusatorial system
The “state” can prosecute the case without the victim
Ex officio
1st SHIFT: Private  Public

6. Form of Early State Corrections
BRUTAL physical punishment / death
Molten lead down the shirt, drawing and quartering, burning, etc.
PUBLIC spectacle
In part, an effort to demonstrate that the government has a monopoly on the “legitimate” use of violence
Form of Early State Corrections

7. From public brutality to private (indoors) punishment
Eventually, corrections changes into the form we recognize today
No more molten lead down the front of the shirt, but still corporal punishment
Punishment becomes less “public”
Why?? Spierenburg’s explanation?
Transformation of sensibilities (Enlightenment)
State no longer needs to prove itself
From public brutality to private (indoors) punishment

8. From Medieval Europe to Colonial America
England
Corporal, Capital
Transportation
Pre-Prisons
Galley Slavery Prison Hulks
Debtor’s Prisons
Houses of Corrections
John Howard as first major “prison reformer”
From Medieval Europe to Colonial America

9. Colonial America (1600-1750) Nature of Society Nature of Punishment
Calvinist doctrine
Crime not a “problem” (fact of life)
Crimes/sins all treated similarly
Control through family training/community cohesion
Insiders vs. Outsiders
Nature of Punishment
Borrow heavily from England
Corporal, Capital, Banishment
Public
Sparse use of prisons
Colonial America ( )

10. Enlightenment and Change (1770s-1820)
Population boom and shift from agrarian to industrial economy
Enlightenment
Produces alarm/dismay but also optimism
First “burst of enthusiasm” (deterrence)
Reform the legal code  knife away from Brits
Start with eliminating capital punishments for most crime
Substitute prisons for corporal/capital punishment
Enlightenment and Change (1770s-1820)

11. The Second Major Shift in Corrections
Prison displaces corporal/capital punishment as the primary form of corrections
First wave of prison building ( )
Not yet “reform” model—the legal code (not prison) was to greatly reduce crime. More rational and certain than “British” legal code.
“A repulsion from the gallows rather than any faith in the penitentiary spurred the late-18th Century construction”
The Second Major Shift in Corrections

12. From deterrence to penance (1820-1850)
By 1820, the luster of the classical school (and associated reforms) fades
No crime reduction, trouble with prisons
Still, very optimistic (“impulse to reform”)
The Invention of the Penitentiary
A “PROPER” penitentiary will reform offenders
PN vs. Auburn debate
Reflects new understanding of cause of crime
Prison “ideal” largely matched by practice
Adequate funding, low crowding (Honeymoon)
From deterrence to penance ( )

13. Pennsylvania Separate AND Silent model gets competition
Auburn (New York)
Auburn Prison opens in 1818, adopts Walnut St. Jail (to become PN model) ideas in 1821
Not a good architectural fit, other problems…
Reform through discipline/obedience, labor (inmates congregate to work, but lockstep, etc)
Contract labor system
Not much of a “Debate,” but Auburn Model wins out…..WHY?
The Great Debate

14. Southern/Western Penology
Often neglected topic in corrections texts
Corrections less centralized
Justice dispensed at county level (not state)
Prisons develop differently
In South, race and the “Black codes”
Economic differences
Little $ to build prisons (civil war decimation)
Different economy
The “LEASE SYSTEM”
Penal Farms
Southern/Western Penology

15. By 1860, enthusiasm for penitentiaries wanes
Corruption, corporal punishment, crowding...
Wardens give up on ideal and seek to maintain order
Even Eastern Penitentiary gives up “separate” model in 1886
1870 National Prison Congress
Leads to “Declaration of Principles”
Reaffirm reform over punishment
Indeterminate sentences
Parole
Separate institutions for females and juveniles
The lockstep, rules of silence, isolation, etc = humiliating and unproductive
Elmira as “test case” for new “Reformatory”
The New Penology ( )

16. Progressive Era 1900-1960 Progressives = middle/upper class reformers
Great optimism + belief in government
Sought to eradicate all sorts of social ills
Crime?
General reform (poverty reduction, fix slums)
Embrace new penology
Indeterminate sentences + parole boards/supervision
Juvenile Justice System
Probation
Progressive Era

17. The Medical Model and “Rehabilitative Ideal”
By 1940s, social sciences gain prestige
Psychiatry, psychology, sociology
Rehabilitative Ideal (1940s-1960s)
Causes of crime are unique (social, psychological)
The goal of corrections is to identify and eliminate/correct these causes (rehabilitation)
Treatment must be individualized
Corrections workers and judges must be trusted with a great deal of discretion
The Medical Model and “Rehabilitative Ideal”

18. 1960s Corrections becomes professionalized
Rehab as unquestioned goal (in rhetoric at least) of Corrections system
American Corrections Association (from American Prison Association)
Correctional Facilities
Standards for “correctional officers”
All kinds of new Rx programs
College education, group counseling, therapeutic milieu, behavior modification
1960s Corrections becomes professionalized

19. Progressives Radicals, Change... (1960s-1980)
Social Context of 1960s
Contrast with “progressive optimism/faith”
Many progressives turn more radical
Labeling theory ascends  avoid “doing harm”
Martinson Report  “nothing works”
Liberals embrace the “JUSTICE MODEL”
Conservatives have different take on ’60s
Crime = symbol of all the “DISORDER”
Solution = go back to classical school
Progressives Radicals, Change... (1960s-1980)

20. Uneasy Alliance Conservatives and liberals agree on:
The need to limit sentencing discretion
Conservatives = liberal judges
Liberals = corrupt, racist judges/parole boards
Solution = return to determinate sentencing, sentencing guidelines, etc
Only difference is on length of sentences
Liberals = do less harm, be fair (justice model)
Conservatives = punishment WORKS!
Uneasy Alliance

21. The Crime Control Era 1975-2000 Prison as Crime Prevention
Sentencing Guidelines/Policy
Punishment Programs
Boot Camps, “Shock Incarceration,” ISP, Scared Straight!, Chain Gangs, Sherriff Joe…
Political Rhetoric
Democrats Begin to Pile on the “get tough” bandwagon
The Crime Control Era

22. What Era Now? Liberals Conservatives? New Trends
Rehabilitation
Restorative Justice
Conservatives?
Problem Oriented Policing
Zeal for prison has waned, less of political issue (terrorism, abortion, budget deficit, healthcare…)
New Trends
Evidence-Based Corrections
Public Health Approach
What Era Now?