Abstract
The prison is being used since the people started to live in a society. It is being the necessity to obtain control over the group of people to protect the crimes by punishing the criminals. The history of jails in the US will date back to the British ruling period while it was first introduced to punish the criminals. The jails were not in a good shape on that time that caused the death of many prisoners in health issues. The jails are being reformed day by day and upgraded to the prison system that we witness in the current world. The reform begins in the 1790s and it brought major changes in the prison system used previously. The prisons passed through high level of reform in the 20th century and it was modernized to ensure the system works perfectly. The prisons were also categorized into different section to ensure that the criminals are punished according to the crime and the jails are being secured based on the type of criminals imprisoned in it.
Introduction
Imprisonment is a kind of punishment that is used by the law enforcement bodies to punish the criminals. It is the necessary element to control the crime in a society. The necessity of prison will date back to the ancient era, while it was used to punish the criminals. The prison will be a most necessary part of a society, regardless of how many people are living on it. It will be essential to create some sense of punishment among the people that will control the criminal activities. The United States also used the prison system to imprison the criminals and punish them to control the criminal activity. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the history of prisons in the United State.
Brief History of US Jails
The history of prisons in the United States will date back to the earliest of its history that began with the post revolution era and moved on to the pre revolution era and final it reached to the reform era. There had various ways in such eras that are being used in response to the crimes. The method kept changing based on the situation. In reality, the prison was among the very first developments that took place in the history of United States. The prison system got introduced in the US in light of the need of British’s to establish a “House of detention” (James, 2017). However, this detention house and the prison that are noticeable in the current world has differences.
In the earlier history, the prisons were not usually used as the place to punish people but it was mostly used as the place to hold the people temporarily or some specific durations. However, the prisons in the earlier history was a temporary place for the common people. Most of the prisoner who are being held for the long time was the political prisoners, high ranked officials, person on debt or the war prisoners. The regulations used in this jails were quite different and it wasn’t possible for the prisoners to work inside the jails to earn some extra money.
In the earlier time, the prisoners who are being help in the prison was mostly common criminals and they were the criminals who was just awaiting the trial. There had no such laws to keep the prisoners held in the prison for a specific period of time on that time. The trial was quite straight forward. They were supposed to be placed on death or released. There had some systemic method that are being used to made up the wave of punishing the people help in the prison. They followed the systemic approach to avoid any possible occurrences in the jails.
The prison that we saw in the modern world was not available till 16th century. The closest prison on that time was the English Workhouse. This workhouse was originated in the 1550s under the Tudor family. The royal palace named Bridewell was the most well-known place that was converted to a workhouse on that time (Karpinski, 2014). However, there were always bad saying against these prisons. These prisons were poorly maintained and it had been accused for negligence at providing the needs of prisoners. There had many prisoners who are being died for different diseases in that jails.
The sufferings on the people in these prisons was beyond the minimum level and there had different group of people who started to campaign against these systems. The system takes us to the 1780s or 1790s while the old jails was replaced by the penitentiary that followed more systemic and better approaches to imprison the criminals (James, 2016). The system changed in most of the aspects from the type of jails used in the earlier time. The jails were better equipped with sanitation, healthy food, medical emergencies as well as the women and men cells were separated in this time. There had still the need of improvements in the laws and the situation inside the prison to ensure that the jails are being maintained properly. It included the design of individual cells and upgrading the equipment’s as well as the punishment systems of the prisoners.
The prisons kept improving in the 19th century and it had been improved more in the 20th century. The old punishment and imprisonment systems were mostly replaced by the new laws. The prison system in the 20th century also decreased the hard labor and several other activities that are performed by the prisoners in a jail. The 20th century also introduced the jails under open sky where the prisoners were not locked up all the day. In reality, the US prison system was categorized into several parts to punish the prisoners based on the crimes committed. It ensured the justice and people were punished on prison based on the level of crime.
The prisons that are currently in the United States can be divided in to open institutions, minimum security prison, medium security, maximum security and the supermax security prisons (Karpinski, 2014). The open institutes are the prisons that has no walls. This type of institutes is mostly the correctional camp. The minimum level security prisons are mostly used for criminals who are being arrested for some kind of lower level of criminal activity while the murderer, high rank criminals and high profile persons are being kept in the supermax and maximum security jails.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the type of jails and punishment used changed overtime in the United States. The jails that we see today is the upgraded version of jails that were used in the earliest time. The current jails are much more regulated compare to the earlier jails in the United States. The current jails are well maintained and secured except a very few jails maintained inside or outside the country.
References
James, D. (2016). A History of Prisons In America. The Huffington Post. Retrieved 23 January 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/dr-kirk-anthony-james/a-history-of-prisons-in-a_b_9299850.html
Karpinski, A. (2014). Breathing Through Bars: A Brief HIstory on the Prison System in America. Soapboxie. Retrieved 23 January 2017, from https://soapboxie.com/government/Breathing-Through-Bars-A-Brief-HIstory-on-the-Prison-System-in-America
