Emergence of Prisons Timeline

The Penitentiary Era: 1790-1825

The Penitentiary Era

Philosophical Reason for existence: The philosophical reason for the existence of the penitentiary era was due to the Quakers who began this era when they converted a jail into a penitentiary. They did this because they believed that incarceration was an opportunity for penance and viewed prisions as places where offenders could make amends with society and accept responsibility for their crimes (emphasized rehabilitation and deterrance).

Important Info/Example: Pennance and the study of the Bible was heavily encouraged. Prime examples of the philosophy of this era was the Eastern and Western Penitentiaries also known as the Pennsylvania system

(imprisionment form which made

use of solitary confinement

and encouraged

rehabilitation.

The Mass Prison Era: 1825-1876

The Mass Prison Era

Philosophical reason for existence: The Mass Prison Era was the result of an expirement that stemmed from increased incareration rates making solitary confinement expensive. The Mass Prison Era focused primarily on enforcing silence in order to keep offenders in line and punish and demoralize them, in contrast to the Pennsylvania system which focused on rehabiliation.

Important info/Examples: The earliest example of the Mass Prison Era came in what became known as the Auburn system (a form of imprisionment where prisioners were held in a congreate fashion and require to remain silent). This system was the primary

competitor with the Pennsylvania

system.

The Reformatory Era: 1876-1890

The Reformatory Era

Philosophical reason for existence: The Reformatory Era arose as the prision system in the US from conflict between the two main forms of imprisionment: The Auburn and Pennsylvania systems. From this came the Reformatory style, a corretional model based on using indeterminate sentencing and belief in the possiblity of rehabilitation (especially in young offenders).

Important info/examples: This style grew out of practices innovated by corrections leaders: Alexander Maconochie and Walter Crofton. Maconochie's style as a prision warden (which included developing a system of marks in which prisoners could buy their freedom) caught the attention of Crofton (who created as system of an early release program of sorts). An example of this eran is the Elmira Reformatory (which proved a

"relative failure and dissapointment).

The Industrial Era: 1890-1935

Philosophical reason for existence: The philosophical reason for the existence of the Industrial Era stemmed from the abject failure of the reformatory style of prison and concern shifted from rehabilitation to security and discipline. This was done through the Industrial Prison model (a correctional model intended to capitalize on the labor of convicts sentenced to confinement).

Important info/examples: Industrial prisions were marked by forced labor which fell into six main catagories: contract system, piece-price system, lease system, public-account system, state-use system, and the public works system. This prision era was ended in 1935 by the Ashurst-Sumners Act (federal legislation that ended this era by restricting interstate commerce in prision-made goods.

The Industrial Era

The Punitive Era: 1935-1945

Philosophical reason for existence: The Punative Era came as a result of being left with only a few ready alternatives after the Ashurst-Sumners Act. It was characterized by the idea that prisoners owed a debt to society and that only a rigorous period of confinement could repay that debt. Convicts were shunned and locked away from society. Essentially it was characterized by an "out of sight out of mind philosophy.

Important info/examples: The term "stir-crazy" originated from this era due to the experience of many prisioners lack of access to educational, treatement, and work programs. The best example of the ideology of the Punitive Era is the federal penitentiary on Alcatraz Island.

The Punitive Era

The Treatment Era: 1945-1967

Philosophical reason for existence: The Treatment Era was the result of a combination of euphoria over the end of World War II, a new interest in "corrections" and reformation, and new research about the latest in behavioral techniques. The Treatment Era was based upon a "medical model" of corrections (a theraputic perpective on correctional treatment that applies the diagnostic perspective of medical science to the handling of criminal offenders).

Important info/examples: Inmates were seen as "clients" or "patients" rather than offenders or inmates. This model was criticized during the period due to the manner in which treatment was given to "patients" and academics stating there was a lack of evidence which would corroborate it's usefulness.

The Treatment Era

The Community-Based Era: 1967-1980

The Community-Based Era

Philosophical reason for existence: The primary reason for the emergence of the Community-Based Era is the reality of prision overcrowding combined with a renewed faith in humanity and a beleif in behavioral change to inspire a movement away from instituationalized corrections and towards the creation of opportunites for reformation in local communities. This transition is also called deinstitutionalization, diverson, and disincarceration).

Important info/examples: Examples of facilities that dominated this era included halfway houses, residential centers that supported new pre-release programs (called prerelease guidance centers, and work-release programs (a prision program through which inmates are temporarily released into the community to meet job responsibilities.

The Warehousing Era: 1980-1995

The Warehousing Era

Philosophical reason for existence: The Warehousing Era is primarily characterized by concerns with community protection being at an all time high in addition to stiff drug laws and strict repeat offender stautes caused the rate of imprisionment drastically increased. Recidivism rates also caused a high level of discontent with the prision system. The philosohy reflected most in this era falls along the lines of the "just deserts" model of imprisonment which led to warehousing (an imprisonment strategy that is based on the desire to prevent recurrent crime and has abandoned all hope of rehabilitation).

Important info/examples: The failure of rehabilitative models led to the development of the nothing-works doctrine during the period (the beleif that correctional treatment programs have had little sucress in rehabilitating offenders.

The Just Deserts Era: 1995-2012

The Just Deserts Era

Philosophical reason for existence: The philosophy of the Just Deserts Era came primarily from the failure of rehabilitative efforts as well as the fact that warehousing didn't seem to have a particularly concrete philosophy. Their resignation to just lock offenders up led to prison overcrowding which shaped the Just Deserts Era significantly. A new philosophy emerged from the justice model (a contemporary model of imprisionment based on the principle of just deserts) and became the operative principle for the era.

Important info/examples: Grounded squarely on the concept of just deserts. and completely abandoned any hope of rehibilitation and felt that imprisionment was the only just and fully deserved punishment of criminal behavior. An example of the "get-tough-on-crime" attitude that marred this era is exemplified in the desicion of Virginia to abolish parole in 1995. Another example would be the "three-stikes" law.

The Evidence-Based Era: 2012-Present

Philosophical reason for existence: The just deserts philosophy that guided the Just Deserts Era was soon laid to waste by the fiscal needs of the twenty-first century. A recession led to the end of the Just Deserts Era. The philosophy of the Evidence-Based Era is evidence-based corrections (which applied social scientific techniques to the study of everyday corrections procedures for the purpose of increasing effectiveness and enhancing the efficient use of available resources). This represents a rational, science based approach to corrections.

Important info/examples: Ushered in by a number of federal, academic, and state studies that focused on the effectiveness of imprisionment and the difficulties associated with a high incarceration costs.

The Evidence-Based Era