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282 lines
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0.2in; line-height: 100%">20<sup>th</sup>
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Century <sdfield type=PAGE subtype=RANDOM format=PAGE>0</sdfield></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">20<sup>th</sup>
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Century American Prisons </font>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Joseph
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J. Green</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">Northern
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Arizona University</font></p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Throughout the 20<sup>th</sup>
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century there were many reforms to the American prison system. We
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will take a look at some of the architecture, prisoner programs, and
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key developments grouped into three sections, the early, mid, and
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late 20<sup>th</sup> century. We will also take a focus on racial
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disparity and female inmates throughout these periods. As we will
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see, it appears that the American focus on its prison systems seems
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to shift over time, in an almost cyclical way with American attitudes
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towards crime and prisoners.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b>Early
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20<sup>st</sup> Century</b></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal">In
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the first third of the 20</span><sup><span style="font-weight: normal">th</span></sup><span style="font-weight: normal">
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century, the focus on penance that was started by the Quakers with
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the Pennsylvania prisons (</span><span style="font-weight: normal">Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">, was
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starting to come to an end. Instead, there was a rise on the focus of
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individual treatment, educational programs, such as elementary
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teachers being present, vocational programs, early release programs,
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and indeterminate sentences (Schoenherr, 2009). </span><span style="font-weight: normal">All
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of these programs were designed to encourage prisoners be valuable
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members to society upon release, instead of simply giving people time
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to think about what they did and repent.</span></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-weight: normal"> Prison
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architecture </span><span style="font-weight: normal">i</span><span style="font-weight: normal">n
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the south, often took the form of prison camps where prisoners were
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contracted out to plantation owners. Penitentiaries were rather
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unpopular in the south, as they had a preference for local, rather
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than state, justice, but remained popular in the north. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">The
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north now</span><span style="font-weight: normal"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal">i</span><span style="font-weight: normal">nclud</span><span style="font-weight: normal">ed</span><span style="font-weight: normal">
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some “big houses” which were prisons capable of holding more than
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2500 inmates </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts
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Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">In
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these prison systems there was a very real racial disparity, </span><span style="font-weight: normal">which
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we shall see continue</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.
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Blacks in the United states comprised of about 9% of the total
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American adult population, yet they made up about 31% of the total
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prison population </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.</span></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-weight: normal"> </span><span style="font-weight: normal">This
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era saw several key developments to the prison systems. There was a
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push for having separate prisons for adults, children, and females
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within the prison system </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Schoenherr,
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2009)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">This
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also saw to the development of the juvenile court systems
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Schoenherr, 2009)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal">However, male prisoners were
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seen as more valuable </span><span style="font-weight: normal">than</span><span style="font-weight: normal">
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the women </span><span style="font-weight: normal">who </span><span style="font-weight: normal">were
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put to work for domestic chores which didn’t contribute much to the
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prison systems, while the men worked on farms in the south, or built
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goods for public sale in the north </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.</span></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> By
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the end of the first third of the 20<sup>th</sup> century, there was
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a major move to end contract prison labor <span style="font-weight: normal">(Schoenherr,
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2009)</span>. It was seen as giving unfair competition to certain
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businesses, and eventually resulted in the north ending the contract
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system that led to the sale of goods to the public, but the creation
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of a system that the prisoners could make goods in which the states
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buy, such as license plates <span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span>. In the south the states decided to
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start buying up their own plantations to put the prisoners to work,
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as opposed to contracting them out. </font>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b>Mid
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20<sup>th</sup> Century</b></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal">The
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middle of the century brought some welcome changes for prisoners. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">T</span><span style="font-weight: normal">he
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“Hands Off Doctrine” finally came to an end (Maloney, n.d.). This
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doctrine meant that prisoners were essentially slaves to the state.
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The doctrine stopped the judicial </span><span style="font-weight: normal">branch</span><span style="font-weight: normal">
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from interfering with state prison programs. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">A</span><span style="font-weight: normal">fter
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it was repealed, there was a huge demand from the prison population
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for more rights,. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">E</span><span style="font-weight: normal">ventually,
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the supreme court began to grant constitutional protections to
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prisoners </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts
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Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.</span></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-weight: normal"> This
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era saw a return to a focus on rehabilitation for prisoners (Campers,
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2012). Prisons began to focus on bringing back education, vocational
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rehab, and the like (Campers, 2012), after focus on such things were
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lost for a while when the prisons became overcrowded </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">An
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interest in prisoner rights was also bolstered by the c</span><span style="font-weight: normal">ivil
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rights movement </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">.
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Diagnosis was added to programs designed to help prisoners, as crime
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began to be seen as more of a</span><span style="font-weight: normal">n
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act of</span><span style="font-weight: normal"> sickness than willful
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal">crime</span><span style="font-weight: normal">
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</span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts Competency,
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2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. </span><span style="font-weight: normal">However,
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in 1974, Robert Martinson came to the conclusion that “nothing
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works” when it comes to rehabilitating people. He came to the
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conclusion that no one treatment reduced rates of prisoners returning
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to the system after release </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Campers,
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2012)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. These findings
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ultimately lead to a loss of funding for prisoner rehabilitation
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programs </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts
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Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. </span></font>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><span style="font-weight: normal"> Prison
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architecture didn’t change too radically by this point. Most
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southern states did have at least one central penitentiary </span><span style="font-weight: normal">now</span><span style="font-weight: normal">,
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but most prisoners were still working on large prison plantation
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farms </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts
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Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. However,
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there was a new prison design called the “Telephone pole prison”
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which began to flourish </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span>.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> Women
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began to receive increased equality in prisons, such as having
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similar vocational and treatment programs as did the males <span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span>. During this time, prisons were
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beginning to see less foreign born Caucasians enter the prison system
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<span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts Competency, 2015)</span>,
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but had an increase of blacks,. Hispanics, and Native Americans
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<span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts Competency, 2015)</span>.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b>19</b><sup><b>th</b></sup><b>
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Century to Current</b></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b> </b><span style="font-weight: normal">Next
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we find American returning to the theory that crimes are a choice,
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not a sickness, and rehabilitation falls out of favor, largely thanks
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to Martinson’s findings </span><span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span><span style="font-weight: normal">. A
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r</span>eliance on imprisoning serious offenders became the way to
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protect society <span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal Arts
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Competency, 2015)</span>. </font>
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</p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> In
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this age we find less use for work camps and focus more on putting
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people into central holding facilities. Bigger more secure prisons
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are created for federal, and some state, criminals <span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span>. There is a greater recognition in the
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differences between men and women, and treatment programs and
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sentencing grows to reflect this. Women are often considered to be a
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lower risk to the public, so it is believed that women should have a
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greater consideration for community-based sentences <span style="font-weight: normal">(Liberal
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Arts Competency, 2015)</span>. Blacks continue to be on the rise in
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prisons. At this time, Blacks comprised about 12% of the national
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population, yet more than 40% of the total prison population.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> One
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key development of this era was the idea of retribution for victims,
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instead of just fines to the state or jail time, gets increased
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attention. This is good, but there is also an increased focus on
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being tougher on crime and the start of the war on drugs. Drug
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related crimes get increased punishment and mandatory minimum
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sentences are introduced, which leads to an increase of prisoners,
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and an increase in prisoners leads to the need for more prisons, or a
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revaluation on sentencing laws.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"><b>Conclusion</b></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> As
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we can see, the prison systems evolve over time. We went from
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contract and forced labor of the early 20<sup>th</sup> century, to
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having better rehabilitative programs for a while and increased
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rights, to the modern day when rehabilitative programs are less
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favorable and an increased desire to imprison more people and for
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longer sentences takes over.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> This
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is quite clearly a pattern. We start with trying to save souls prior
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to the 20<sup>th</sup> century which evolves into trying to
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rehabilitate people, to an overcrowding relapse, and eventually more
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rights and treatment, until we find ourselves back at just throwing
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people in prison with no real hope and overcrowding happens once
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again. We are due for increased focus on rehabilitating prisoners,
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and we must do something about overcrowding. The solution of building
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more prisons doesn’t help the situation. It leads to an
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embarrassment for the United States as the prison population grows
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out of control. We do, however, see an interest in the
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decriminalization of drugs in the United States, particularly
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regarding marijuana (Governing.com, 2018). Ending the war on drugs is
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a clear step in the right direction to lowering our prison
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population. As of 2016, 47% (81,900) of federal prisoners were
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serving time for a drug offense, and as of 2015, 15% (197,200) of
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state prisoners were serving time with a drug offense being their
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most severe offense (Drug War Facts, 2018). That’s a lot of people
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being forced into the prison system due to the war on drugs, the
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clear path to reducing prisoners is to reduce crimes related to
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possession. It is clear that it is time for legal reform in order to
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reduce the prison population. However, it is not clear that these
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laws will change soon, but it is time for a general focus back onto
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rehabilitation of prisoners and the prevention of relapse.</font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif"> </font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%; page-break-before: always">
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<br/>
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</p>
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<p align="center" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><font face="Times New Roman, serif">RESOURCES</font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Campers, S.
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(2012). <i>A Failing Correctional System: State Prison
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Overcrowding in the United States</i>. [online]
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Digitalcommons.salve.edu. Available at:
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https://digitalcommons.salve.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1079&context=pell_theses
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[Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Drug War Facts.
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(2018). <i>Number Of People Serving Time For Drug, Violent,
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Property, and Other Offenses In US Prisons</i>. [online] Available
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at: http://www.drugwarfacts.org/node/2645 [Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Governing.com.
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(2018). <i>State Marijuana Laws in 2018 Map</i>. [online]
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Available at:
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http://www.governing.com/gov-data/state-marijuana-laws-map-medical-recreational.html
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[Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Liberal Arts
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Competency 115 Objective 1 Lesson 1. (2015). Pearson Learning
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Solutions, pp.34-53.</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Maloney, T.
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(n.d.). <i>RIGHTS OF DETAINEES AND PRISONERS IN THE UNITED
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STATES</i>. [online] Law.ufl.edu. Available at:
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https://www.law.ufl.edu/_pdf/academics/centers/cgr/11th_conference/Tim_Maloney_Rights_of_Detainees.pdf
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[Accessed 8 Apr. 2018].</font></font></p>
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<p style="margin-left: 0.2in; text-indent: -0.2in; margin-bottom: 0.08in; font-variant: normal; letter-spacing: normal; font-style: normal; font-weight: normal">
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<font color="#000000"><font face="Times New Roman">Schoenherr, S.
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(2009). <i>Prison Reforms in American History</i>. [online]
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History.sandiego.edu. Available at:
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http://history.sandiego.edu/gen/soc/prison.html [Accessed 8 Apr.
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2018].</font></font></p>
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<p align="left" style="margin-bottom: 0in; line-height: 200%"><br/>
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</p>
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</body>
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