Bernadine Schanefelt, age 14, of Gallup, N.M., for her question:
WHERE WERE PRISONS FIRST ESTABLISHED?
At the present time in the United States about 350,000 persons are confined to jails or prisons. The government manages 32 federal prisons, and more than 300 state prisons are situated in every part of the country. There are about 3,900 county and city jails in the country. The chief functions of the prisons: custody, security and rehabilitation.
Most prisons hold people who have been found guilty of serious crimes and have been sentenced to confinement. People in jails are usually awaiting trial or are being punished for minor offenses.
Not too long ago there weren't many prisons. Before the 1700s, governments seldom imposed imprisonment as punishment. Courts imposed the death penalty for most crimes. Only political prisoners in England and France went either to the Tower of London or the Bastille. Some minor offenders received sentences of fines, branding or flogging. Banishment to some faraway prison colony was also used.In the 1100s debtors' prisons were found in parts of
Europe. If a person owed money and could not pay it back, he was sent to an institution where he could also take his family. This type of jail was abolished in the late 1800s.
Sir William Blackstone of Great Britain and Jean Jacques Rousseau in France were two philosophers in the 1700s who spoke out against the death penalty and punishment of physical cruelty. As a result, governments started to establish workhouses and prisons to hold their prisoners..
Early prisons in Europe and America were filthy, overcrowded and dingy. Children, women and debtors were locked up with hardened criminals and insane inmates. It wasn't long before humane people knew that prison reform was absolutely necessary.
One of the early reform groups was organized in 1787 by a number of Quakers in Philadelphia. They believed that prisons should reform as well as punish. They called for improved conditions and a prison routine based on hard work and solitary confinement.
It wasn't until the 1900s that widespread and genuine improvement in the prison systems came about.
Scientists who study prisons are called penologists. Today they recommend a number of additional prison reforms, and steps are being taken to correct all problems.
In the future we will continue to see maximum security prisons but there will also be many minimum security institutions. In these institutions where minor offenders are held, counseling and education opportunities will be stressed.