Here are some of the main theories on what prison is for:
- 2.1 Retribution, vengeance and retaliation
- 2.2 Deterrence
- 2.3 Rehabilitation, reform and correction
- 2.4 Removal from society
- 2.5 Restitution or repayment
- 2.6 Reduction in immediate costs
One of the earliest attempts at prison reform in the US was the establishment of the Auburn system.
The Auburn system (also known as the New York System) is a penal method of the 19th century in which persons worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times. The silent system evolved during the 1820s at Auburn Prison in Auburn, New York, as an alternative to and modification of the Pennsylvania system of solitary confinement, which it gradually replaced in the United States. Whigs favored this system because it promised to rehabilitate criminals by teaching them personal discipline and respect for work, property, and other people.
Among notable elements of the Auburn system were striped uniforms, lockstep, and silence.
The system early on seems to have become abusive and inhuman.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
Officials also began implementing a classification system at Auburn in the wake of the riots, dividing inmates into three groups: (1) the worst, who were placed on constant solitary lockdown; (2) middling offenders, who were kept in solitary and worked in groups when well-behaved; and (3) the "least guilty and depraved," who were permitted to sleep in solitary and work in groups. Construction on a new solitary cell block for category (1) inmates ended in December 1821, after which these "hardened" offenders moved into their new home. Within a little over a year, however, five of these men had died of consumption, another forty-one were seriously ill, and several had gone insane. After visiting the prison and seeing the residents of the new cell block, Governor Joseph C. Yates was so appalled by their condition that he pardoned several of them outright.
What is fascinating is that the Auburn system seems virtually identical to the contemporary Japanese prison system. However, the Japanese system, while typically described as "harsh", is also recognized as devoid of abuse and violence. Also, there is a single-minded emphasis in the Japanese prison system on rehabilitation, but not in the sense in the West where rehabilitation implies creating a model of free civilian life within the prison.
