Prison reform
[1] In modern times, the idea of making living spaces safe and clean has extended from the civilian population to include prisons, based on ethical grounds.
In recent times prison reform ideas include greater access to legal counsel and family, conjugal visits, proactive security against violence, and implementing house arrest with assistive technology.
The inmates, or journeymen, often spent their time on spinning, weaving and fabricating cloths and their output was measured and those who exceeded the minimum received a small sum of money with which they could buy extras from the indoor father.
The use of capital punishment and judicial torture declined during the eighteenth century and imprisonment came to dominate the system, although reform movements started almost immediately.
The growing amount of recidivism in the latter half of the nineteenth century led a number of criminologists to argue that "imprisonment did not, and could not fulfill its original ideal of treatment aimed at reintegrating the offender into the community".
The National Socialist state in Germany used it as an important tool to rid itself of its enemies as crime rates rocketed as a consequence of new categories of criminal behavior.
In 1965, Sweden enacted a new criminal code emphasizing non-institutional alternatives to punishment including conditional sentences, probation for first-time offenders and the more extensive use of fines.
3. c. 74) which passed following his agitation introduced solitary confinement, religious instruction and a labor regime and proposed two state penitentiaries, one for men and one for women.
Quakers such as Elizabeth Fry continued to publicize the dire state of prisons as did Charles Dickens in his novels David Copperfield and Little Dorrit about the Marshalsea.
However, by the 1860s public opinion was calling for harsher measures in reaction to an increase in crime which was perceived to come from the 'flood of criminals' released under the penal servitude system.
7. c. 17) introduced a new probation system that drastically cut down the prison population while providing a mechanism for transition back to normal life.
He took the view that central government should break the cycle of offending and imprisonment by establishing a new type of reformatory, that was called Borstal after the village in Kent which housed the first one.
The movement reached its peak after the first world war when Alexander Paterson became commissioner, delegating authority and encouraging personal responsibility in the fashion of the English Public school: cellblocks were designated as 'houses' by name and had a housemaster.
The second time he was to pay treble damages, sit for an hour upon the gallows platform with a noose around his neck and then be carted to the whipping post for thirty stripes.
The aim of this was rehabilitative: the reformers talked about the penitentiary serving as a model for the family and the school and almost all the states adopted the plan (though Pennsylvania went even further in separating prisoners).
As a result of a tour of prisons in 18 states, Enoch Wines and Theodore Dwight produced a monumental report describing the flaws in the existing system and proposing remedies.
At the beginning of the twentieth century, psychiatric interpretations of social deviance were gaining a central role in criminology and policy making.
In addition they have a goal in ending Asset forfeiture practices since law enforcement often deprives individuals of the majority of their private property.
[34] Decarceration in the United States includes overlapping reformist and abolitionist strategies, from "front door" options such as sentencing reform, decriminalization, diversion and mental health treatment to "back door" approaches, exemplified by parole reform and early release into community supervision programs, amnesty for inmates convicted of non-violent offenses and imposition of prison capacity limits.
[35] While reforms focus on incremental changes, abolitionist approaches include budget reallocations, prison closures and restorative and transformative justice programs that challenge incarceration as an effective deterrent and necessary means of incapacitation.
Abolitionists support investments in familial and community mental health, affordable housing and quality education to gradually transition and jail employees to jobs in other economic sectors.
Also, their quality of life may be so horrific that any treatment within the criminal justice system (which is compatible with human rights law) will only be seen as an improvement over their previous situation.
There used to be many European Monks who disagreed with the containment of the mentally ill, and their ethics had a strong influence on Dorothea Dix's mission to find a proper way to care for the challenged people.
[43] California has implemented an Arts in Corrections program focused on providing incarcerated individuals across 35 adult facilities with the tools to express themselves visually, musically, and in writing.
States like Colorado and Florida have provided similar resources to other facilities through adjacent initiatives like the FSU Art Therapy in Prisons Program.
An interesting aspect was that the groups were to be led by two therapists, one from the psychology or social work department and a second from one of the officers among the prison guard staff.
The criticism[citation needed] of this model is that others increase the number and severity of crimes they commit to make up for the "vacuum" left by the removed criminal.
Also, the great social reformer Jonas Hanway promoted "solitude in imprisonment, with proper no one asked profitable labor and a spare diet".
In 2019, they announced the launching of an organization, REFORM Alliance, which aims to reduce the number of people who are serving probation and parole sentences that are unjust.
[59] Clementine Jacoby's Recidiviz looks to reduce incarceration rates by making complex and fragmented criminal justice data usable, which enables leaders to take data-driven action and track the impacts of their decisions.
