Prison

[5] In American English, the terms prison and jail have separate definitions, though this is not always adhered to in casual speech and the manner in which corectional facilities are officially described varies by state.

In many cases, citizens were sentenced to slavery, often in ergastula (a primitive form of prison where unruly slaves were chained to workbenches and performed hard labor).

[9] In Medieval Songhai, results of a trial could have led to confiscation of merchandise or imprisonment as a form of punishment, since various prisons existed in the empire.

The capability to imprison citizens granted an air of legitimacy to officials at all levels of government and served as a signifier of who possessed power or authority over others.

[11] Another common punishment was sentencing people to galley slavery, which involved chaining prisoners together in the bottoms of ships and forcing them to row on naval or merchant vessels.

The first was based in Enlightenment ideas of utilitarianism and rationalism and suggested that prisons should simply be used as a more effective substitute for public corporal punishments such as whipping, hanging, etc.

The Transportation Act 1717 made this option available for lesser crimes, or offered it by discretion as a longer-term alternative to the death penalty, which could theoretically be imposed for the growing number of offenses in Britain.

Given the undeveloped institutional facilities, old sailing vessels, termed hulks, were the most readily available and expandable choice to be used as places of temporary confinement.

Katorga prisons were harsh work camps established in the 17th century in Russia, in remote underpopulated areas of Siberia and the Russian Far East, that had few towns or food sources.

Elizabeth Fry documented the conditions that prevailed at Newgate prison, where the ladies' section was overcrowded with women and children, some of whom had not even received a trial.

[36] Robert Peel's Gaols Act 1823 introduced regular visits to prisoners by chaplains, provided for the payment of jailers and prohibited the use of irons and manacles.

In 1786, the state of Pennsylvania passed a law that mandated that all convicts who had not been sentenced to death would be placed in penal servitude to do public works projects such as building roads, forts, and mines.

Besides the economic benefits of providing a free source of hard labor, the proponents of the new penal code also thought that this would deter criminal activity by making a conspicuous public example of consequences of breaking the law.

Reformers such as Benjamin Rush came up with a solution that would enable the continued use of forced labor while keeping disorderly conduct and abuse out of the eyes of the public.

They suggested that prisoners be sent to secluded "houses of repentance" where they would be subjected (out of the view of the public) to "bodily pain, labor, watchfulness, solitude, and silence ... joined with cleanliness and a simple diet".

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).

After the unification of Italy in 1861, the government reformed the repressive and arbitrary prison system they inherited, and modernized and secularized criminal punishment by emphasizing discipline and deterrence.

Smaller, separate and self-contained housing units known as "pods" or "modules" are designed to hold 16 to 50 prisoners and are arranged around exercise yards or support facilities in a decentralized "campus" pattern.

[citation needed] Pods may be designed for high-security "indirect supervision", in which officers in segregated and sealed control booths monitor smaller numbers of prisoners confined to their cells.

[67][68] Modern prisons often hold hundreds or thousands of inmates and must have facilities onsite to meet most of their needs, including dietary, health, fitness, education, religious practices, entertainment, and many others.

[76] Analysis of data in 2000 from several forensic hospitals in California, New York and Oregon found that with treatment the rate of recidivism was "much lower" than for untreated mentally ill offenders.

This time spent reading has a variety of benefits including improved literacy, ability to understand rules and regulations (leading to improved behavior), ability to read books that encourage self-reflection and analysis of one's emotional state, consciousness of important real-world events, and education that can lead to successful re-entry into society after release.

They warn against the dehumanizing nature of rehabilitative practices and encourage the maintenance of agency and control in these programs to prevent them from becoming self-serving entities that cause further exploitation.

[86] Taking an alternative approach, queer literacy frameworks have also been supported by scholars like Alexandra Cavallaro who see the incorporation of LGBTQ individuals' stories as key to promoting lifelong learning.

Examples of common facilities/programs that are available in some prisons are: gyms and weightlifting rooms, arts and crafts, games (such as cards, chess, or bingo), television sets, and sports teams.

[95] Besides prisons, many other types of residential placement exist within juvenile justice systems, including youth homes, community-based programs, training schools and boot camps.

[94] Like adult facilities, youth detention centers in some countries are experiencing overcrowding due to large increases in incarceration rates of young offenders.

Many critics note high juvenile recidivism rates, and the fact that most of the youths that are incarcerated are those from lower socio-economic classes (who often suffer from broken families, lack of educational/job opportunities, and violence in their communities).

[136][137] Some scholars, using the term prison-industrial complex, have argued that the trend of "hiring out prisoners" is a continuation of the slavery tradition, pointing out that the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution freed slaves but allowed forced labor for people convicted of crimes.

[182] The movement is associated with libertarian socialism, anarchism and anti-authoritarianism, with some prison abolitionists arguing that imprisoning people for actions the state designates as crimes is not only inexpedient but also immoral.

A 19th-century jail room at a Pennsylvania museum
A very common punishment in Early Modern Europe was to be made a galley slave . The galley pictured here belonged to the Mediterranean fleet of Louis XIV , c. 1694 .
Women in Plymouth, England (Black-eyed Sue and Sweet Poll) mourning their lovers who are soon to be transported to Botany Bay (1792)
The beached convict ship HMS Discovery at Deptford served as a convict hulk between 1818 and 1834.
Jeremy Bentham 's " panopticon " prison introduced many of the principles of surveillance and social control that underpin the design of the modern prison. In the panopticon model, prisoners were housed in one-person cells arranged in a circular pattern, all facing towards a central observation tower in such a way that the guards could see into all of the cells from the observation tower, while the prisoners were unable to see the guards. [ 31 ] [ 32 ] [ f ] (Architectural drawing by Willey Reveley , 1791)
An 1855 engraving of New York's Sing Sing Penitentiary, which also followed the "Auburn (or Congregate) System" , where prison cells were placed inside of rectangular buildings that lent themselves more to large-scale penal labor
Prisoners picking oakum at Coldbath Fields Prison in London, c. 1864
Shata Prison
Shita (Shata) Prison in Israel. Many modern prisons are surrounded by a perimeter of high walls, razor wire or barbed wire , motion sensors and guard towers in order to prevent prisoners from escaping .
The main gate of the Kylmäkoski Prison in Kylmäkoski , Akaa , Finland
Design of a cell at ADX Florence
ADX Florence is presently the only facility housing supermax units operating in the Federal Bureau of Prisons .
A maximum security prison, the Clinton Correctional Facility , in Dannemorra, New York
Inmate in striped prison uniform and restraints
A minimum security prison in the U.S.
The crowded living quarters of San Quentin State Prison in California, in January 2006. As a result of overcrowding in the California state prison system , the United States Supreme Court ordered California to reduce its prison population (the second largest in the nation, after Texas ).
Inmate teaching other inmates in Kenya
In countries where capital punishment is practiced, such as the United States, some prisons are equipped with a " death row ", where prisoners are held prior to their executions, as well as an execution chamber, where they are put to death under controlled conditions. Pictured here is the lethal injection room at San Quentin Prison , c. 2010 .
Juvenile prison in Germany
Mercer Reformatory (Toronto, Canada), which opened in 1874 and was Canada's first dedicated prison for women. The reformatory was closed in 1969 due to an abuse scandal.
Captives at Camp X-Ray , Guantanamo Bay, Cuba , a United States military prison where people are being indefinitely detained in solitary confinement as part of the " War on Terror " (January 2002). The prisoners are forced to wear goggles and headphones for sensory deprivation and to prevent them from communicating with other prisoners.
The Patarei Sea Fortress , known as the notorious Soviet-era prison, in Tallinn, Estonia
A map of incarceration rates by country
A graph showing the incarceration rate per 100,000 population in the United States. The rapid rise in the rate of imprisonment in the United States came in response to the declaration of a War on Drugs : nearly half of those incarcerated in the United States are sentenced to prison for violating drug prohibition laws.
Memorial to the prison staff who died in the 1971 riot at Attica Correctional Facility