Correctional Reform in the United States Assignment

Correctional Reform in the United States - Assignment Example Introduction The prison reforms carried out by the Pennsylvania Prison Society were in many ways way ahead of their time and form the foundation of a lot of modern correctional facility design, function and purpose. The first prison built as a result of the reforms initiated by this society resulted in the first facilities with individual cells for prisoners including a flush toilet in each one (even before there was a flush toilet in the White House) and the first use of the modern shower. The prison was seen not as a place of punishment but more as a place for those found guilty to perform a kind of penance for their crimes, hence the name â€Å"Penitentiary† was coined to represent a prison. These reforms did not happen by accident but were as a result of sustained pressure from right thinking members of society and became the basis of today’s correctional systems (Lynch, 2011). 1. The main group that was associated with this change was the Pennsylvania Prison Societ y, whose members came from different Christian faith that were resident in Philadelphia. The group included professionals, clergymen, merchants and other leaders in the society. They were mainlyQuakers by religion and their interest in prisons was in a large way influenced by the fact that they had endured religious persecution that frequently included imprisonment thus they had already formed an interest in prison conditions and the treatment meted out to prisoners in these establishments. 2. The reforms were desired because of the public outcry over the treatment of prisoners. In the 1700s, prison services were established with three major objectives –reforming the prisoners so they came back to being useful and viable members of society once again, prevention of further crimes by showing to all and sundry and especially the lawbreakers that crime did not pay and thirdly to protect the public and other members of society from criminals and other such offenders. However, the resources to adequately house the prisoners were never adequate. As a result, jailers who were not paid a regular salary before the reforms would extort money from the prisoners while at the same time selling them alcohol, cigarettes and making them pay for every service provided in the prisons. The prisoners ended up having to sell their clothing and pay huge bribes during their stay in the prison. Prisoners were supposed to serve hard labor along the streets of Philadelphia especially while awaiting their sentencing and the sight of them chained together, many of them nearly naked; walking the streets of the city caused a great public outcry. There were also reports of prostitution taking place in the prisons as well, under the watchful eyes of bribe-taking jailers. That, coupled with the widespread sale and consumption of alcohol in the jails resulted in a lot of violence and fights that led to injury, death and a generally low quality of life for the inmates in the city’ s jails. These are the reasons that caused the need for reform (Lynch, 2011). 3. The reforms that were initiated were largely successful. There was improvement in especially the public perception and the public attitude towards prisoners, who were seen as members of society