INSTITUTIONAL CORRECTIONS

UNIT 1: INTRODUCTION TO CORRECTIONS

CORRECTION IN HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE
 
Two noticeable purposes of punishment 
1. Protection and conservation of the social interests or values. Can be
achieved by various means:   
❖ The extermination of the offender; 
❖ Making him so fear punishment that he will commit no more crimes (deterrence);
and  
❖ Reforming, re-educating, or curing him by more positive methods. 
2. Views punishment as being inflicted in order to save the offender's soul. Can be achieved
by 
❖ Repentance; and 
❖ atonement 
Human motives, wishes and desires led to the establishment and execution of punishments that
would also affect the means and hence achieve certain purposes or ends.
a. Primitive desire for vengeance or retaliation; 
b. Compassion with sinners or unfortunate fellowmen; 
c. Wish to exploit the offender's productive capacities; and  
d. The hope to turn him into a law-abiding citizen by some kind of rational
treatment or therapy.

Elements of Punishment  

a. The Retaliatory 
No punishments illustrate the retaliatory element better than do capital and corporal penalties.  
b. The Exploitative 
Those who today complain that our prisons are great financial burdens on the taxpayer might well
be surprised to learn that the use of prisons in connection with punishments developed for the purpose
of exploiting the manpower of criminals and making them financially profitable. The use of criminals
to build roads, fortifications, and public works goes back to ancient times. 
c. The Humanitarian 
Humanitarian sentiments and feelings have played a large role in the transformation of
punishments, especially since the beginning of the Christian era, for these feelings are closely bound
up with religious beliefs. 
d. The Treatment 
The greatest changes in our attitudes toward the offender have occurred during the last two
centuries.  They are attributable to two great movements which can be roughly traced back to
ideas that reached fruition or were being foreshadowed in the late eighteenth century-the rise of a
philosophy of democracy and the birth of the behavioral sciences. The former led to great
political upheavals, and the latter produced a revolution in our views regarding the nature of the
offender and his treatment. 

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The Classical School of Penology  

The classical theory came about as a direct result of two influences: 
1. It came about as a protest against the abuses and discretionary power of judges 
2. It was also influenced by the philosophical school of Rousseau

Cesare Beccaria of Italy in his book, “Crime and Punishment,” published in 1764, bewailed
over the cruelties and inequalities of the law and the courts of his time. He holds that justice consists of
equal treatment of all criminals for like offenses, whereas, the courts of the day were dealing unequally
with criminals according to their rank and influence. Beccaria would have the legislature, not the court,
determine the exact punishment appropriate to each crime. No discretion would thus be left to the
judge. 

Beccaria’s protests were directed against: 

1. Arbitrary penalties given by the judges 

 2. Uncertainty and obscurity of the laws 
3. Defects in criminal procedure in an admission of testimonies
4. Secret accusations 
5. Torture 
6. Incrimination of witnesses 
7. Long pending cases 
8. Abuse of power by rich against the poor, etc. 

Jeremy Bentham of England, another exponent of the classical school, also holds that society
must reward those who accept responsibility and punish those who do not, thus bringing pleasure
and pain into the service of society. 

The philosophy of the Classical School 

The classical school holds: 

1. That man is a free moral agent, and that every act of man is of his free will and accord; 
2. That every man is therefore responsible for his acts; 
3. That crime can be expiated only by punishment and 4. That the law, not the judge, should
determine the punishment to be attached to the criminal act, and should provide a scale of
punishments to be applied equally to all persons committing the same crime. 

Advantages of the Classical School 

1. It was easy to administer – The judge was only an instrument to apply the law. 
2. It eliminated the arbitrary sentence.

Disadvantages 

1. It was unfair – It treated all men as mere digits without regard to difference in individual natures and
circumstances. 
2. It was unjust – It made first offenders and recidivists equally punished. 
3. It did not individualize punishment. 
4. It was the magna carta of the professional criminal in that he knew what was coming to him and could
calculate the risk. 
5. It considered only the injury caused, not the state of the mind and nature of the criminal. 

The Neo-Classical School of Penology 

Influenced by the French Revolution and the Quakers of the New England states, the Neo-Classical
School, was advocated at the beginning of the 19th century. The French Code of 1819, the principles
of the classical school remained intact but the system of defined and variable punishments was
modified. The judge was given direction in certain crimes to vary punishment between the maximum
and the maximum fixed by the law. Under the Code the judge could not admit extenuating
circumstances. 

The Classical Theory remained intact in its theory that “every person equally free and therefore equally
responsible.” Since the publication of the French Code of 1819, the struggle has been to individualize
the punishment by setting up varying degrees of responsibility. The Neo 
Classical School admitted extenuating circumstances in the criminal himself. It admits too those minors
are incapable of committing crime because they have not reached the age of responsibility. And it
also admits that certain adults are incapable of committing crimes because of their conditions they are
not free to choose. 

Result of the Neo-Classical theory 

1. Exempting circumstances admitted 

2. Reduction of punishment for partial freedom of the will – only partial responsibility 
3. Punishment was mitigated for lack of full responsibility
4. It represented the reaction against the severity of the classical theory of equal punishment irrespective
of circumstances

The Italian or Positivist School of Penology 

  Cesare Lomroso’s “The Criminal in Relation to Anthropology, Jurisprudence, and Psychiatry” was
published 100 years from the publication of Beccaria’s book, “Crime and Punishment.” Lombroso,
in his book, sought to explain crime in terms of the physical make-up of the criminal, thus – the vicious
soldier was distinguished from the honest soldier by the extent to which the former was tattooed and by
the decency of the designs. In studying the insane, the patient, not the disease, should be the object of
attention. 

Enrico Ferri was born in Italy in 1856. Ferri advocated the “Theory of Imputability and the Denial of
the Free Will” in 1878. Ferri contributed to the emphasis of the social factors such as:
1. Physical factors, including geographical, climate, temperature, etc.
2. The anthropological factors including psychological factors
3. The social factors, including economics and political factors as well as age, sex, education,
religion. 

Rafaele Garofalo was born in Naples in 1852, from parents of Spanish origins. Garofalo thinks that
crime can be understood only as it is studied by scientific methods. The criminal is not a free moral
agent, but is the product of his own traits and his circumstances. 

 Results if the Italian School 

1. Emphasis shifted from legal; metaphysical and juristic abstraction to a scientific of the criminal and the
conditions under which he commits crime. 
2. Treatment began to be based from study of the criminal.
3. The old purpose of punishment was changed – 
4. Retribution was eliminated. 
5. Deterrent effect theory modified – does not apply to those who could not foresee consequences. 
6. Rehabilitation re-emphasized but applied with discrimination to certain classes. 
7. Protection of society is open to be the primary purpose of treatment. 
8. Prevention of crime by early treatment of juveniles.

The Modern Clinical School of Penology 

This theory advocates the study of the criminal rather than the crime. This school is interested primarily
in the criminal himself in order to determine the conditioning circumstances that explain his criminality
and in order to obtain light upon the problem of how he should be handled by the social group. While
Lombroso emphasized on the physical characteristics, Ferri – Garafalo emphasized the
psychological and social factors, the Clinical School emphasized the psychological and social factors,
but in terms provided by the new knowledge furnished by the later psychology and sociology. 

Emphasis on social psychology – the influence of interaction between individuals, and groups, and the
relationships between emotional balance and intellectual integrity are considered. 

The Modern Clinical School advocates the idea that the criminal is the product of his biological
inheritance conditioned in his development  by the experience of life to which he has been exposed
from early  infancy up to the time of the commission of the crime. It also suggests adapting the
treatment of each individual in accordance with the  diagnosis obtained by scientific study of the
criminal. This school entirely  repudiates retribution, expiation and intimidation. It gives a new content 
to the old terms of deterrence, reformation and protection.

NATURE AND TRENDS OF PUNISHMENT 

Punishment is a means of social control. It is a device to cause  people to become cohesive and to
induce conformity. People believe  that punishment is effective as a means of social control but this
belief is  doubtful. There is no question, however, that some forms of punishment  are more effective in
one society than in another. For example  punishment in a small well ordered community, where people
practically  know everybody, is more effective in inducing conformity than in a  highly mobile
metropolitan city. 
  
The general concept of punishment is that it is infliction of some  sort of pain on the offender for
violating the law. This definition is not  complete in the sense that it does not mention the condition
under  which punishment is administered or applied. In the legal sense, it is more  individual redress, or
personal revenge. Punishment, therefore, is defined  as the redress that the state takes against an
offending member. 
 
 Punishment is restricted to such suffering as is inflicted upon the  offender in a definite way by, or in the name
of, the society of which he  is a permanent member. Punishment must be intended and not  accidental, to
produce some sort of justified suffering on the offender. It  is essential that the offender should be forcibly
made to suffer and that  society is justified in making him suffer. Punishment is a form of  disapproval for
certain behaviors that is followed by imposing a penalty.  Punishment makes the offender stigmatized and
penalized. The offender  may or may not actually suffer, under the intentional application of  punishment,
depending on the circumstances it is applied and the  toughness of the individual offender. 

Forms of Punishment  

The forms of punishment in primitive society were: 

1. Death penalty 
2. Corporal punishment 
3. Public humiliation and shaming 
4. Banishment.  

Death penalty was carried out by  

1. hanging 
2. burning 
3. immersing in boiling oil 
4. feeding to wild animals  
5. other barbaric ways.  

Corporal punishment was inflicted the offender by  

1. Flogging 
2. Mutilation 
3. Disfiguration 
4. Maiming.  

Public humiliation and shaming were affected by  

1. the use of stocks and pillory 
2. docking stool 
3. branding 
4. shaving off the hair, etc.

Retribution  

In primitive days punishment of the transgressor was carried out in  the form of personal vengeance. Since there
were no written laws and  no courts, the victim of a crime was allowed to obtain his redress in the  way he saw
fit. Oftentimes, the retaliatory act resulted to infliction of  greater injury or loss than the original crime, so that
the latter victim was  perforce afforded his revere. Punishment therefore became unending  vendetta between
the offender and the victim. Later, an attempt was  made to limit the retaliation to the degree of injury inflicted,
thus the  philosophy of “an eye for an eye” evolved. During this period nearly all  offenses that are now
included in criminal codes as public crimes, were  considered private offenses for which the victims were
allowed their  redress through personal vengeance. 
There were a few offenses, however, which were regarded as  crimes committed against the native gods. People
being then  superstitious, believed that any catastrophe that befell the group was a  retaliation of an offended
god. In order to appease the offended god,  the social group or clan demanded that the supposed offended be 
banished or put to death. Witchcraft was considered a public crime and  person suspected of being a witch was
tortured, banished or put to  death. 

Expiation or Atonement  

This theory or justification of punishment was also advocated  during the pre-historic days. A
sort of common understanding and  sympathetic feeling developed in the group. An offense committed
by a  member against another member of the same clan or group aroused  the condemnation of the
whole group against the offending member.  

The group would therefore demand that the offender be punished.  When punishment is exacted
visibly or publicly for the purpose of  appeasing the social group, the element of expiation is present. 
Expiation is therefore, group vengeance as distinguish from retribution  which is personal vengeance.
Punishing the offender gives the community a sense of its moral superiority, an assurance that virtue is 
rewarded after all. Hostile action against the offender brings about  cohesiveness in society. Corporal
punishment in most modern countries  has been abolished and the application of punishment has tended
 to  be withdrawn from the public eye. Some segments of society, however,  still cling to the belief
wrong doing or in order that punishment be  punishment. 

Deterrence 

It is commonly believed that punishment gives a lesson to the  offender; that it shows others
what would happen if they violate the law;  and that punishment holds crime in check. This is the
essence of  deterrence as a justification for punishment.  

Cesare Beccaria, an exponent of the Classical School of  Criminology and whose writings at the
end of the 18th century  renovated the punitive justice system of Europe, contended that the  intent of
punishment should not be to torture the criminal or to undo the  crime (expiation) but to “prevent others
from committing a like offense”.  He advocated the theory that “a punishment should have only that 
degree of severity which is sufficient to deter others. It is doubtful if  punishment is as the proponents
think. In one New England state during  the 18th Century, theft was punishable by whipping the
offender in the  public plaza. The purpose of whipping the thief within the public view  was to deter
others from committing the same offense. Public whipping,  however, did not diminish the incidence of
the theft in that state. 

Protection  

Protection as a justification of punishment came after prisons, were  fully established. People
believe that by putting the offender in prison,  society is protected from his further criminal depredation.
If this were so,  vicious and society is protected from his further criminal depredation. If  this were so,
vicious and dangerous criminals should be made to serve  long terms of imprisonment. Recidivism and
habitual delinquency laws  are expected to attain this end. 

Reformation  

This is the latest justification of punishment. Under this theory,  society can best be protected
from crime if the purpose of imprisonment  is to reform or rehabilitate the prisoner. Advocates of this
theory contend  that since punishment does not deter; in as much as imprisonment does  not protect
society from further commission of crimes because the  greater portion of the criminal population is at
large; and because  prisoners stay in prison for a short time, from 3 to 5 years only, society’s  interest
can best be served by helping the prisoner become a law abiding and productive citizen upon his return
to the community by  making him undergo an intensive program of rehabilitation in prison. 

Theoretically, imprisonment for reformation is sound, but  practically, rehabilitation is difficult

to achieve. Some prisoners are  reformed, but about 50% get relapses. Failure to reform prisoners may
be  due to poor administration of the reformatory program, or it may lie in  the make-up of the criminal
population.  

Probation, which is a substitute for imprisonment, and parole which  an early release from prison,
are intended to reform the offender. A new  concept of correctional administration has developed, thus
reformation  and rehabilitation are now thought of as “treatment”. Treatment through  institutional
programs and through probation and parole services is the  modern version of reformation and
rehabilitation. 

Types of Punishment in Early Correctional History 

NAME OF  PURPOSE  DESCRIPTION 
PUNISHMENT 

Trial by Ordeal  Determine guilt  or Very dangerous and/ or  impossible tests to prove the 
innocence  guilt or innocence of the  accused. 

Gag  Humiliation  A device that constrained  persons who were known to 
constantly scold others. 

Ducking stool  Humiliation and  Punishment that used a chair  suspended over a body
deterrence  of  water. 
 Stocks  Humiliation  Wooden frame that were built  outdoors, usually in a
village or 

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town square. 

Pillory  Humiliation  Similar to the stock except the pillory consisted of a

single  large bored hole where the  offender’s neck
would rest. 

Branding  Humiliation and  Usually on thumb with a letter  denoting the offense. 
warn public 

Whipping  Deterrence  Lashing the body of a criminal  offender in front of a

public  audience. 

Capital punishment  Deterrence  Putting the offender to death  in front of a public

audience. 

Banishment and  Deterrence  Exile from society. 

transportation 

Hulk imprisonment  Retribution and  Offenders kept in unsanitary  decommissioned naval

incapacitation  vessels. 

Indentured servitude  Retribution and  Offender subjected to virtual  slavery. 

incapacitation
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DEVELOPMENT OF MODERN CORRECTIONAL CONCEPTS AND STANDARDS

 The Auburn and Pennsylvania System  

Two rival prison systems appeared in the scene during the early  history of imprisonment,
namely, the Auburn and the Pennsylvania prison  system, established in 1819, and 1829, respectively.
The features of the  Auburn system were confinement of the prisoners in single cells at night  and
congregate work in shops during the day. The features of the  Pennsylvania system were confinement
of the prisoners in their own cells  day and night. Both the Auburn and Pennsylvania systems observed 
complete silence. States of the United States, which constructed their  prisons, patterned them after the
Auburn prison system, while European  countries adopted the Pennsylvania system. 

 The Reformatory Movement  

There was no significant progress in prison work worth mentioning until  the middle of the 19th
century. Most of the prisons established between  1819 and 1870 were constructed on the basis of a
program espousing  the punitive philosophy, the features of which were mass treatment,  enforced
silenced, idleness, regimented rules and severe punishment. 

In Europe, several penal administrators can be mentioned as  among those who contributed to the
progressive development of the  reformatory system. Manuel Montesimos, who was the Director of
the  prisons of Valencia, Spain, in 1835, divided prisoners into companies and appointed prisoners as
petty officers in charge. Academic classes of one  hour a day were given all inmates under 20 years of
age.   

Domets of France established and agricultural colony for  delinquent boys in 1839. The boys
were housed in cottages with house  fathers as incharge. The system was based on re-education rather
than  force. When discharge the boys were place under the supervision of a  patron. 
  
In England, Alexander Maconochie, superintendent of penal  colony at Norfolk Island in Australia, introduced
a progressive humane  system to substitute for corporal punishment – the Mark System. When a  prisoner
earned a required number of marks, he was given his ticket of  leave, which is the equivalent of parole.
Maconochie introduced several  other progressive measures, which aimed at rehabilitating prisoners. He 
introduced fair disciplinary trials, built churches, distributed books,  allowed plays to be staged, and permitted
prisoners to tend small  gardens. For his progressive administration of prisoners, Maconochie  should be
considered one of the fathers of modern penology.  Maconochie is considered the “Father of Parole System”.

One of the most famous contributors to the reformatory  movement was Sir Walter Crofton,
Chairman of the Directors of Irish  prisons. In 1856, Crofton introduced the Irish System, similar with
that of  Maconochie’s Mark System, latter on called the progressive stage  system. The first stage of the
Irish system was solitary confinement for nine  months at a certain prison. The prisoners at this stage
were given  reduced diet and allowed monotonous work. The prisoners progress to a  more interesting
work, some education, and better treatment toward  the end of the first stage. The second stage was an
assignment to the  public works at Spike Island. The prisoner worked his promotion through a  series of
the grades, according to a mark system, and wore a badge of  distinction to show his status. The purpose
of the mark system and the  progression through grades was to shorten the length of stay. In the third 
stage the prisoner was sent to Lurk or Smithfield. Which was a sort of  preparation for release. Here, the
prisoner without custodial supervision  and was expose to ordinary temptations of freedom. The final
stage was  the release on supervision under conditions equivalent to present day  parole. The important
then to remember in the Irish system is that Crofton  attempted to place the responsibility for self-
improvement on the  prisoner himself through successive stages.  

In 1876, the New York State Reformatory at Elmira opened with  Zebulon Reed Brockway as
superintendent. Brockway introduced in 
24 

Elmira a new institutional program for boys from 16 to 30 years of age.  The new prisoner was
classified as second grade and was promoted to  first grade after six months of good behavior. Another
six months of good  behavior in the first grade qualified him for parole. If the prisoner  committed a
missed conduct he was demoted to third grade where he  was required to show good conduct for one
month before he could be  reclassified to second grade. The Elmira system was based on the 
indeterminate sentence and parole. Elmira had all the elements of  modern correctional system, so that
this institution is often referred to as  the forerunner of modern penology. 

In England, Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise, Director of English prisons, after  visiting Elmira in 1897,
open a Borstal Institution near Rochedi, in Kent. The  Borstal Institution of England is today
considered best reform institutions  for young offenders. 

A Golden Age of Penology  

The period from 1870 to 1880 was called the “Golden Age of  Penology” because of the
following significant events: 

1. In 1870, the National Prison Association, now American Correctional  Association, was organized
and its first annual Congress was held in  Cincinati, Ohio. In this Congress the Association adopted a 
“Declaration of Principles,” so modern, comprehensive in scope  that when it was revised in the
prison Congress of 1933, few  amendments were made. Since founding the Association has held 
annual congresses of corrections in has taken active leadership in  reform movements in the field of
crime prevention and treatment of  offenders. 
2. In 1872, the first International Prison Congress was held in London.  Representative of the
government of the United States and  European countries attended it. As a result of this congress, the 
International Penal and Penitentiary Commission, an inter governmental organization was
established in 1875 with head  quarters at The Hague. The IPPC held international congresses every 
five years. In 1950, the IPPC was dissolved in its functions were  transferred to the Social Defense
Section of the United Nations.  
3. The Elmira Reformatory, which was considered as the forerunner of  modern penology, was opened
in Elmira, New York in 1876. The  figures of Elmira were a training school type of institutional
program,  social casework in the institution, and extensive of parole. 
4. The first separate institutions for women were established in Indiana  and Massachusetts.