MODULE 1.

GENERAL CONCEPT OF CORRECTION AND HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT

GENERAL CONCEPT
PENOLOGY- is branch of criminology concerned with study of punishment for
crimes or of criminal’s offenders. It includes the study of control and
prevention of crime through punishment of criminal’s offenders. Penology- is a
term derived from the Latin word “POENA” which means pain and suffering.
Penology is otherwise known as Penal Science. It is actually a division of
criminology that deals with prison management and the treatment of
offenders, and concerned itself with the philosophy and practice of society in
its effort to repress criminal activities.

CORRECTION - is branch of the criminal justice system concern with the

custody,
supervision and rehabilitation of criminal offenders. It is the field of criminal
justice administration, which utilizes the body of knowledge and practice of the
government and society in general involving the processes of handing
individual who have been convicted of offense for purposes of crime
prevention and control.

CORRECTION - is the branch of administration of the criminal justice system

charged with the responsibility for custody, supervision and rehabilitation of
the convicted offenders. In the Philippines, CORRECTION is the 4th pillar of the
Criminal Justice System.

CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION is the study and practice of a systematic

management of jails or prisons and other institutions concerned with the
custody, treatment, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders. As a process, it is
the reorientation of the criminal offender to prevent him or her from repeating
his delinquent actions without the necessity of taking punitive action but
rather introduction of individual measures of reformation. This is also
synonymous with Penal/ Jail Management, which is defined as the manner or
practice of managing or controlling places of confinement as in jails or prisons.
Two Approaches of Correction

1. Institutional Correction (Institution-based correction) – rehabilitation or

correctional programs take place inside correctional facilities or institutions
such as national penitentiaries or jails.
2. Non-Institutional Correction (Community-based correction) – rehabilitation
or correctional programs take place within the community. In this approach
the convict will not be placed or be released from correctional facility or jails.

Concept of Penalty
Penalty in general signifies pain; especially considered in judicial sphere, it
means suffering undergone because of the action of human society, by one
who commits crime.

Punishment - is the redress that the state takes against an offending member
of society that usually involves pain and suffering. It is also the penalty
imposed on an offender for a crime or wrongdoing.
The justifications of punishment are:
1. Retribution - meaning the punishment should be provided by the state
whose sanction is violated, or offenders should be punished because they
deserve it.
2. Expiation or Atonement - it is punishment in the form of group vengeance
where the purpose is to appease the offended public or group.
3. Deterrence - punishment gives lesson to the offender by showing to others
what would happen to them if they violated the law.
4. Incapacitation and protection - the public will be protected if the offender
has being held in conditions where he cannot harm others especially the public
by placing him in a prison; and
5. Reformation or Rehabilitation - it is the establishment of the usefulness and
the responsibility of the offender to renew him as a law-abiding citizen and
productive member of the society upon his release.

Ancient Forms of Punishment

1. Death Penalty – this was effected by burning, boiling in oil, breaking at the
wheel.
2. Physical Torture – this was the so-called corporal punishment w/, was
effected by mutilation, maiming, etc.
3. Social Degradation – the purpose of this was to put up the offender to
shame or humiliation. This was effected by branding, use of ducking stool,
pillory, etc.
4. Banishment – this was sending or putting of an offender which was carried
out either by a prohibition against coming into a specified territory or
prohibition against going outside a specified territory, such as an island to
where the offender has been removed.

Contemporary Forms of Punishment

1. Imprisonment – putting the offenders in prison for purpose of protecting
the public and at the same time rehabilitating them by requiring the offenders
to undergo institutional treatment program.
2. Parole - it is a conditional release after the prison has serve part of his
sentence and supervision of a parole officer.
3. Probation – a disposition whereby a defendant after conviction of an
offense the penalty of which does not exceed six years imprisonment is
released subject to the conditions imposed by the releasing court and under
the supervision for a probation officer..
4. Fine – an amount given as a compensation for a criminal act.
5. Destierro - the penalty of banishing a person from the place where he
committed a crime, prohibiting him to get near or enter the 25 kilometer
perimeter.

Juridical Conditions of Penalty

1. Must be productive of suffering without however affecting the integrity of
the
personality;
2. Must be commensurate with the offense of different penalties;
3. Must be personal, no one should be punished for the crime of others;
4. Must be legal, it is the consequence of judgment based of law;
5. Must be certain, no one may escape its effect;
6. Must be equal to all persons
7. Must be correctional

Schools of Taught in Correction (The Criminological Theories)

1. CLASSICAL THEORY – the basis for the retributive and punitive aspect of
punishment where it emphasizes that the nature of punishment must be equal
to the nature of crime. (“The Punishment must Fit the Crime”)
2. NEO-CLASSICAL THEORY – it supported the Classical Theory but it must be
modified in consideration of the child and lunatic individual.
3. POSITIVIST THEORY – just like illness, man may be subjected to cure rather
than punishing them for their act. It is through this that the word CORRECTION
& REHABILITATION considered as a means of controlling the society’s anti-
social act.
4. MODERN CLINICAL SCHOOL – It studies the criminal rather than the crime.
This school is interested primarily in the personality of the criminal himself in
order to determine the conditioning circumstances that explain his criminality
and in order to obtain light upon problem of how he should be handled.

HISTORY OF PUNISHMENT
In the Bible, when the Godhead discovered the plan of Lucifer to snatch the
thrown of heaven from Him, He thrown Lucifer and other angels out from
heaven. It was the first display of punishment by God Himself. Second, when
Adam and Eve broke the law of God, they were also thrown out from the
Garden of Eden. Third, when Cain murdered his brother Abel, God punished
him by placing mark on his brow. It was a cursed of God upon him. Fourth, God
punished groups of people for gross violating God’s Law. These were the great
flood which covered the Biblical World, wherein it rained for forty (40) days
and nights, and only Noah, his family as well as the animals that were in the
Ark survived and fifth, the destruction of fire and brimstone at Sodom and
Gomorrha.

Law of Vendetta, which means personal vengeance or revenge was the rule of
the time when the world was still uncivilized. A family whose member was
murdered by a member of another family took justice in their hand by
murdering members of the opponent family. Retaliation or “blood feuds”
sometimes resulted to a much brutal results. This resulted to endless killing,
which destroy the two warring families, clan or tribe. Today, war between the
terrorist and Muslim Arab Countries against the United States and its allies can
be cited as display of vendetta in civilized world.

Codification of Early Laws, History has shown that there are three main legal
systems in the world, which have been extended to and adopted by all
countries aside from those that produced them, although there were also
other early codes which contributed to the history of penal system. In their
chronological order, they are the Roman, the Mohammedan or Arabic and the
Anglo-American Laws. Among the three, it was Roman Law that has the most
lasting and most pervading influence. The Roman Law, which include the
Criminal Law, has offered the most adequate concepts which sharply define, in
concise and consistent terminology, mature rules and complete system, logical
and firm, tempered with high sense of equity.
KING-UR NAMMU CODE (2100 BC). In the City of UR, Ancient Sumeria, a Code
named after King Ur-Nammu decreed the imposition of restitution and at the
same time savage penalties. It holds the principle that offenders can be
punished and at the same time to reimburse the victim for the value of
whatever has been taken or suffered by him as a result of crime. Retribution
degraded the offender and restitution elevated the status of the victim. This
code does not carry the death penalty because in case of death or physical
injuries to the victim, punishment has to be confined only to the financial
consequence of the crime.
HAMMURABIC CODE (1750 BC) In Babylonia, Hammurabic Code named after
King Hammurabi was enacted as the first formal laws that deals with the
imposition of justice. The core principle of this law is known as lex taliones
(mean an eye for eye and tooth for a tooth). However, lex taliones is a two-
tiered concept of justice because not everybody is equal in the imposition of
punishment. It imposes a stiffer penalty against those who are rich and
powerful than those belongs to lower rungs of the society. Hammurabic Code,
credited as the oldest code, has found its way in the Manama Darma of India,
Hermes Trismegitus of Egypt and Mosaic Code in the Bible particularly the
Book of Leviticus of the Old Testament.
MOSAIC CODE. Although premised on the concept of retribution, also allow
restitution because it allows the offender and the victim to come to a
settlement
under mediation of the legal authorities. The Mosaic Code allowed extreme
punishment such as flogging and burning alive. Here are some of early forms of
punishment and its definitions: Flogging is whipping the culprit of cat of nine
tails; Branding is burning with red hot iron the first letter of his offense on his
forehead or hand of the culprit; Iron Maiden was a hollow form shaped like a
human and made of an iron braced with iron strips used in torturing suspect to
admit the crime he committed. In this process, the more he denied, the more
he will sacrifice to death; and Milk and Honey – Mithridates, the Persian
general was tortured to death in this way. He was encased in a box from which
his head, hands and feet protruded, forcibly feed with milk and honey, which
was also smeared to his face, and then exposed to the sun for seventeen days.
Through this, he suffered a horrible condition until he had been devoured alive
by insects and vermin which swarmed about him and bred within him.
GREEK CODE OF DRACO, a code that provides the same punishment for both
Greek citizens and the slaves. The Greeks were the first to allow any citizen to
prosecute the offender in the name of the injured party. The punishments
inflicted by Greek justice included stoning to death, which was also practice by
the Israelites and the Arabs. At present time, stoning to death is still practice
by the Fundamentalist Islamic Countries like the Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Other form of punishment imposed by the Greek justice is breaking on the
wheel where the offender’s body is fastened by metals bands to a board made
of wood and then had their bones broken. Burning alive, strangling, poisoning,
banishment, branding, penal (imprisonment) slavery and payment of fines
were other forms of punishment imposed by Ancient Greek justice.
The Greeks philosophized that their brand of justice was not vengeful and
retributive. They maintain that justice should reform the offender but must
also serve as deterrent to would-be violators. Deterrence refers to the
terrorizing effect of punishment inflicted on offender. While, Greek justice is
slanted towards deterrence and not on vengeance and retribution, this
concept only applies to Greek Citizens only while punishment of most brutal
kind is still inflicted on aliens and slaves.
TWELVE TABLES/ XII Tabulae (450 BC), represented the earliest codification of
Roman Law (later incorporated into the Justinian Code). It is the foundation of
all public and private law of the Romans until the time of the Justinian. It was a
collection of legal principles engraved on metal tablets and set-up on the
forum.
JUSTINIAN CODE (529 AD). In Roman Empire, Emperor Justin enforced this
Code and became the standard law in all areas occupied by the Roman Empire
particularly in Europe. This code was an upgraded version of Twelve Tables of
Roman. This code did not survive due to the fall of the Roman Empire but left a
foundation to Western Legal Codes.
BURGUNDIAN CODE, another criminal code that also existed during the
Justinian Period. This specified punishment according to social class of
offenders, dividing them into nobles, middles class, and lower class specifying
the value of the life of each person according to social status. The punishments
being imposed in this era includes the following: Stocks, were devices fastened
to the ankles, neck, and wrists of the offender for long period of time in public
places and exposed to the elements; Furca, a V-shaped yolk worn around the
neck and where the outstretched arms of the convict were tied. Early used of
prison was also observed, like – Underground Cistern, used to detain offenders
undergoing trial in some cases and to hold sentenced offenders where they
were starved to death; Ergastulum, used to confine slaves where they were
attached to workbenches and forced to do hard labor in the period of their
imprisonment;
THE SECULAR LAWS (4 AD). These laws were advocated by Christian
Philosophers who recognized the need for justice. Some of the proponents of
these laws were: St Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. During this period,
three laws were distinguished: External Law (Lex External), Natural Law (Lex
Naturalis), and Human Law (Lex Humana). All these laws are intended for the
common good, but the human law only becomes valid if it is does not conflict
with the other two laws.
PAPAL DECLARATION ON SANCTUARY by Pope Innocent VIII (1487AD).
Decreed that refugee offenders be driven out of the sanctuary if they used this
for committing a crime. Sanctuaries are maintained by the church for the
offenders who would seek refuge when they are accused of crimes. A criminal
could avoid punishment by claiming refugee in a church for 40 days and at the
end of which time he was compelled to leave the realm by a rod or path
assigned to him. After the declaration, sanctuaries began to decline and refuse
to admit offenders accused of arson, rape, murder and robbery.
PAPAL DECLARATION ON DEATH PENALTY. Pope Leo I was the first Pope to
fully express approval for the killing, otherwise human and divine law would be
subverted. Priscillian was the first recorded Christian who was put to death for
being heretic but death as capital punishment (guillotine) was first used in
Orleans, France in 1022 AD when thirteen heretics were burned at the
instigation of the church. Today, the stand of the Catholic Church on issues of
Death Penalty is completely a reversal of the old practice. Pope John Paul II,
Pro-life Pope, in his Encyclical Tertio Millenio Adveniente, he formally
apologized to the past intolerance and use of violence in the defense of truth.
In Evangelium Vitae, Pope John Paul II has challenged each and every one of us
to break away from the “culture of death” especially the treatment of killings
as solution to the problems. He calls us to reject the death penalty, population
control that results to abortion and use of contraceptives that are artificial,
euthanasia or killing of the elderly, terminally ill, the infirm, the handicapped
and in the guise of dying with dignity.
KING HENRY THE VIII DECREE (1531). In England, King Henry the VIII decreed
punishments for vagrant and penal slavery to defend the interest of the
landlord, where the nobility gets their privileged status in society. During this
time, there was an exodus of people flocking to the cities from rural areas
considering that capitalism was on the rise and that the feudalism was on the
retreat.
TRANSPORTATION AS PUNISHMENT WAS AUTHORIZED (16th Century).
Transportation of criminals in England was authorized. At the end of the
century, Russia and other European countries followed this system. It partially
relieved overcrowding of prisons. Transportation was abandoned later in 1835.
Banishment, as a form of punishment became widespread during this period.
Although this form of punishment has been practiced since the dawn of
history, the systematic transfer of offenders to colonized land started to
intensify in earnest by the advent of 17th Century. Large numbers of convicted
criminals were transported to distant lands to populate these newly colonized
territories. Special Account on Banishment: The banishment of Russian
prisoners to Siberia was known to the world today as Gulag Archipelago, which
was popularized in a novel by a political prisoner named Alexander
Solshenitsyn. The Exile to Siberia was Russia’s unique contribution to the
world’s criminal justice system. The Penal Code of Russia punishes offenders to
hard labor of four years to life. The Russian authorities built stockades and
depots once every fifteen miles from Russia to the places of exile in Siberia.
The distance is about 4,700 to 6,700 miles. Prisoners were gathered to travel
this distance on foot and which took them about three years to reach. The
prisoners marched heavily chained together. Casualties were extremely high
and very low percentage reached their place of exile live. Once they arrived
destination, they were subjected to severe discipline and hard labors. Their
heads were shaved and this put added pain of coldness on the icy winter. They
were also subjected to a strict rule of silence. This form of punishment was
abolished in 1901.
The benefits of Banishment. This allows country imposing this punishment to
colonize distant lands such as Australia, Canada, Africa, Philippines and other
fur-flung countries and this reduced number of criminals in the country of
origin. Those who sentenced for banishment are those recidivists. After
expiration of banishment period, a returnee is required to have authority to
return and violators will be subjected for execution.
PENITENTIARY ACT OF 1779 AD was passed. Five years after the passage,
Norfolk Prison at Wymondham, England was opened. The National
Penitentiary of Millbank was opened in 1821, Pentoville National Penitentiary
in 1842.
WHITE SLAVE ACT 1910 is one of the many laws, which passed by the US
Congress declaring various crimes to be under federal jurisdiction. This
necessitated the building of more federal prison facilities to accommodate the
increasing number of federal prisoners. The increased number of federal
prisoners moved the House of representative to centralize the federal prison.
Thus, US Bureau of Prison under the Department of Justice was created in
1930.