MODULE 1.

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DEVELOPMENT OF CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION AND
PERONALITIES IN THE HISTORY OF CORRECTION DEVELOPMENT
OF CORRECTIONAL INSTITUTION
➢ The Bridewell Institution (1556) was established as a workhouse for vagabonds,
idlers, and rogues. Under the Bridewell System, vagrants and prostitutes were given
work while serving their sentences. For all practical intents and purposes, capitalist
exploit this prison labor. The Bridewell System (Workhouse) turned to be very
effective workable and profitable. After twenty years of existence in England, the
English Parliament mandated the establishment of this kind of prison in all countries.
After two centuries, the Bridewell System lost its usefulness because of the
banishment of the offenders to the colonies became a more compelling and
profitable proposition to both the landlords and the capitalist invoking strategic
national interest and security considerations as overriding reasons. It turned to be
inoperative and deteriorated that conditions there have become no difference from
the conditions in the county jails.

➢ Gaols are poorly constructed, unsanitary, damp, drafty or airless, gloomy

dungeons, foul smelling places of detention in England in the early eighteenth
century. In this place, the inmates are poorly clothed, without privacy, and the
conditions so deplorable that diseases thrive. The modern term “JAIL” originated
from this word. These are pretrial detention facilities operated by English Sheriff
(from words “shirereeve,” which means a leader of group of ten families who
assumed responsibilities of collecting tithes). Galleys are long, low, narrow, single-
decked ships propelled by sails, usually rowed by criminals when they were meted a
sentence of transportation and sent to other territories and continents. While, hulks
are old sailing warships ships that are no longer used for sea voyages or naval
operations, but are anchored in some English port, where they were used as prison
or places of confinement of convicted criminals. This was popularly known as the
“floating hells.”

➢ Panopticon is a building plan made by Jeremy Bentham, a noted English

Exponent of the classical school of criminology which called for a tank-like structure,
covered by a glass roof. The cells were arranged around a central apartment from
which the custodians could keep all cells under close supervision. This was never
built, despite of contact with English authorities for its construction at state expense.

➢ Mill Bank Penitentiary was a huge, gloomy and many towered prison, which
looked like a thick-spoke wheel, contaning three (3) miles of corridors and hundreds
of cells. The cost was at that time (1812-1821) was nearly two million five hundred
(2,500,000,00) dollars. This was made possible due to the efforts and revelations of
the terrible conditions of English gaols by crusader John Howard.

➢ Sing Sing Prison became famous in the entire world and was the plot of many
movies filmed because of the Sing Sing Bath which was inflicted aside from
floggings, denial of reading materials and solitary confinement. The shower bath was
a gadget, which was constructed to drop a volume of water on the head of a locked
naked offender. The Sing Sing bath became more frequent when flogging was
declared illegal in 1847. The force of the icy cold water hitting the head of the
offender caused so much pain and extreme shock that prisoners immediately sank
into coma due to the shock and hypothermia or sudden drop in body temperature.

➢ Hospicio de San Michelle - The first home for delinquent boys ever established.
Built by Pope Clement XI in Rome for housing incorrigible youths under 20 years of
age.

➢ Auburn System was a convoluted version of St. Michael System (was introduced
by the Roman Catholic Church at the Hospital of St. Michael during the reign of Pope
Clement XI. This was the prototype of the reformatories for juvenile offenders. This
facility emphasized rehabilitative concept and pioneered the segregation of prisoners
and forced silence to make the prisoners contemplate their wrongdoings) as
espoused by the Roman Catholic Church. It culled its name from the Auburn Prison,
which was built in Auburn State, New York. This system employed “congregate
confinement” where individual inmate is confined in their own cells during the night
and congregate work in shops during the day. Complete silence was enforced.
Before inmates were locked in a tiny cell without exercise or any activity. Inmate is
whipped if he dared to speak or make any noise. There was a substantial records of
suicide in this system and was abandoned after five years of existence because the
inmates could not be made productive anymore. Modification was made to Auburn
System by allowing prisoners to work during daytime but still observing rule of
silence and then spent their night in solitary confinement. It was found out that
people working collectively in common areas produced more benefits than people
working individually and the smaller individual cells made prisons cheaper to build
and maintain. It was through the Auburn Prison that the United States was able to
harness the labor power of prisoners to become part of the expansion that was
pushing the young nations to rapid industrialization.

➢ Walnut State Prison or otherwise known as Walnut Street Jail is the first prison
in the United States which was constructed in Philadelphia. It established the
principles of solitary confinement by the construction of additional building which
house the worst type of prisoners in separate cells. The long-term prisoner’s wing of
this jail was built with individual cells. Each inmate lived, worked, and ate in solitary
confinement. During confinement, prisoners were supposed to think about their
offense and become penitent for their sins. The Pennsylvania System was the
leading innovator and rival of the Auburn System, which was based on the concept
of solitary confinement and rendering labor. Three Prison were built in Pennsylvania:
The Walnut 11 Street Jail (1790); the Western Penitentiary in 1826 and the Eastern
Penitentiary in 1830. Under the Pennsylvania or “solitary system”, prisoners were
confined in a single cell day and night where they lived, slept, ate, and received
religious instructions. Complete silence was also enforced. They are required to read
the bible. Five major deployments of prisoners existed in the United States during
those times, these were: Northern Industrial Prison; Southern Plantation Prison;
Chain Gangs and other decentralized work camps; the custody-oriented Prison; and
the treatment-oriented prison. Even today, these five types of prisoners’ deployments
still exist.

➢ The Northern Industrial Prison was so called because it is found in the industrial
belt of the Northern United States. The State Penitentiary at McAlester, Oklahoma is
an example of this type. There were three (3) methods used to benefit from prison
labor and these are:
Contract System – prisoners were hired out to businessmen or corporation on a
daily basis for a set fee per head;
State Account System – Contractors provide the raw materials and pay the state
on a per piece price for each item produced or manufactured; and
State-use system - is a riskier venture but if properly managed, would bring profits
to the state. Under this set-up, the state operates the business itself in all its aspects.

➢ The Southern Agricultural Plantations are located in the agricultural deep south
of the United States. These penal institutions possess vast of landholdings and use
as prison labor to produce agricultural products out of the land. These plantations
has a minimal facilities and therefore, inexpensive to operate. They employ also
“trustees” from minimum security convicts to beef-up security forces.

➢ The Chain Gangs. Under this scheme, prisoners work in public works outside of
the facilities. Today, some prisoners, under this scheme, work in natural
conservation work. To secure inmates from escape while outside performing works,
they were chained together, hence, the term “chain gangs” evolved. Chain Gang was
originally imposed on black prisoners. In case of violation, prisoners were subjected
to a sweat box, in which prisoners were put in a steel box under the heat of the sun.
This popularly known as American Siberia. Shot drill is a form of punishment inflicted
to prisoners by carrying heavy loads from one place to another and then returned to
the same place over and over again everyday. Treadmill is a form of punishment
where the prisoner was continually made to constantly climb the stairs. Prisoners are
made to climb this treadmill continually during the day with prisoners logging up to
14,000 feet of stairs per day.

➢ The Custody-oriented Prison is a remnant of the prisons of the past century

where prisoners were punished by confining them only to their cells and isolating
them from the rest of society. This was used in super maximum security where the
occupants were hardened criminals.

➢ The Treatment-Oriented Prison is almost the goal of modern penal institutions.

This emerged after the enactment of Huber Law in the State of Wisconsin in 1913.
This legalized work release program. After five years, in the State of Mississippi, a
law granting a prisoner, a furlough program was enacted. Many states in the Unites
States began to implement this program after enactment of Prisoner Rehabilitation
Act of 1965.

➢ New York House of Refuge is the first juvenile reformatory which was opened in
January 1825 and located in New York City, its purpose was to protect children from
degrading association with hardened criminals in the country and state prison.
Boston, founded its house of refuge in 1826 and Philadelphia in 1828. New Orleans
erected its Municipal Boys’ Reformatory in 1845 and Massachussettes in 1847.

➢ Maconochie’s Mark System, the fundamental principle of this system is by

reduction of sentences vis-à-vis proper deportment, labor and study. This was
introduced by Captain Alexander Maconochie of the English Royal Army. THE IRISH
SYSTEM – Using the “Mark System” and the incorporations of old practices in
English Prisons and Sir Walter Crofton’s program. He was the first to introduce the
“Intermediate Prison” theory of individualization of treatment equivalent to parole.

➢ Elmira system, American penal system named after Elmira Reformatory, in New
York. In 1876 Zebulon R. Brockway became an innovator in the reformatory
movement by establishing Elmira Reformatory for young felons. Brockway was much
influenced by the mark system, developed in Australia by Alexander Maconochie,
whereby credits, or marks, were awarded for good behavior, a certain number of
marks being required for release. To this system Brockway added a new regimen of
moral, physical, and vocational training. The Elmira system classified and separated
various types of prisoners, gave them individualized treatment emphasizing
vocational training and industrial employment, used indeterminate sentences,
rewarded good behavior, and paroled inmates under supervision. Elmira
Reformatory gave the reformatory movement two important philosophical tenets:
first, the importance of specialized care for youthful offenders, recognizing both the
individuality of prisoners and their similarity; second, the recognition that up to a
certain age every criminal ought to be regarded as potentially a good citizen. This
reformatory ideology gradually entered the U.S. prison system and also affected
European correctional practices.

➢ Japan Prison Modernization started during the reign of Tokugawa Shogunate

when the country came under the occupation of Americans. This pro-American
Emperor entered into treaties for the establishment of Western Style Prison for those
oppositionist to the provision in the treaty that is disadvantageous to the Japanese.

GREAT PERSONALITIES BEHIND HISTORY OF CORRECTION

➢ ARISTOTLE (400 BC), a Philosopher from the City-State of Athens that made the
first attempt to explain crime in the book he has written entitled: Nicomedian Ethics.
In his book, he wrote about corrective justice, stating that punishment is a means of
restoring the balance between pleasure and pain. He also forwarded the concept of
restitution when he postulated that corrective justice is a means whereby the
suffering of the victim is compensated.

➢ WILLIAM PENN (1614-1718). He fought for religious freedom and individual

rights. He is the first leader to prescribe imprisonment as correctional treatment for
major offenders. He is also responsible for the abolition of death penalty and torture
as a form of punishment.
➢ CHARLES MONTESIQIEU (1689–1755). A French historian and philosopher who
analyzed law as an expression of justice. He believe that harsh punishment would
undermine morality and that appealing to moral sentiments as a better means of
preventing crimes.

➢ VOLTAIRE or also known FRANCOIS MARIE AROUET (1694–1778). He was the

most versatile of all philosophers during this period. He believes that fear of shame
was a deterrent to crime. He fought the legality-sanctioned practice of torture.

➢ CESARE BONESA, MARCHESE de BECARRIA (1738–1794). He wrote an

essay entitled “An Essay on Crimes and Punishment,” the most exciting essay on
law during this century. It presented the humanistic goal of law. He also wrote that
education, not punishment, is the surest, although the most difficult, means of
preventing crime. Although, these two philosophers strongly advocated the use of
positive approach such as reward and education, they likewise did not reject the
necessity of punishment. Jeremy Bentham and Beccaria, both were the strongest
advocates of the enlightenment in the fields of criminology and their writings were
considered as the Classical School of criminology. Under this school of discipline,
man has free will and has the capacity to exercise such free will. Man’s free will is
being acted out only to satisfy his selfish interest. Bentham believed in the concept of
Aristotle that man is governed by two conflicting forces: the pleasure and pain. He
saw that crime, like any other human action, represents an effort to gain pleasure or
something beneficial to him. Punishment, therefore, should be inflicted with the
purpose of discouraging anyone’s attempt to gain pleasure at the expense of others.
Punishment should not be meted out without a purpose.

➢ JEREMY BENTHAM (1748 –1832). He was one of the greatest leaders in the
reform of English Criminal Law. He believes that whatever punishment designed to
negate whatever pleasure or pain the criminal derives from crime, the crime rate
would go down. He was the one who designed the “Panopticon Model,” a prison that
consists a large circular building containing multi-cells around the periphery.

➢ CESARE LOMBROSO, Jewish physician and anthropologist who was greatly

influenced by the writings of Charles Darwin espoused the Positivist School of
Criminology. This concept strongly objected to the classical school’s view that
punishment could be made to “fit the crime” by fixing sentences that are tied strictly
to the nature of criminal acts. He described that crime is a social phenomenon.
Although, he conceded that there are many causes of crime, he remained emphatic
in his assertion that crime is attributed to biological causes, which is about 60 to
65%. Lombroso formulated his thinking based on his studies of a notorious brigand
named Villella. This brigand openly boasted of his crimes. This was the reason why
Lombroso claimed that criminals have the uncanny ability to quickly recuperate from
their wounds and have no moral compunction. On death of Villella, Lombroso
conducted Post-Mortem Examination on the corpse of the bandit. When he opened
the skull, he found a distinct depression, which is found only to inferior animals. His
concept became dominant in the late 19th Century. Lombroso and his followers
especially those in the United States were among the first proponents of parole,
probation, the juvenile courts, the experiment with youthful offenders, and other
measures of early twentieth-century penology. They were instrumental of the rise of
three landmarks innovations in corrections: These are: Parole, Probation and the
Abolition of Capital Punishment (History will be discussed in separate lecture).

➢ JOHN HOWARD (1726-1790), he was a Sheriff from Bedfordshire, England

(1773) who became concerned at the savage and inhuman conditions obtaining in
his country’s prisons. Some of his notable recommendations were maintenance of
the facility for children and women separate from other offenders, provision of
sanitation facilities, adequate salaries for jailers so that they will not extract money
from the prisoners. His recommendations were incorporated into the Penitentiary Act
of 1779 and adopted as standard procedure in the first modern prison constructed in
the year 1785 in Norfolk, England.

➢ DOMETS OF FRANCE, established an agricultural colony for delinquent boys in

1839 providing housefathers as in charge of these boys. He concentrated on
reeducation. Upon their discharge, the boys were placed under the supervision of a
guardian.

➢ ALEXANDER MACONOCHIE – He was the Superintendent of the Penal Colony

at Norfolk Island in Australia (1840) who introduced “Mark System,” a system in
which prisoner was required to earn a number of marks based on proper
department, labor and study in order to entitle him for a ticket for leave or conditional
release which is similar to parole.

➢ SIR WALTER CROFTON, the director of Irish prisons. In his program, known as
the Irish system, prisoners progressed through three stages of confinement before
they were returned to civilian life. The first portion of the sentence was served in
isolation. After 15 that, prisoners were assigned to group work projects. Finally, for
six months or more before release, the prisoners were transferred to “intermediate
prisons,” where they were supervised by unarmed guards and given sufficient
freedom and responsibility to demonstrate their fitness for release. Release
nonetheless depended upon the continued good conduct of the offender, who could
be returned to prison if necessary.

➢ MANUEL MONTESIMOS – the Director of Prison in Valencia, Spain (1835) who

divided the number of prisoners into companies and appointed certain prisoners as
petty officers in-charge, which allowed good behavior to prepare the convict for
gradual release.

➢ ZEBULON R. BROCKWAY – The Superintendent of Elmira Reformatory in New

York, Brockway claimed to introduce a program of education, training in useful
trades, physical activity, indeterminate sentences, inmate classification according to
"grades," and an incentive program; his own reports of the accomplishments of the
reformatory were highly influential in prison reform across the nation. Publicly,
Brockway claimed to believe that the aim of the prison was to rehabilitate and not
simply just to punish.

➢ SIR EVELYN RUGGLES-BRISE, (born Dec. 6, 1857, Finchingfield, Essex, Eng.—

died Aug. 18, 1935, Peaslake, Surrey), prison reformer who was instrumental in the
founding and development of England’s Borstal system for the treatment of young
offenders. In 1908 Parliament established the system that permitted magistrates to
prescribe “Borstal detention” as a separate sentence for young offenders. Ruggles-
Brise was made a knight commander of the Bath in 1902. He published Prison
Reform at Home and Abroad (1924), which gave his views of the penal systems of
various countries. BORSTAL INSTITUTION – is considered as the best reform
institution for young offenders today.

➢ ENRICO FERRI (Italian), one of the most prominent followers of Lombroso. He

stated that it is noble mission to oppose the ferocious penalties of the middle ages
but it is still nobler to forestall crime. He argued that since the causes of crime could
be identified and isolated, he calculated that it could be controlled through
prevention. He opined that the best preventive measures was through the
reformation of the society.