Module 3

HISTORICAL
PERSPECTIVE ON
THE DEVELOPMENT
OF CORRECTIONS
A. Three Main Legal
Systems
History has shown that
there were three main legal
systems in the world, which
have been extended to and
adopted by all countries aside
from those that produced
them. These are the:
 1. Roman law
 Roman law has affected the development of law
in most of Western civilization as well as in parts
of the East. It forms the basis for the law codes
of most countries of continental Europe and
derivative systems elsewhere.

 adopted by Europeans and Asian countries.

2. Mohammedan law or Arabic law

It may be generally defined as the

Islamic law revealed by God to the
Prophet Muhammad.

adopted by Muslim countries

3. Anglo-American laws
is a type of law that comes from court decisions
instead of written laws.

It is based on the English legal system and is used

in many countries, including the United States.

adopted by western countries.

NOTE:

 Among the three it was the

Roman law that has the most
lasting and most pervading
influence.
2. Pioneers of
Correctional
Reform
 The Age of Enlightenment
18th Century is a century of change. It is
the period of recognizing human dignity.
It is the movement of reformation, the
period of introduction of certain reforms in
the correctional field by certain people,
gradually changing the old positive
philosophy of punishment to a more
humane treatment of prisoners with
innovational programs.
1. William Penn (1614-1718)
the first leader to
prescribe imprisonment
as correctional treatment.
 Fought for the abolition
of death penalty and
torture as a form of
punishment.
2. Isaac Newton
published a book entitled,
“Principia” (1687).
encouraged intellectuals to
investigate social and scientific
phenomena methodically and
objectively.
3. John Locke
“Essay Concerning Human
Understanding and his
Second Treatise on
Government”. (1690).
4. Charles Montesquieu
He advocated the separation
and balancing of powers into the
judicial, executive and legislative
branches.
The separation and balancing
of powers will guarantee the
individual’s freedom.
Charles Montesquieu (Charles
Louis Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de
Montesiquieu – 1689 –1755)
 A French historian and
philosopher who analyzed law
as an expression of justice.
 He believed that harsh
punishment would weaken
morality.
He confronted religion and the
historical role of the church in
the political arrangement of
society.
published a book entitled,
“Spirit of the Laws”. (1748).
5. VOLTAIRE (Francois Marie
Arouet, 1694-1778)
He believes that fear of shame
was a deterrent to crime.
He fought the legality-
sanctioned practice of torture.
He was the most versatile
of all philosophers during this
period.
6. Cesare Beccaria (Cesare
Bonesa, Marchese de Beccaria, 1738-1794)
He wrote an essay entitled “ An Essay
on Crimes and Punishment”. This book
became famous as the theoretical basis
for the great reforms in the field of
criminal law. This book also provided a
starting point for the classical school
of criminal law and criminology.
 Cesare Beccaria
He was the primary advocate
of the doctrine of freewill and
regarded as the father of
Classical Criminology.
It presented the humanistic
goal of law.
7. Jeremy Bentham –(1748-1832)

greatest leader in the reform

of English Criminal Law.
The proponent of the
hedonism theory. (that all human
action is ultimately motivated by desires for
pleasure and the avoidance of pain).
 Jeremy Bentham

He believes that whatever

punishment designed to negate
whatever pleasure or gain the
criminal derives from crime, the
crime rate would go down.
Jeremy Bentham
He devised the Panopticon
Prison, also known as the
“inspection house” or the
“ultimate penitentiary”. Came
from a Greek word means
“everything” and a “place of
sight”
8. John Howard (1726-1790) – the “Great
Prison Reformer”

 The sheriff of Bedsfordshire in

1773 who devoted his life and
fortune to prison reform
 Father of prison reform
 Father of Penitentiary
 Father of Correction
John Howard

He recommended the following:

1. single cells for sleeping
2. segregation of women
3. segregation of youth
4. provision of sanitation facilities
5. abolition of the fee system by
which jailers obtained money from
prisoner
Howard died of jail fever
(typus) in 1790 while
inspecting a prison in
Russia.
 Penitentiary – Concept:
the term penitentiary came
from the Latin word “penitentia”
meaning penitence.
it refers to a place where crime
and sin may be atoned for and
penitence produced.
7. Benjamin Rush (1747-1813)

He voiced two concerns:

1. punishment should not be
public events and
2. reformation of offenders could
be achieved through
punishment that encouraged
penance.
8. Elizabeth Fry (1813)

attempted to bring about better

treatment for women and children in
London prisons.
Her 1827 book, published in
London, argued for separate
institutions for women and
abolishment of the death penalty for
women.
9. Sir Robert Peel
He acted to rationalize the penal
system through his Goal Act of
1823. One of the foundations of
English penal system, this statute
required the justices to organize
their prisoners on a prescribed plan,
with the jailer as their paid servant.
 The Reformatory Movement
The Reformatory Movement featured indeterminate
sentencing, parole, classification by degree of
individual reform, rehabilitative programs, and
separate treatment for juveniles.

The reformatory movement was a period of significant

change in the way that the criminal justice system dealt
with juvenile offenders, by moving them out from adult
prisons.
The philosophy of this period
was founded on the NPA
(National Prison Association)
Declaration of Principles, the
view that crime was a moral
disease, and the belief that
criminals were "victims of
social disorder."
1. Enoch Cobb Wines

organizedthe NPA.
The NPA is now known as
the American Correctional
Association (ACA).
 The American Correctional
Association - is the largest
corrections association in the world.
 Founded in 1870, as the National
Prison Association, this
organization of prison professionals
had a prison-reform orientation.
2. Alexander Macanochie

He is the Superintendent of the

penal colony at Norfolk Island in
Australia (1840)
He introduced the Mark System
that became the blueprint of
modern day parole.
considered as the father of
modern penology
Mark System

A progressive humane system in

which a prisoner is required to earn
a number of marks based on
proper department, labor and study
in order to entitle him for ticket for
leave or conditional release which
is similar to parole.
Five stages of the Mark System:
1. Strict custody upon admission to
the penal colony
2. Work on government gangs
3. Limited freedom on the island
within a prescribed area
4. Ticket of leave
5. Full restoration of liberty
3. 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.
 He allowed reduction of service due to
good behavior (good conduct time
allowance - GCTA).
 4. Domets of France (Frederic Auguste)

Established an agricultural colony

for delinquent boys in 1839
providing housefathers as in
charge of these boys.
He concentrated on re-education.
Upon their discharge, the boys
were placed under the supervision
of a guardian.
4. Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise

The Director of the

English Prison who opened
the Borstal institution for
young offenders.
Borstal Institution
considered as the best
reform institution for young
offenders (16-21) today.
Based on individualized-
treatment, both in the
institution and during the
period of aftercare.
5. Walter Crofton
the director of the Irish
Prison in 1854 who
introduced the Irish system
which was later on called the
progressive stage system.
Four Stages of the Irish System:
1. Solitary confinement for 9 months
2. Assignment to public works in
association with other prisoners
3. Work without supervision
4. Release of prisoner under certain
conditions similar to parole.
 6. Zebulon Brockway

First
Superintendent of Elmira
Reformatory in New York.

The Elmira Reformatory

-(1876 in Elmira, NY) considered as the
forerunner of modern penology.
-transform prisons from institutions of
punishment to places of rehabilitation .
Brockway introduced the ff:

a. training school type

b. education for prisoners
c. solitary confinement and
congregate workshop
d. extensive use of parole and
indeterminate sentence.
e. Casework methods
7. Jean Jacques Philippe Villain

Founded the Maison De Force

(house of correction) in Gent,
Belgium. He introduced:
a. felons (criminals) and
misdemeanants should be
separated, and
b. women and children must
have separate quarters
1870-1880
thisis considered the “GOLDEN AGE”
of Penology

The organization of the National Prison

Association (NPA 1870), is known today as
American Correctional Association (ACA),
the main professional organization of U.S.
prison administrators.
The NPA now known as ACA
- penal reform that turned policies
away from the use of capital
punishment and corporal
punishment, towards incarceration as
a more desirable and humane form
of punishment.
C. Primary
Schools of
Penology
 1. CLASSICAL SCHOOL
Man is essentially a moral
creature with an absolute free
will to choose between good
and evil.
This school lays stress on the
crime, not on the criminal.
CLASSICAL SCHOOL
it maintains the “doctrine of
psychological hedonism” or “free
will”.
That the individual calculates
pleasures and pains in advance
of action and regulates his
conduct by the result of his
calculations.
Cesare Beccaria (1738-1794) and
Jeremy Bentham (1748-1823)
 became the main advocate of the
Classical School of Criminology
through their proposed “Utilitarian
Hedonism”.
Utilitarian Hedonism
thistheory explains that a
person always acts in such a
way as to seek pleasure and
avoid pain.
Freewill (Beccaria) – a
philosophy advocating
punishment severe enough for
people to choose or to avoid
criminal acts.
Hedonism (Bentham) – the
belief that people choose
pleasure and avoid pain.
2. THE NEO-CLASSICAL
Founded by social scientists who
argued that there are situations that
makes freewill impossible to
exercise.
This school insist that individuals
are “not always” responsible for
their actions for they believed that
there is no “absolute freewill”.
a. children and lunatics
should be excused and not
be regarded as criminals and

b. punishment must consider

mitigating and aggravating
circumstances
3. THE POSITIVIST / ITALIAN
SCHOOL (1838–1909)

 the primary proponents are:

1. Cesare Lombroso and his two
students,
2. Enrico Ferri and
3. Rafaele Garofalo
Note - they are also known as the “HOLY THREE OF
CRIMINOLOGY”
 3 Basic
Assumptions of
the POSITIVIST
SCHOOL
1. Criminal behavior is not the result
of free will but stems from factors
over which the individual has no
control: biological characteristics,
psychological maladjustments,
sociological conditions.
2. Criminals can be treated so
that they can lead crime-free
lives.
3. Treatment must be focused
on the individual and the
individual's problem.
 The positivists -
Maintained that crime as any other
act is a natural phenomenon.

Criminals are considered as sick

individuals.
4. Early Codes
EARLY CODES
Prescribing
Punishment for
Crimes
1. Babylonian and
Sumerian
Codes
a. King Ur-Nammu’s Code
(Ancient Sumeria, 350 years before
Hammurabi or 2100 years BC)
 carries the concept of restorative
justice, a principle which requires
a process of resolving conflicts
with the maximum involvement of
the victim, the offender, and the
community.
King Ur-Nammu’s Code

Restitution
not death
penalty-FOR DEATH OF A
CRIMINAL SIGNIFIES THAT
NO ONE WILL BE
RESPONSIBLE TO PAY
THE VICTIMS
b. Code of King Hammurabi
Babylon, about 1750 B.C
credited as the oldest code
prescribing savage
punishment but in fact
Sumerian codes were nearly
100 years older.
The Code of Hammurabi has its
core principle concept of justice
known as lex taliones or “an eye
for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth.” Lex Taliones is defined as
the law or principle of retaliation
or retributive justice, based on
the Mosaic Law of “an eye for an
eye, a tooth for a tooth.
2. Greek Codes
a. Code of Draco (Greece, 621 B.C.)

The Greeks were the first to

allow any citizen to prosecute
the offender in the name of the
injured party.
The harsh code of Draco,
called for corporal punishment
– inflicting bodily pain – so
extensively it was rumored to
be written in blood.
The word Draconian became
synonymous with extreme
cruelty.
3. Roman Codes
a. The Twelve Tables
(XII Tabulae) (451-450 BC)
Represented the earliest
codification of Roman law.
It is a compilation of the then
existing customary unwritten law
of Rome, and embodied the jus
civile or law for Roman citizen.
 The Twelve Tables
It was historically noted to be the
earliest attempt by the Romans to
create a code of law. This became
instrumental in codifying their laws
that cover civil, criminal and
religious matters.
 The Twelve Tables
is a collection of legal principles
engraved on metal tablets and
set up on the forum. The
common punishments
recognized by the 12 Tables
were death, scourging, and the
lex talionis.
b. Justinian Code (483-565)
Formally known as Corpus Juris
Civilis
6th century AD, Emperor Justinian I of
Rome wrote his code of law in A.D.
529.
Evolved from the Law of the Twelve
Tables, the earliest code of Roman
Law. (exists over a 1000 years.)
Justinian Code
is an effort to match a desirable
amount of punishment to all
possible crimes.
However, the law did not survive
due to the fall of the Roman
Empire but left a foundation of
Western Legal codes.
c. The Burgundian Code (500 AD)

it specified punishment according

to the social class of offenders
Specifies the value of the life of
each person according to social
status.
This code introduced the concept
of restitution (reimbursement or
compensation (Wergild))
5th and 11th CENTURY- the
century of dark ages
excessive and brutal
measures of social control
imposed by the church.
13 C – Securing Sanctuary
th

In the 13th C, a criminal could

avoid punishment by claiming
refuge in a church for a period of
40 days.
At the end of which time has
compelled to leave the realm by a
road or path assigned to him.
England (1468)
torture,
as a form of
punishment became prevalent.
16 Century
th

Transportation of criminals in
England was authorized. At the
end of this century, Russia and
other European Countries
followed this system.
This practice was abandoned in
1835.
 Transportation
(use by England for 200 years)

- The sending or putting away of an

offender to another colony.
- It was an attempt to substitute for
brutal punishment at home an
opportunity for rehabilitation in a
new country.
- This refer to the old practice of exile
or banishment.
Transportation (Banishment)

 Principal method of disposing

offenders ridding country of criminals.
 supplying new colonies with cheap
labors
 profited ship owners
 Substitute for brutal punishment at
home and opportunity for rehabilitate
in a new country.
Galleys

long, low, narrow, single

decked ships propelled by
sails, usually rowed by
criminals.
A type of ship used for
transportation of criminals in
the 16th century.
17th to 18th century
 death penalty became
prevalent as a form of
punishment.
EARLY CODES IN THE
PHILIPPINE SETTING
Mostly tribal traditions,
customs and practices
influenced laws during the pre-
Spanish Philippines. There were
also laws that were written
which includes:
a. Maragtas Code – (1250, by
Datu Sumakwel)
- law on laziness, robbery and
child bearing
- cutting fingers of thieves &
robbers
- not more than 2 children for poor
families
b. Kalantiaw Code (1433)
– the most extensive and severe law
that prescribes harsh punishment.
This law was the governing law in
the island of Panay now called
Aklan.
- This code contains 18 articles only
but enough to maintain peace and
harmony.
- This code was decreed by
Datu Kalantiaw about a
hundred years before the
coming of the Spanish
colonizers.
c. The “Conquistadores”
 The Spanish Civil Code
became effective in the
Philippines on December
7, 1889.
d. Kodigo Penal/ RPC
(July 14, 1877)

 introduced by the Spaniards

 promulgated by the King of
Spain by Royal Decree of 1870
 adopted the Roman Law
principles
e. Revised Penal Code (RPC)
 approved on Dec. 8, 1930 and
took effect on January 1, 1932
 revised by Anacleto Diaz as
chairman and Quintin Paredes,
Guillermo Guevara, Alex Reyes,
and Mariano H. De Joya as
members
f. Bodong and Sipat
 penal laws of some
tribes in the Cordillera
Region.
 Early
Development
of Prisons
Gaol (jail)

the description given to

pretrial detention facilities
operated by English sheriff
in England during the 18 th

century.
Hulks

Abandoned warships
converted into prisons in the
18th and 19th C. as means of
relieving congestion of
prisons.
They were called as the
floating hells.
 Mamertine Prison

the only early Roman place

of confinement which is built
under the main sewer of
Rome in 64 BC. by Ancus
Maritus.
Saint Bridget’s Well or Bridewell
Workhouse (1557)

 England’s first house of correction

 used for locking up, employing and
whipping beggars, prostitutes and
night walkers.
 most popular workhouse in London
which was built for the employment
and housing of English prisoners.
Walnut Street Jail - constructed in 1776

originally
 constructed as a detention jail
in Philadelphia. It was converted into a
state prison and became the first
American Penitentiary.
closed down in 1835, largely due to
politics, overcrowding, and lack of
financial resources.
 Dartmoor Prison
once known as the HOUSE
OF HALFWAY TO HELL,
located in Devonshire,
England, originally constructed
to house French prisoners.
Hospicio de San Michelle

First home for delinquent boys

ever established.
Built by Pope Clement XI in
Rome for housing incorrigible
youths under 20 years of age.
New Gate Prison
 an abandoned copper mine located at
Simsbury, Connecticut.
 Inmates are confined underground and
was considered as a black holes of
horrors, which really belonged to the
barbaric past.
 Today, this is a museum that belongs
to the State of Connecticut.
Newgate Prison of New York
Built in 1797 in Greenwich
Village.
 Newgate was the first State
Penitentiary in NY. It was
considered a model of reform at
the time, rehabilitating inmates
by teaching them useful trades.
 Newgate Prison of New
York
In 1828, Newgate was
closed and the prisoners
transferred to the new Sing
Sing Prison.
Sing Sing Correctional Facility
a maximum security prison of
the NY State Department of
Correctional Services in the
town of Ossining, NY.
Sing Sing was the third prison
built by NY State.
 Sing Sing Correctional Facility

 Became famous because of the Sing Sing

bath. The shower bath was a gadget so
constructed as to drop a volume of water on
the head of a locked naked offender. 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 the body
temperature.
107

RHEM RICK CORPUZ

Sing Sing
was derived
from the
Indian
words, "Sint
Sinks" which
translates to
"stone upon
stone."
The ominous walls of the original Sing Sing
Prison constructed in 1825 by inmates from
Auburn prison. (Courtesy of Burns Patterson)
Alcatraz Prison

opened in 1934, closed on

March 31, 1963.
When it closed, it has 260
inmates.
now, a tourist destination in
California.
 Alcatraz Prison
It was closed primarily because it was
too costly, an operation estimated
were that repairs alone would run
between $4.5 and $5 million. In 1940,
it had a per capita cost of over twice
of average of all federal institutions.
Known by many as The
Rock, Alcatraz Island is
located just north of San
Francisco in San Francisco
Bay. The US DOJ used the
island as a military prison
from 1868 to 1933, and then
as a federal prison for
dangerous criminals from
1933 until 1963.
In 1972 Alcatraz became
part of the Golden Gate
National Recreational Area.
Fred T. Wilkinson - the last
warden of Alcatraz Prison.

James Bennet – director of

Federal Bureau of Prisons who
wrote about the closing of
Alcatraz Prison.
 Australia

the place which was a penal

colony before it became a country.
convicted criminals in England
were transported to Australia, a
colony of Great Britain when
transportation was adopted in 1790
to 1875.
In the 18th century
Britain established
penal settlements in
Australia, including
this one on Norfolk
Island. British
prisoners were
shipped to Norfolk
from 1788 to 1814,
and from 1825 to
1855.
Two Rival Prison
System in the
History of
Corrections
1. The New York / Auburn Prison System

Constructed in 1816 as
Auburn Prison, it was the
second state prison in NY.
the site of the first execution
via electric chair in 1890.
 William Kemmler
A convicted murderer who
became the first victim of the
electric chair in Aug. 6,
1890.
The New York / Auburn Prison
System
also known as the
“Congregate System "or
“silent system,” because
inmates were prohibited from
talking or even looking at one
another.
Elam Lynds (1821), warden
at Auburn, establishes
congregate system, in which
inmates eat and work
together during the day,
experiencing isolation only at
night.
2. The Pennsylvania Prison System (1790)

also known as the “Solitary

System”
Prisoners are required to
read the bible
 The Pennsylvania Prison
System
Prisoners are confined in
single cells day and night where
they lived, slept, ate and receive
religious instructions. Complete
silence was also required.
 Auburn State Penitentiary
 Cells are poorly lit and unsanitary
 Guards strictly enforced silence among
inmates and implemented harsh physical
punishment to ensure compliance with
prison rules.
 Contained tiers where inmates were housed  Complete Silence was also enforced and
on several different levels according to their
age and the seriousness of their offense
 In an innovation known as the congregate
system, officials at Auburn permitted
inmates to work and eat their meals
together during daylight hours (Microsoft ®
Encarta, 2009).
Pennsylvania Prison
 The prison system called “Solitary
System”.
 Prisoners are confined in single cells day
and night where they lived, they slept,
and they ate and receive religious
instructions.
inmates are required to read the Bible.
 It has the feature of “separate system”
because prisoners were separately
confined. They lived, worked, ate, and
slept in isolation.
The Elmira Reformatory
Movement
(July 1876)
The Elmira Reformatory
Considered as the forerunner of
modern penology because it had
all the elements of a modern
system.
It housed youthful offenders aged
16-30 who are first time offenders.
By 1930 it was referred to
generally as a “Junior Prison”.
This ideal prison system quickly
began to take form in NY.
In reaction to the growing
pessimism surrounding the
penitentiary, participants at the
1870 American Prison Congress
applied the ideas and practices of
Sir Walter Crofton and Alexander
Maconochie.