The Rise of the Prison, Part 2: The Colonial Period to Now

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来自 Vanderbilt University 的课程

Justice, Mercy and Mass Incarceration

19 个评分

Vanderbilt University

Justice, Mercy and Mass Incarceration

19 个评分

There are three orienting facts that render mass incarceration in the United States an ethical problem worthy of our deep consideration. First, the rate of incarceration has grown dramatically over the last 40 years so that today there are 2.2 million people in prison or jail, and another 5 million on probation or parole. This means that 1/32 adults in the USA are under state supervision. Second, the application of incarceration is disproportionately applied to the poor, people of color, and other vulnerable populations. Research shows that 85-90% of those in the criminal justice system fall below the poverty line, and the experience of incarceration only impoverishes people further. The consequences of having a criminal record are harsh and debilitating, ranging from family disruption, social alienation, and disenfranchisement. In these ways and others, the current situation of crime and punishment represents a dramatic moral challenge. Finally, victims of crime are themselves poorly served by the current system, often ignored or sidelined in the machinery of punishment. This course seeks to discover alternatives to the current systems of crime and punishment in order to imagine a more inclusive, just and moral society.

从本节课中

The Rise of the Prison

This module takes up the question of the rise of the prison, and its expressions in contemporary USA. How did the Prison Industrial Complex arise, and why has it taken the form it has?

The Rise of the Prison, Part 1: From the Ancient to the Early Modern Period10:58

The Rise of the Prison, Part 2: The Colonial Period to Now6:17

Alex Friedmann: "What is the prison-industrial complex or PIC?"3:36

与讲师见面

Graham Reside
Assistant Professor
Vanderbilt University Divinity School

So because of their resistance to the British system,

to the English criminal justice system,

the early Reformers in the United States,

people like Benjamin Rush and Benjamin Franklin and before them William Penn,

they sought to create a system of punishment that was,

that put reform at its center.

So its purpose was to reform the criminal rather than to simply punish them.

They did this by borrowing from the medieval ecclesial prisons,

by making penance central to their practice.

So we have the emergence in the 18th and

19th Century of the penitentiary system named after this notion of penitence,

which is managing dealing with one sin

through repentance and seeking forgiveness and trying to turn one's life around.

So this happened first at

the Walnut Street prison in Philadelphia which was established in 1790.

And over time this Walnut Street prison became

the Eastern State Penitentiary which was built in

1829 and lasted for well over 150 years.

The same type of model based on the penitentiary model,

was established in New York,

first at the Newgate Prison which became built into the Auburn Prison.

And they are often called the Pennsylvania and

Auburn system and there is a slight distinction between the two systems.

One is called the Separate system,

that's the Pennsylvania system and the other

than New York or Auburn system is called the Aggregate system.

The only difference or the fundamental difference between

the two systems is that while both focused

on solitary confinement as the mechanism for transformation of the inmate,

the Auburn system or the system in New York,

the Aggregate system allowed inmates to work together,

though in silence, during the day.

The Pennsylvania system was more severe and required solitary experience at all times.

So throughout their experience in a penitentiary,

the incarcerated person would be not allowed to speak,

would not engage with other prisoners and

even would have very little interaction with the prison guards.

And when they were transported from place to place,

their hands were covered so they couldn't even see.

The purpose of this treatment which may seem harsh in retrospect,

in fact was to have a pacifying effect upon the inmate.

It was thought that they would be less likely to be violent,

there would be less occasion for conflict because there is less interaction.

The second reason was that criminals were

expected to not speak with one

another so that they could not reinforce their criminal behaviors.

And third, that their new behaviors could be built out

of opportunity for contemplation upon their sin,

for Bible study and prayer.

So this was what undergirded or motivated

the development of the American penitentiary system of the18th century,

18th and 19th century.

And this system attracted worldwide attention,

and visitors from all around the world would come to watch and learn,

and in fact take with them back to

their home countries this American practice of punishment.

So in fact, the American penitential system or

systems of penitentiary became the model around the globe.

Of course the effects of solitary confinement turned out not to

be salutary or beneficial to most folks.

And there were early critics of the penitentiary model.

But the motivation was a positive one.

But I will just read Charles Dickens who came to the United States and visited,

actually the eastern penitentiary in Philadelphia and he said,

"I am persuaded that those who designed

this system do not know what it is they are doing.

I hold the slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of

the brain to be immeasurably worse than any torture of the body."

So Dickens, someone who was quite familiar with

prison life was quite skeptical of the efforts of these Quaker reformers,

but it's worth noting that the Quaker reformers were seeking to provide

a better system when there was less violent and more hopeful,

that would improve the lives of prisoners.

It didn't work out that way and

penitentiaries have become places of isolation without much room for reform.

But there has been in the American tradition,

this great effort to reform prisoners and to rehabilitate them at its center,

and much of this goes back to,

as I said the the efforts and

the religious motivations of the Quakers of the 18th and 19th century.

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