16 Mar 2012
School
Department
Course
Professor
Prison
Incarceration: a system that breeds criminology failure.
Something To Think About…
What causes crime?
Social conflict, poverty, environment, psychological, spontaneity, peer pressure,
self-defense, excitement (stimulation)
Conservative Ideology for crime causation:
Traditional institutions are breaking down (school, religion, family)
Punishment is not harsh enough. No deterrence.
Lack of social order
Liberal Ideology for crime causation:
Poverty, racism (social injustices)
Society is not meeting people’s basic needs, thus resulting in criminal activity.
To Reduce Crime:
Conservative: reestablish social order, put discipline back into society, and rebuild
traditional institutions. Stiffer penalties
Liberal: more equality, programs to meet needs of disadvantaged, rehabilitation
What Should be the Function of Corrections?
Selective incapacitation models
Focus on treatment, underlying cause
How do you reconcile punishment and rehabilitation?
Needs of victims
Protection of innocents
Conservative: individuals commit crimes of their own free will (classical
criminology) = hand in hand. Deterrence.
Liberal: focus on criminal causation. How to prevent furthered criminal behavior.
Rehabilitation.
Emergence of Prisons:
Highest rate of incarceration: USA
Countries that have a low rate: Japan, Sweden, Finland, Netherlands, and India
Video: Philippines best dance crew.
Innovative approach
It is involuntary
Have to look at cultural factors
Conformist (Philippines) vs. individualistic (North America) societies
How Many Correctional Institutions are Across Canada?
190 (76 federal, 114 provincial)
Provincial: 2 less a day
Federal: 2 years plus a day
How Much Does it Cost to Incarcerate?
Cost of incarcerating a federal offender/year?
Male: $94 533.
Female: $150 – 250 000
(Fewer female offenders, but still need to build/equip prisons)
Precursors to Prison:
Have prisons, as a form of punishment, existed for more than 300 years? NO.
Dungeons
Clerical Penance (solitary, monastery)
Workhouses (Houses of correction, Bridewells)
o 1861 – responsibility given to parishes to take care of poor people. They
built bridewells.
o Work long hours, but able to make money
o Suppress idleness
o Strong work ethic
o Not just for the poor, “problem population”
o Out of sight out of mind
o Gamblers, drunks, whores, orphans, insane etc.
o Temp. and permanent
o Horrible conditions
o If people went against the norm. Under threat of workhouse, start to be
productive Samaritans
• Debtors Prison
◦ Couldn’t pay tax/rent
◦ Make mass produced items
◦ His whole family and animals went
• Country Goals/Jails
◦ Beccaria and Bethams time
◦ Not form of punishment
◦ Awaiting punishment or trial
◦ No segregation
◦ Corrupt system
◦ Jails for profit
◦ The people sent here had to pay for everything
◦ Innocents still had to pay, if couldn’t pay they still had to stay in prison
◦ No classification – abusive system – deliberately shackle so the prisoner
had to pay to be unshackled
Context in Which Prisons Emerge:
Crisis in criminal justice during the classical era? What lead up to the emergence