Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
LESSON 5
DEVELOPMENT OF PRISONS IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Pennsylvania
As a colony of England in the seventeenth century, America used
the Bloody Code of England, as well as its system of punishment.
Except in Pennsylvania.
William Penn – the founder of the Quaker colony. In 1682, he
founded the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and became its governor.
He made imprisonment and hard labor the punishment for most
crimes and reserved corporal punishment for murderers only.
Penitentiary – is the earliest form of large-scale incarceration.
It was a place for reform of offenders through repentance
and rehabilitation. It was derived from the English word
penitent, which refers to a person who repents, or asks for
forgiveness, for the sins he committed.
New York
Thomas Eddy – a penal reformer in New York. He repealed the
criminal code of England, abolished capital punishment for almost
all offenses except murder and treason, stopped the use of
corporal punishment and instead built prisons for offenders.
Newgate Prison – established in Greenwich Village, New York in
1797 but it proved to be unsuccessful because it was too small
for the growing number of offenders being imprisoned.
Auburn Prison –the second state prison erected in 1816 at Auburn.
It was so famous that it became a model in the United States.
Years later, it was renamed Auburn Correctional Facility. Auburn
prison was designed by Architect John Cray.
WALNUT STREET JAIL
The Walnut Street Jail is regarded as the first jail in America.
It was built in 1776 and was located in Philadelphia. A
penitentiary is supposed to be a place where inmates reformed
themselves through reflection and remorse. However, conditions
worsened year after year until it was finally closed in 1835.
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
THE PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM
The term Pennsylvania system refers to the prison system and
methods devised and used in Pennsylvania prisons beginning in the
early 1830s, after the construction of the Western Penitentiary
and the Eastern State Penitentiary. This system is also called
the separate system.
This system advocated the complete separation of inmates from
each other and maintained the practice of solitary confinement of
prisoners at all times.
Even the guards were not allowed to talk to them, they did not
know even their names. The Pennsylvania system or separate system
was finally abolished in 1913.
THE WESTERN STATE PENITENTIARY AND THE EASTERN STATE PENITENTIARY
Western State Penitentiary – opened in 1826 in Pittsburgh,
however, it was agreed upon that its design was so terrible that
they decided to just demolish it. It was demolished in 1833.
Eastern State Penitentiary – constructed in Cherry Hill,
Philadelphia, finished in 1829 and its design proved to be
superior than the Western State Penitentiary that it became a
model for many prisons in England and Europe.
- Each cell was designed intentionally for a single inmate, the
cells were separated by stone partitions that were so thick to
ensure that prisoners would not be able to talk through them.
THE AUBURN PRISON
– estanblished in New York which employed the Separate System
(New York system or congregate system) that was made popular by
Pennsylvania.
Captain Elam Lynds – the warden of Auburn prison introduced the
Auburn silent system but later abolished and was replaced by
Separate System and became the standard system employed in all of
New York.
New York System or Congregate System – similar to the
Pennsylvania system in terms of it requiring complete silence for
all inmates at all times where inmates are in solitary
confinement at night and during the day, they are required to
work in groups, or in congregate.
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
THE ELMIRA REFORMATORY
– is an institution that gave emphasis to reformation or
rehabilitation of young adults and to segregation of juvenile
offenders from adult, hardened criminals.
– opened in Elmira, New York, in 1876 to house youths aged
sixteen (16) to thirty (30) years old who were first-time
offenders. This reformatory was focused not on punishment but on
rehabilitation through skills or trades training and academic
education.
Zebulon Brockway – its first superintendent, who devised a system
in which prisoners could earn marks or points through hard work
and good behavior. When a prisoner earned the required marks or
points, his grade or level would be upgraded until he reached the
grade that would qualify him to be considered for parole.
THE GOLDEN AGE OF PENOLOGY
The period of 1870-1880 is regarded as the Golden Age of
Penology. It was during this period that prison reforms were at
their peak, through the efforts of progressive-thinking men in
Europe and in the United States of America.
LESSON 6
BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINE SETTING
CORRECTIONS IN THE PHILIPPINE SETTING
It was only during the Spanish occupation that formal structures
were established for the purposes of confining offenders as a
form of state-sanctioned punishment. These structures or
facilities are called prisons, jails and penal colonies or penal
farms. The term penitentiary is used interchangeably with the
words prisons, penal farms and penal colony.
Penal Colony – is a settlement used to exile prisoners and
separate them from the general populace by placing them in a
remote location.
SPANISH COLONIZATION
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
Old Bilibid Prison – first penitentiary built pursuant to Section
1708 of the Revised Administrative Code and by virtue of a Royal
Decree issued by the Spanish government in 1865. The Old Bilibid
Prison was constructed as the main penitentiary and was called
Carcel y Presidio Correccional. It was originally located at
Oroquieta Street in Manila, construction was finished in 1866.
San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm – established in Zamboanga City
on August 21, 1869. This prison was built specifically for Muslim
rebels and political prisoners against the Spanish government.
This prison was destroyed during the war between Spain and
America in the late 1800s and was re-established during the the
American occupation.
AMERICAN OCCUPATION
Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm – established in Puerto Princesa,
Palawan on November 16, 1904, formerly known as Iuhit Penal
Settlement, This prison was intended for those offenders which
seemed to have no more chance for rehabilitation.
Bureau of Prisons – established pursuant to Act No. 1407, the
Reorganization Act of 1905, approved on November 1, 1905. It
created the Bureau of Prisons under the office of the Department
of Commerce and Police.
Correctional Institution for Women – created pursuant to Act No.
3579 on November 27, 1929. This prison was constructed
specifically for the confinement of female offenders.
Davao Penal Colony – A second penal colony under American
occupation, established in Mindanao on January 21, 1932. It was
created by virtue of Act No. 3732.
Commonwealth Act No. 67 - provided for the construction of a new
national prison in Muntinlupa in 1935. In 1940, all inmates of
the Old Bilibid Prison were transferred to what came to be known
as the New Bilibid Prison.
POST-WORLD WAR II
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
Sablayan Prison and Penal Farm – established by virtue of
Proclamation No. 72 issued on September 26, 1954, located in
Occidental Mindoro
Leyte Regional Prison – the first and only
national prison in thE Visayas which was established
in Leyte pursuant to Proclamation No. 1101 issued on 1973.
THE PHILIPPINE PRISON SYSTEM
Revised Administrative Code, Section 1705 to 1751 – is the basic
law on the Philippine prison system, otherwise known as the
Prison Law
Executive Order No 292 or Administrative Code of 1987 – renamed
the Bureau of Prisons into the Bureau of Corrections. This is an
agency of the government under the Department of Justice which is
in charge of administering the prison and penal farm facilities
in the country.
PUNISHMENT AND PENALTY
Punishment – It 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.
Penalty – the suffering that is inflicted by the state for the
transgression of the law
JUSTIFICATION FOR PUNISHMENT
1. RETRIBUTION
Literally, retribution is the act of taking revenge. In the
context of corrections, the belief is that a person who harmed or
injured another person must be punished for the harm or injury he
caused.
This is one of the oldest and most basic justifications for
punishment (Miethe and Lu, 2005). It is a justification for
punishment underlined by the concept of lex talionis, or law of
talion and law of equal retaliation (Stohr and Walsh, 2012).
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
2. EXPIATION
Related to the philosophy of retaliation is expiation or
atonement. Expiation or atonement means reparation for an offense
or injury. The difference between the two is that retaliation is
personal vengeance, while expiation is group vengeance.
3. DETERRENCE
Literally, deterrence is the act or process of discouraging
actions or preventing occurrences by instilling fear or doubt or
anxiety.
As a philosophy of corrections, deterrence is the prevention of
crime by the threat of punishment. The principle that people
respond to incentives and are deterred by the threat of
punishment is the philosophical foundation behind all systems of
criminal law.
TWO TYPES OF DETERRENCE
1. General deterrence refers to the preventive effect of the
threat of punishment on the general population.
As the name denotes, the purpose is to instill fear among the
members of society that anyone who will be caught committing a
crime will certainly will be punished.
2. Specific deterrence refers to the effect of punishment on the
future behavior of persons who experienced the punishment.
Here, the offender himself who had already experienced life in
prison or jail will be deterred from committing another crime
because he would not want to go back to prison or jail.
4. ISOLATION
Isolation literally means to separate. In the context of
corrections, isolation refers to the separation of offenders from
the law-abiding members of society by imprisoning them.
Isolation later evolved into another correctional
philosophy that is now called incapacitation.
5. INCAPACITATION
Incapacitation refers to the inability of criminals to victimize
people outside prison walls while they are locked up (Stohr and
Walsh, 2012).
6. REHABILITATION
Rehabilitation means to restore or return to constructive or
healthy activity. The rehabilitative goal is based on a medical
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
model that used to view criminal behavior as a moral sickness
requiring treatment.
Today, this model views criminality in terms of “faulty thinking”
and criminals as in need of “programming” rather than
“treatment”.
7. REINTEGRATION
Reintegration is the process of making the offender a productive
member of the community. To reintegrate means to make the
offender become a law-abiding and productive member of society
once he is out of prison.
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
LESSON 5 AND 6
ACTIVITY NO.1
1. What is the purpose of separating prisoners from the general
public?
2. What are the benefits of separating prisoners from the general
public?
Saint Joseph College
CRIMINOLOGY DEPARTMENT
Maasin City, Southern Leyte
LESSON 5 AND 6
ACTIVITY NO. 2
Lesson 6 talks about the BRIEF HISTORY OF CORRECTIONS IN
THE PHILIPPINE SETTING. For you to have an idea on what are the 7
Major Prisons in the Philippines looks like which were all
mentioned above.
Make a research and print out sample pictures of the
following 7 Major Prisons in the Philippines.
1. San Ramon Prison and Penal Farm
2. Iwahig Prison and Penal Farm
3. New Bilibid Prison
4. Davao Prison and Penal Farm
5. Sablayan Prison and Penal Farms
6. Leyte Regional Prison
7. Correctional Institute for Women
