Words: 1135
Before the development of Jails, prisons, and penitentiaries, early punishments for crimes were often cruel and torturous. Capital or corporal punishment in the form of physical torture was used to punish people for various crimes. Toward the end of the sass, the idea of imprisonment as punishment for a crime reached its completed expression in various societies. This paper will first discuss the forms of punishment, the criminal activities/events that led to punishments, and contrast the criteria between various societies for criminal sentencing during the sass.
Second this paper will briefly discuss the makeup of women prisons and compare women’s prisons to those for Juveniles and men. Week Two Discussion Questions Before the metallization of imprisonment, people convicted of a crime were usually subjected to physical punishment that often resulted in death. Although fines were sometimes imposed, the most common method of criminal punishment used on convicted offenders was corporal punishment, which generally fit the doctrine of leg Atlantis. This was known as the law of retaliation, often expressed as “an eye for an eye” (Assemblages, 2009, p. 60). Sometimes murderers were executed in a way that was similar to the way they had committed the crime. During the 1700 era, punishments for criminals were harsh but took effect into the deterrence of crime by placing an example to society if one committed a crime. One way for punishing a criminal was through public humiliation. According to Foster (2006), an individual found guilty of being a drunk, lazy worker or violated religions laws, would be sentenced to be place on a pillory in public.
As the individual stand in the frame with a note, describing his crime pedestrians and others who knew that individual ell would humiliate him or her by calling the individual mean names such as drunk or lazy worker. Although flogging was considered a punishment whose painful memory may deter a repeat offense, mutilation was a primary strategy of definite deterrence that made it impossible for a person to commit future crimes. Various societies would amputate the hands of thieves and robbers, blind spies, castrate rapists, rip the tongues out of blasphemers, and break the fingers of pickpockets.
Branding was used enthusiastically to identify convicted offenders and warn people with whom they may come in contact with of their dangerous potential. Branding in American colonies was customary for certain crimes with first offenders being branded on the Early Era of Criminal Justice System By multinomial (Assemblages, 2009, p. 462). Women were hardly ever marked physically, although they may have been shamed and forced to wear marked clothing, which was another form of branding criminals. They were forced to wear a clothe lettering indicating the crime that they had committed.
For example, those found guilty for stealing would receive branded clothe with a T for thief or D for drunk and F for fighter. Punishment for the more serious crime would reach the same extends of the crime. To understand better the criminal criteria societies deemed punishable one must first look at the societies within punishments were being imposed. Societies of the sass were generally small, relatively immobile, and the members more or were the same and stayed together. Because it was always easier to punish transients or strangers, people spent their entire lives never traveling very far from home.
The more people were alike in their ethnicity, religion, class, and cultural values the more lenient the punishment practices are likely to be. On the other hand the more a society was diverse in their ethnic, religious, socio-economic, and cultural background the more penalizing people were toward criminals. Women in today’s society make up about seven percent of the total prison population. However, the makeup of a women’s prison is much like men’s prisons, and they both have one thing in common.
It is a place where they are held and supervised in their daily routines for a determined amount of time for a crime that was committed. The fact is that most women in prisons are predominantly African American and Hispanic; they are not educated nor do they have skill set and are unemployed. Women in prison live a together in close-knit quarters in most situations and also work in an integrated environment where race and ethnicity are not an issue. It is much easier for women in prison to form bonds with other inmates because they are simply trying to fill that void of family they have lost.
This is one of many differences between male and female prisons. Male prisons are typically segregated by race and ethnicity to keep the peace among the prisoners (Foster, 2006). When comparing women prisons to those of adult men and Juveniles it is easy to draw the conclusion that they have the goal in mind. First it and foremost the prison yester was created to house those convicted of crimes separate from the public. Second it is the Job of the prison system to keep the community safe from those individuals and finally prisons suppose to work on rehabilitation to lower the recidivism rates.
Much like Juveniles there is a stigma that women convicted of crimes received preferential treatment or leniency for the crime they committed; men however lack that same treatment. In some cases Juveniles and women are known to have committed much harsher crimes. Two theories to why women receive different treatment than men and Juveniles are; some believe that the natures of their crimes re not as bad or that they do not usually have long standing criminal histories and but only because a man was involved.
So it seems in relationship to Juveniles and women in the criminal Justice system it is more likely that women and Juvenile will receive an alternative method for punishment rather than sentencing them to prison right away (Foster, 2006). If there were no distinctions between prisons for woman, Juveniles, and men prisons the Justice system would probably fail Juveniles or woman prisoners. Because men prisons can have individuals who are more violent and if a Juvenile is laced under the same prison walls he or she can easily be taken advantage off.
Whereas if a Juvenile serves his or her sentence in a Juvenile facility his or her possibility to rehabilitate into not committing crimes that would lead to prison for a long time behind bars. For the woman prisons seem more lullaby because crime activity is not as high as for a male prison in which crime continues within the prison. References Foster, B. (2006). Corrections: The Fundamentals. Upper Saddle, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall. Assemblages, F. (2009). Criminal Justice Today (10th deed. ). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson/Prentice Hall.