Corrections: Chapter 3

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1779 Penetentiary Act

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Passed by the British Parliament in 1779, the Penitentiary Act emphasized reform principles such as secure and sanitary conditions, systematic inspection, the elimination of fees for basic needs and services, the desirability of a reformatory regimen, and the use of solitary confinement and continuous labor.

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Aubrun System

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Along with the Pennsylavania system, the Auburn system defined the two main styles of prison discipline and management from the 1820's to the 1860's. The Auburn system believed correction was best achieved by keeping prisoners seperate from each other at night but allowing them to work together during the day. Silence, however was required at all times.

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Banishment

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A response to offending acts which invloves exiling the offender from the community.

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Bridewell House

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The original English house of corrections, or workhouse, opened in the town of Bridewell in 1557. Other houses of correction built in Egland during the 16th century also were called Bridewell House after the prototype.

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Castle Island (Massachusetts)

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Often considered America's first prison, this facility in Boston harbor was made the repository for convicted offenders throughout Massachusettes in 1785. Earlier facilities cannot be considered prisons or penetentiaries because they often held both convicted and unconvicted persons, civil as well as criminal offenders, and were under local rather than state jurisdiction.

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Congregate and Silent

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The key words distinguishing the Aubrun System, which required prisoners to work together in silence during the day and to be housed seperately, and kept silent, at night.

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Elmira Reforimtory

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Opened in 1876 in Elmira, New York. This facility was the first in the United States to incorporate the philosophy and procdures of the Irish System.

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Gaol at Wymondham

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The first facility in England specifically designed to implement John Howard's penal reforms and requirements of the 1779 Penitentiary Act. This gaol (the British version of jail) was built in 1785.

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Hospice of St. Michael

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A facility built in 1704 at Rome for misbehaving boys. The seclusion theme that was important at hospice facilites was implemented at St. Michael, where boys were required to sleep in single cells and to work in silence.

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Houses of Correction

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Facilities, like the Bridewell House and the Maison de Force, that emphasized the importance of making offenders work. Along with the theme of seclusion introduced in the hospice facilities, the work theme emphasized in the houses of correction provided key ingriedients of the eventual penitentiary system.

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Intermediate System

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Sanctions falling between the extremes of fines and imprisonment. Intermediate punishments for offenders needing something less than incarceration might include a prison alternative type like probation. Persons who would likely go to prison were it not for overcrowded conditions might recieve a prison substitue type of intermediate sanction like home confinement.

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Irish System

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The penal system, incorporating a reformatory philosophy, that offered an alternative to the Auburn system and Pennsylvania system. Reaching the United States in the 1860's, via Australia and Ireland, the Irish system's emphasis on education, trade training, indetermiante sentencing, and early release from prison was first put into practice at the Elmira Reformatory.

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Mark System

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A procdure created by Alexander Maconochie at the Norfolk Islnad penal colony whereby psioners could earn early release from penal colony by accumilating "marks" of commendation for good behavior or hard work.

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Penitentiary Era

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The penal system era lasting from the 1800's to the 1860's that saw a movement away from public punishment in the community via corporal and capital punishment through long-term imprisonment in secure institutions.

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Pennsylvania System

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The Pennsylvania system defined one of two main styles of prison discipline and management from the 1820's to the 1860's. THe Pennsylvania system believed correction was best achieved by keeping prisoners seperate from each other and requiring them to remain silent.

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Reformatory

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A system of prison discipline that was more humanitarian than the Auburn System and Pennsylvania System and was especially interested in preparing prisoners for their eventual return to the community. Also refers to the institutions in which such a philosophy is followed, the first of which was Elmira Reformatory.

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Reformatory Era

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The penal system era lasting from the 1860's to the 1900's in which imprisonment took a more humanitarian approach and incorporated an emphasis on education, training, and preparing the inmate for realease to the community.

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Separate and Silent

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The key words distinguishing the Pennsylvania System, which required prisoners to be kept in isolation and to remain silent both day and night.

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Ticket-of-Leave

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The granting of British transporters an early release from a penal colony. This type of early release became more formal under Sir Walter Crofton's intermediate system in which release to the community under ticket-of-leave allowed that
"ticket" to be revoked and the offender returned to prison. In its contemporary form the ticket-of-leave is parole.

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Transportation

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A form of banishment in which the offender is sent to farawya lands often with the requirement that she or he perform labor for private individuals or the government on arrival at the new location. England for example, transported some of its criminals to both the American colonies and to Australia.

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Walnut Street Jail

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Opened in Philadelphia in 1776 to house petty offenders, debtors, and serious offenders. In 1792 a penitentiary house addition was completed for the most hardened criminals. The philosophy of isolation and silence used in the penitentiary hosue provided the basic ingredients of the Pennsylvania.

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Wellspring Era

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The penal system era lasting from the Middle Ages to about 1800 by which cintemporary penal philosophies and methods began to take shape.