When people hear the word penitentiary they automatically think prison, but there is a difference in the two institutions. Penitentiary was a deep and place criminal went as a form of punishment for a crime someone committed. A penitentiary was considered secular and spiritual. It was a place of human punishment instead of physical punishments that was used in other societies. A penitentiary was an idea, or set of principles, opposed to an actual physical institution with shape and form. The penitentiary was a common form of punishment criminals to replace the penalties applied by the judges. It originally was supposedly cleaner and healthier than a jail cell. In other words, criminals in custody should have been separated and in isolation.
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Overhead was a skylight for a little bit of light and on the back wall of the cell was a door that led to an exercise yard that was the same size as an enclosed prison patio. The room was built in this manner because the prisoner(s) were in solitary confinement. The prisoner(s) spent the entire time of confinement in a cell or on the exercise yard twice a day for thirty minutes. Inmates didn’t get to see other nor have direct contact with each other. This separation was part of the Quaker plan, which was to maintain isolation, to reflect, and to prevent interaction with other …show more content…
The inmates had three meals a day and was allowed a bible and one recreational book at a time. They were not allowed letters, magazines or newspapers because of the content in them. The walls were thick so the inmates could not talk among each other nor have any contact with the guards. Prison guards did not have to be on the main perimeter walls because prisoners were never in a position to be close to the walls. Central control (the most important area of the penitentiary) was the eye of the entire prison.
The benefits of this system was to be used as a type of reform for the inmates so they could reflect on their crime(s) and not want to come back to the penitentiary because the environment was full of sorrow, it was quite, controlled, and the prisoners were managed individually rather than as a group. The downfall of this particular way of disciplining was expensive because it cost more to feed inmates individually rather than allowing the inmates to eat
Overhead was a skylight for a little bit of light and on the back wall of the cell was a door that led to an exercise yard that was the same size as an enclosed prison patio. The room was built in this manner because the prisoner(s) were in solitary confinement. The prisoner(s) spent the entire time of confinement in a cell or on the exercise yard twice a day for thirty minutes. Inmates didn’t get to see other nor have direct contact with each other. This separation was part of the Quaker plan, which was to maintain isolation, to reflect, and to prevent interaction with other …show more content…
The inmates had three meals a day and was allowed a bible and one recreational book at a time. They were not allowed letters, magazines or newspapers because of the content in them. The walls were thick so the inmates could not talk among each other nor have any contact with the guards. Prison guards did not have to be on the main perimeter walls because prisoners were never in a position to be close to the walls. Central control (the most important area of the penitentiary) was the eye of the entire prison.
The benefits of this system was to be used as a type of reform for the inmates so they could reflect on their crime(s) and not want to come back to the penitentiary because the environment was full of sorrow, it was quite, controlled, and the prisoners were managed individually rather than as a group. The downfall of this particular way of disciplining was expensive because it cost more to feed inmates individually rather than allowing the inmates to eat