The ideology of the Penitentiary opened by the Quakers in Pennsylvania was to replace their systematic punishment from early colonial penal codes (Monteiro & Frost, 2017). The country was changing and advancing into the future as the Declaration of Independence had been adopted as well as British laws had been repealed by the Pennsylvania legislature, (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). The implementation of a new jail called penitentiary came to fruition as overcrowded jails were observed as inhumane at Walnut Street Jail. The advancement of the penitentiary was to hold prisoners that were considered to be "hardened atrocious offenders", in lieu of incarcerating them with your average criminals (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014).
The English Penitentiary Act of 1779 gave authorization for constructing penitentiaries across the nation that would consist of strict discipline and vigorous labor among the offenders, but would later be fulfilled in 1818 with the construction of two penitentiaries (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). The purpose behind this new style of housing prisoners by the Quakers was to focus on social isolation, keeping silence among the detainees, produce greater productivity through labor, and instill religious studies to maintain social control known as the "Pennsylvania system" (Monteiro & Frost, 2017). "The American version of the penitentiary was designed to isolate people found guilty of a …show more content…
With the overcrowding of penitentiaries, new construction for more penitentiaries was underway as well as changing capital punishment legislature in an attempt to minimize the population (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). Due to the overpopulating factor still at hand, each penitentiary was maximizing their population and new ones were being constructed with legislature amending their laws in an attempt to relieve the overcrowded
The English Penitentiary Act of 1779 gave authorization for constructing penitentiaries across the nation that would consist of strict discipline and vigorous labor among the offenders, but would later be fulfilled in 1818 with the construction of two penitentiaries (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). The purpose behind this new style of housing prisoners by the Quakers was to focus on social isolation, keeping silence among the detainees, produce greater productivity through labor, and instill religious studies to maintain social control known as the "Pennsylvania system" (Monteiro & Frost, 2017). "The American version of the penitentiary was designed to isolate people found guilty of a …show more content…
With the overcrowding of penitentiaries, new construction for more penitentiaries was underway as well as changing capital punishment legislature in an attempt to minimize the population (Siegel & Bartollas, 2014). Due to the overpopulating factor still at hand, each penitentiary was maximizing their population and new ones were being constructed with legislature amending their laws in an attempt to relieve the overcrowded