The following topic will discuss, the connection between any ‘’x’’ crime and a sentence of being held in prison for ‘’y’’ years.
When the idea of prison has started? the statistical point of view, and if it is a sufficient solution that could change a criminal to a good citizen.
Many of the ideas here will be my self-opinion on the discussed topic, any words, numbers or facts mentioned will be laid out, other than that, I hope you enjoy reading it.
Intro:
This idea came across my mind, when I first started thinking whether, putting a felon or criminal in a small meter cubic area for a period of time, that some could be a life sentence, others for many years and sometimes a respectively short duration, will this punishment actually change a criminal into a normal obeying the rules citizen of a certain country, or creating a more dangerous criminal?
I truly believe that each kind of crime, have to have a certain punishment, but let’s start off by knowing when did the idea of prison came and what was it actually built for.
The First Prisons
Temples were the first buildings used to house offenders by allowing sanctuary. A collection of Chinese poetry, history and philosophy edited by Confucius noted prison building around 2000 B.C. Greek Herodotus wrote about an Egyptian ruler who used detention in conjunction with forced labor in the 11th century.
Incarceration in and of itself was not considered punishment until the 14th or 15th centuries; instead, prisons were meant only to confine people until their trial or the imposition of corporal punishment or exile. Prisons were used to detain those who had fallen out of favor with the rulers (political prisoners), common criminals, slaves, prisoners of war, debtors and those convicted of treason. Incarceration was used to coerce the payment of debts, detain those awaiting trial and provide a venue for the exhibition of prisoners prior to mutilation.
In the 16th and 17th centuries, sanctions for criminal behaviour tended to be public events which were designed to shame and deter; these included the ducking stool, the pillory, whipping, branding and the stocks. At the time, the sentence for many other offences was death.
Prison tended to be a place where people were held before their trial or while awaiting punishment. It was very rarely used as a punishment in its own right.
https://howardleague.org/history-of-the-penal-system
The earliest records of prisons date back to 1000 BC, in the early historical civilizations of Mesopotamia and Egypt. These early prisons were mostly detention centers built as underground dungeons. Offenders would be held there until they were sentenced to either death or slavery. In ancient Greece, prisons tended to be poorly isolated buildings where prisoners would be chained up at their feet using a simple wooden block and locked inside. However, Greek confinement was a bit more humane because visits from friends and family were standard. As for the ancient Romans, prisons were highly inhumane. They were primarily located in underground cells that tended to be small, dark, and claustrophobic. Other times, prisoners would be chained to underground passageway walls. During these times, the primary mode of punishment was slavery or death; hence, the retribution aspect of prisons was not widely regarded. Even the famous gladiators of Rome would be locked away at night in special training houses known as Ludus.
https://study.com/learn/lesson/prisons-history-characteristics-purpose.html
As you can see above, the idea of prison in ancient Egypt, Greece…etc, was built for a detention until the rule of punishment was decided, and from here we will take a look, when the idea of prison became as a form of punishment, relying on the same sources.
Until the late 18th century, prisons were used primarily for the confinement of debtors, persons accused of crimes and awaiting trial, and convicts awaiting the imposition of their sentences—usually death or transportation (deportation) overseas. A sentence of imprisonment was rarely imposed—and then only for minor crimes.
As the use of capital punishment began to decline in the late 18th century, the prison was increasingly used by courts as a place of punishment, eventually becoming the chief means of punishing serious offenders. The use of imprisonment subsequently spread worldwide, often by means of colonial empires that brought the practice to countries with no indigenous concept of prisons. By the early 21st century a majority of countries had abolished the death penalty (in law or in practice), and imprisonment was consequently the most severe form of punishment their courts could impose. The concept of the prison as a penitentiary (that is, as a place of punishment and personal reform) was advocated in this period by the English jurist and philosopher Jeremy Bentham, among others. The appalling conditions and official corruption in many local prisons of late 18th-century England and Wales were exposed by the English prison reformer John Howard, whose works The State of the Prisons in England and Wales (1777) and An Account of the Principal Lazarettos in Europe (1789) were based on extensive travels. The public outrage that Bentham and Howard helped generate led to a national system of inspection and the construction of “convict prisons” for those serving longer sentences. Consequently, in the early 19th century, penitentiaries were established in the U.S. states of Pennsylvania and New York.
https://www.britannica.com/topic/prison/Prisoners-rights
The 19th century saw the birth of the state prison. The first national penitentiary was completed at Millbank in London, in 1816. It held 860 prisoners, kept in separate cells, although association with other prisoners was allowed during the day. Work in prison was mainly centred around simple tasks such as picking ‘coir’ (tarred rope) and weaving.
In 1842, Pentonville prison was built using the panopticon design; this prison is still used today. Pentonville was originally designed to hold 520 prisoners, each held in a cell measuring 13 feet long, seven feet wide and nine feet high. It operated the separate system, which was basically solitary confinement. Over the next six years, 54 new prisons were built using this template.
Penal reform was becoming increasingly popular. Religious groups like the Quakers and the Evangelicals were highly influential in promoting ideas of reform through personal redemption. In 1866, admirers of John Howard founded the Howard Association – which would later be renamed the Howard League for Penal Reform.
In 1877, prisons were brought under the control of the Prison Commission. For the first time even local prisons were controlled centrally. At this time prison was seen primarily as a means to deter offending. This was a movement away from the reforming ideals of the past.
https://howardleague.org/history-of-the-penal-system
Based on the above the idea of prison became more known as a punishment around the 18th century.
Let’s check some statistics on convicted criminals, if they gone back to crime after doing a time in prison, in the USA.
https://worldpopulationreview.com/state-rankings/recidivism-rates-by-state
Here is a Recidivism rate (rearrest rate) in the United states.
Shows some decline in some states and increase in others, but the main point that the percentage is slightly high overall.
Onto the conclusion:
Okay shall we jump into a brief summary?
The idea of prison began to put some group of people in a cell, waiting for a ruling to a certain crime, then on that it began to develop to a more modern civilized idea of gathering convicted felons to do some time in a located area, with each person serving a certain duration for a certain crime.
And we had at last some look on stats of convicted felons going back and doing others or same crimes, which lead them back to jail.
Here are the main questions!!
Does putting a human being, in isolated spot with other human beings, that all of them in a perfect hypothesis are convicted felons that they actually did a crime (shall we neglect the possibility of one being innocent for the sake of this argument) makes him/her a better person, wiser and learn his/her lesson, mistake by which not repeating the same crime or any other?
What is the possibility of this person being hired after doing his/her time, or accepted by the society, coping with the society, after being long away from the outside world, surrounded by other criminals and maybe injected with worst ideas or methods about doing crimes, such as stealing, selling drugs….etc?
Could there be a better punishment than prison, depends on the type of crime? Could be in some cases, an eye for eye, a tooth for tooth, weigh more on the punishment, could in some scenarios depends on the crime, that these felons serve some punishment that could be useful to the society as of hard work or social work, could the idea of locking somebody up be the worst solution, could each crime have its own criteria and own punishment, rather than just differ by the amount of years?
These the questions that came to my mind, as far as I am concerned, I think prison could be a solution for certain limited crimes, I think there could be better more strong punishment for certain crimes that could assure or higher the percentage of a criminal not being rearrested or making other criminals having second thoughts of doing it.
Many criminals after prison become more dangerous to society than they were before, some actually change to become a better person, others stay the same and many become worse.
A world with zero crime rate does not exist but sometimes a good punishment can control the evil of others, whether the idea of prison being ideally here or not, is not my judgement neither do I know what is the judgement, this is an open argument that happy to hear every logical thought.
Write as you Breathe 