Institutional Corrections MODULE 1

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Institutional correction

The Interplay of Criminology – Penology – Law - Criminal Justice. Philosophy and Theories of
Penology. Early Theories, History and Forms of Punishment and Penalty.

By Jennifer M. Lulu

Criminology is a body of crime as a social phenomenon. It includes within the scope, the making of
laws, breaking of laws and the reactions toward the breaking laws.

Or

The scientific study of causes of crime in relation to man in society who set and define rules and
regulations for himself and others to govern. 

The study of criminology evolves man and social forces through the passage and enactment of laws,
maintenance of peace and order, and the imposition of punishment by the government whose law
has been violated.

The study of criminology has three (3) principal divisions, namely:

■ Criminal Etiology – which attempts at scientific analysis of the causes of crime.

■ Sociology of Law – which is an attempt at scientific analysis of the causes of crime.

■ Penology – which is concerned with the control and prevention of crime and the treatment
of PERSON DEPRIVED OF LIBERTY(PDL)

Penology derived from latin word “Poena – pain or suffering”

Penology is the division of criminology that focuses on the philosophy and practice of society in its
efforts to repress criminal activities. 

The principal goals of penal science are:

■ To bring to light the ethical bases of punishment, along with the reasons and purposes of
society in inflicting it

■ To make relatives study of penal laws and procedures through history and between nations

■ To evaluate social consequences of the policies in force at a given time

The philosophy of punishment and penology is the doctrine of the “individualization of


punishment”—that is to say, of the punishment of the individual rather than of the crime committed
by him, which is of commanding importance in present-day penology—is only a development of this
fundamental principle of the neoclassical school. (Institutional Corrections, Jail and Management
by Dean Ricardo M. Guevarra)

THEORETICAL FOUNDATIONS IN DEALING WITH CRIMINALS

1. Classical School of Thought

2. Neo-Classical School of Thought

3. Positive School of Thought

The Classical and Italian(Positivist) School of Criminology 

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History would tell us that the Classical and Italian(Positivist) School plays a vital role in shaping the
correctional systems of England, U.S.A., and the rest of the modern world. Notable authorities in
criminology, such as Hagan (2013) and Barlow (2009), to name a few, join in acknowledging such
contributions:

Classical School

The Classical School of Criminology, which was developed in the 18 th century and reflected in the
writings of Cesare Beccaria (Father of Penology) and Jeremy Betham, led the movement of human
rights and free will. Their works were in response to the barbaric system of law, justice, and
punishment that was in existence before 1789. Their interest lay in the system of criminal justice and
penology and they were more concerned and interested in law-making, legal processing, and penal
reformation.

•Let the punishment fit the crime.

•Philosophy of hedonism and free will.

•A swift and certain punishment for criminal behavior is assumed that it will deter people from
committing crimes. 

•The basis of Criminal liability is human free will. The purpose of punishment is retribution and there
is scant regard of the human element.

•Advocated by Cesare Beccaria.

What is Hedonism?

■ Argues that the pursuit of pleasure while avoiding pain is the most important goal in life.

■ Main proponent of this theory is Jeremy Bentham.

Neo-Classical School

The shortcomings of Classical School give the opposition to lay their foundation and the Italian
School of Criminology emerges in what was known also as the Neo-Classical School. The leading
figures were Cesare Lombroso(Father of Criminology), Raffaelle Garofalo and Enrico Ferri and many
called them the “Holy Trinity of Criminology.”

•A modification of the classical assumption where there was no definition of free will.

• It argues that children and lunatic person do not have free will. Thus, they must be excluded to any
punishment since they do not know what is right from wrong.

The Durham and M’Naghten Rule

Requires that criminal proceedings be suspended, the offender be exempted from criminal liability if
it is determined that the he/she committed the crime as a result of mental illness.

Lombroso advocated humane treatment of criminals, MUNICI to their category and despises death
penalty.

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Ferri on the other hand, embraced Lombroso’s criminal typology; nevertheless, the emphasis of his
criminal typology was more on the psychological and social factors as predictors of crime.

Garofalo classifies criminals on a psychological basis. He preferred the sociological definition of


crime and stated the crime is an act which offends the basic sentiments of ‘pity’ and ‘probity’. He
rejected the proposition of the Classical School that punishment should fit the criminals because
they have little control of their actions.(Non-Institutional Correction by Marcelino C. Cutamora, Jr.)

Positive School of Thought

•Let the treatment fit the criminal.

•People cannot be held accountable for their actions because of factors beyond their control as
man’s freewill can be influenced and dictated by physical, psychological and environmental
conditions.

•The basis of Criminal liability is the sum total of nature, environment and economic factor that an
offender is exposed to.

•The purpose of punishment is correction and reformation

•Advocated by Cesare Lombroso.

Ancient Forms of Prison Discipline

1.Hard Labor – productive works

2.Deprivation – deprivation of anything except the essentials of existence.

3.Monotony – requiring prisoners to do same boring daily routine.

4.Uniformity -  fault of one is the fault of all.

5.Corporal punishment – imploring brutal punishment

6.Isolation or solitary confinement – non-communication, limited news, lone wolf.

7.Degradation - Uttering insulting words or languages on the part of prison staff to the prisoners to
degrade or break the confidence of prisoners.

Ancient Forms of Punishment

■ 1.Death Penalty – by burning, beheading, hanging, breaking, at the wheels, pillory and other
forms of medieval executions.

■ 2.Physical Torture – By maiming, mutilation, whipping and other inhumane or barbaric


forms of inflicting pain.

■ 3.Social Degradation – Putting the offender into shame or humiliation.

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■ 4.Banishment or exile – Sending or putting away of an offender which was carried out by
prohibition against coming into a specified territory such as an island to where the offender
has been removed.

Contemporary Forms of Punishment 

1.Imprisonment – Putting the offender in prison for the purpose of protecting the public against
criminal activities and at the same time rehabilitating the prisoners by inquiring them to undergo
institutional treatment.

2.Parole -  A conditional release of a prisoner after serving part of his/her sentence in prison for the
purpose of gradually re-introducing him/her to free life under the guidance and supervision of a
parole officer.

3.Probation – A disposition whereby a defendant after conviction of an offense, the penalty of which
does not exceed six years imprisonment, is released subject to the conditions imposed by the
releasing court and under the supervision of a probation officer.

4.Fine – An amount given as a compensation for a criminal act.

5.Destierro – The penalty of banishing a person from the place where he committed a crime,
prohibiting him to get near or enter the 25-kilometer perimeter.

HISTORY OF PRISONS

■ 1750 BC in Babylonia

■ Concept of Justice known as “Lex Taliones” meaning an eye for an eye and a tooth for a
tooth.

■ However, not everybody is equal, justice is based among social classes.

■ Imposes stiffer punishment against members of the upper class than against offenders
coming from the lower rungs of society. 

Mosaic Code

■ Only punishment that is largely based on the Bible.

■ Carried restitution because it allows offender and the victim to come to a settlement and to
have such settlements before a legal authority.

■ Allowed extreme punishments such as flogging or burning alive.

■ However, accused are entitled to freedom from torture and admission of guilt is admissible
only when there is confirmatory testimony from another witness.

■ Most of American and European civil and criminal justice system is based on the Mosaic law. 

King Ur-Nammu’s Code

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■ •Deferred the imposition of execution, mutilation or other savage penalties. 

■ •It holds the principle that offenders can be punished and at the same time compensate the
victims by reimbursing/paying whatever what victim suffered as a result of the crime.

■ •Earliest practice of Restorative Justice.

WHAT IS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

•The emerging trend in criminal justice as it aims to re-establish the lost relationship between the
involved parties in the crime.

•The goal is for them to share their experience of what happened, to discuss who was harmed by
the crime and how, and to create a consensus for what the offender can do to repair the harm from
the offense.

WHAT IS RESTORATIVE JUSTICE?

• This may include a payment of money given from the offender to the victim, apologies and other
amends, and other actions to compensate those affected and to prevent the offender from causing
future harm.

•Opposite of Retributive Justice which focuses more on the punishment of crime.

Nicomedian Ethics

•Founded in Greece around 400 BC by Aristotle.

•“Punishment is a means of restoring a balance between pain and pleasure.”

•Greek form of punishment includes stoning to death, burning alive and breaking on the wheel.

•The Greeks were also the first society to allow any citizen to prosecute the offender under the
name of the state.

Greek Code of Draco

•A harsh code that provides the same punishment for both the citizen and slave as it incorporates
primitive concepts.

•Was enforced in ancient Greece in the 7th century.

The Burgundian Code

•Specified punishment according to social class of offenders, dividing them into: nobles, middle class
and lower class and specifying the life of each person according to social status.

Important Terminologies

Gaol -  is the word for jail in England during the old times.

Hulks – were abandoned or unusable ships which were converted into prisons as a means of
relieving prison congestion when transportation of prison was abandoned in England. Known as
“Floating Hells”

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Galleys – Ships used for transportation to penal colonies.

History of Correction in Europe

Bridewell -  a term for house of correction which were used for locking up, whipping beggars,

prostitutes. The institution was built around the acceptance of value of work and formulation of
habits of industry. Also known as the England’s first House of Correction.

Jeremy Bentham and the Panopticon

•The greatest leader in the reform of English penal laws.

•He believes that whatever punishment is designed to negate whatever pleasure or gain the criminal
derives from the crime, the crime rate would go down. (Utilitarianism)

•The Panopticon prison was a prison that consists of a large circular building containing multi-cells
around the periphery allowing the guards to observe the prisoners while they are in their cells. 

THE PANOPTICON PRISON

Mamertime Prison

•The only early Roman place of confinement which is built under the main sewer of Rome in 64 B.C.

HISTORY OF AMERICAN PRISON

The Walnut Street Jail

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Considered as the first American penitentiary.

Use of imprisonment through solitary confinement as the method of combatting crime was
established using large rooms for inmates.

Effort to reform those in prison and to segregate according to age, sex and the type of the offenses
charged against them.

Two Rival Prison System


in the U.S.A.

1.Auburn System

2.Pennsylvania System

The Auburn System

•Individual cell-blocks to create an environment to rehabilitate and reform and to separate them
from all contact with corruption while teaching them moral habits of order and regularity by means
of severe discipline. 

•Prisoners are confined in single cells at night and work in congregate shops during the day.

•During the morning inmates worked 10 hours a day for six weeks.

•Main proponent was Elam Lynds

•Also known as “Congregate System”.

The Pennsylvania System

•Each cell had a small exercise area to allow prisoners to maintain physical and mental uprightness.

•Prisoners are confined in single cells day and night where they lived and received religious
instructions as reading the Bible was compulsory.

•Because prisoners were driven mad by the isolation and soon enough thus system resulted in
substantial increase in suicide and insanity.

•Also known as “Solitary System”.

Sing-Sing Prison

Became infamous all over the world and was the plot of many movies of the sing sing bath.

The shower bath was a gadget so constructed as to drop a volume of water on the head of locked
naked offender. The force of icy cold water hitting the head caused so much pain and shock that
prisoners immediately sank into comas.

The bath became frequent when flogging was declared illegal.

The Age of Enlightenment

•18th century

Is the period of recognizing the human dignity. It is the movement of reformation, the period of
introduction of certain reforms in the correctional field by certain person gradually changing the old
philosophy to a more humane treatment of prisoners with innovative programs

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The Reformers

1.William Penn – He is the first leader to prescribe imprisonment as correctional treatment for
major offenders and the abolition of death penalty.

          - known as the “great prison reformer”

          - concept of diversification.

2. Charles Montesiquieu – He believed that harsh punishment would undermine morality and that
appealing to moral sentiments as a better mans of preventing crime.

3. Voltaire – He believed that fear of shame was a deterrent to crime  and fought the legality of
sanctioned torture.

4. John Howard – The sheriff of Bedfordshire, England who devoted his life and fortune to prison
reform. He recommended then following:

a. single cells for sleeping 

b. segregation of women and youth 

c.  abolition of fee system for which jailers obtained money.

Alexander Maconochie – Introduced the “Mark System” in Australia. A system in which prisoner is
required to earn a number of marks based on good behaviour, labor and study to entitle him for
ticket of leave which is equivalent for parole.

6. Manuel Montesimos – divided the number of prisoners into companies and appointed certain
prisoners as petty officers.

7. Domets of France – established an agricultural colony for delinquent boys.

8. Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise – Opened the Borstal Prison. It was considered to be the best reform
institution for young offenders today.

9. Walter Crofton – Introduced the Irish system. The equivalent of Mark System.

10. Zebulon Brockway – Director/Superintendent of Elmira Reformatory. It introduced  programs


like the following: compulsory education for prisoners, extensive use of casework and parole.

The Elmira Reformatory

•Considered as the forerunner of modern penology because it had all the elements of a modern
system.

•Started Parole in the U.S. in 1876. After a 12 month record of good conduct, a prisoner is already
eligible for parole at Elmira.

The Elmira Reformatory

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Is Classification and Diversification the same?

Classification

•A method by which diagnosis, treatment, planning and execution of treatment programs are
decided in individual cases.

•Assigning the appropriate programs according to the needs and existing resources.

sweaDiversification

Deals with the separation of PDL/inmate according to age, sex, medical condition and degree of
custody. (ASID)

Five (5) Major Deployment of Prisoners

1.Northern Industrial Prison

•Located in the Northern part of the United Sates.

•The prisoners are made to perform labor to earn revenues for the upkeep of the facility and profit
for state treasury.

•Uses three methods to benefit from prison labor: a) contract b) state account c) state-use

Contract System

•Prisoners are hired out to businessmen or corporations on a daily basis for a set of fee per head.

State Account

•Contractors provide the raw materials and pay the state on a per-piece price of each item produced
or manufactured.

State Use System

•More risky venture but brings bigger profit if managed properly by the state. 

•State operates the business itself in all aspect, construct the factory, buys all the raw materials and
handles the marketing. 

•State government then gets to keep all the profits earned and absorbs all the losses if it is clumsily
handled.

2.Southern Agricultural Prison

•Located in the agricultural deep South of United States. This prison posses vast landholdings and


uses prison labor to produce agricultural products.

•The harvest accrue to the benefit of the state government where a part of income is used to
finance operating cost of the facility. The plantations have minimal facilities, therefore, inexpensive
to operate.

Implementation of “trustees”. The main purpose is to utilize minimal-supervision convicts whose


services of guarding 

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3.Chain Gangs

•Originally used on black inmates.

•Prisoners were brought out from penal institutions and made to work in reconstruction projects
that were damaged in the Civil War. 

•To secure prisoners against escape when they are working far from the penal institutions, they
were chained together.

The Sweat Box

•Prisoners were put into a steel box in the hot sun were used as punishment.

•In the Philippines it is locally called “plantsa”

4.Custody Oriented Prison

•Main goal is prison security and the prevention of escapes and riots.

•Prisoners are punished by confining them only to their cells and isolating them from the rest of
society.

•At present, this approach in Super Maximum and Maximum facilities where the occupants are
hardened criminals who are likely to escape when given a little freedom of movement.

•The bad side of this approach is many prisoners become bored, irritable and excitable. In this type
of prison, riots generally occur.

5.Treatment Oriented Prison

•Main goal is prison security and the prevention of escapes and riots.

•Prisoners are punished by confining them only to their cells and isolating them from the rest of
custody

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•At present, this approach in Super Maximum and Maximum facilities where the occupants are
hardened criminals who are likely to escape when given a little freedom of movement.

•The bad side of this approach is many prisoners become bored, irritable and excitable. In this type
of prison, riots generally occur.

4. The Treatment Oriented Prison 

•Forerunner of Furlough Program in the U.S. thru the Huber Act in Wisconsin.

•Involves a whole array of educational, vocational, counselling and other services. 

•In some well-off penal facilities treatment programs were individualized to suit
specific treatment for every inmate.

Furlough Program

•Is when a prisoner is allowed to leave prison and then return. Furloughs can be escorted or
unescorted. When the prisoner has to be accompanied by guards, often he is required to pay for
these expenses of the furlough.

•There is some evidence that furloughs reduce recidivism, although there have also been high-
profile cases in which furloughed prisoners committed crimes while on furlough, or returned late or
remained at large.

Corrections Corporation in America


(CCA)

•Dubbed as “Private Prison”.

•One of the first company to privately operate correctional facilities.

•The movement towards privatization of prisons is slowly emerging to serve as a lower cost in
operations.

•Today, prisons have started to privatize its operations such as: food, psychological testing, trainings
for inmates and security.

Stages in the History of Corrections

1.Age of Reformation

2.Age of Rehabilitation 

3.Age of Reintegration

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