Republic of the Philippines

EULOGIO “AMANG” RODRIGUEZ

INSTITUTE OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
Cavite Campus
General Mariano Alvarez, Cavite

Subject: INTRODUCTION TO PHILIPPINE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM

Subject Code: CL1IPCJS
Topic: CORRECTION
Sub-Topics: Early Forms of Punishment
Origin of Capital Punishment
Justification of Punishment
Juridical Conditions of Punishment
Development of Prisons in Europe

Reporters: Charmaine Rose M. Laynes

Johnferñadel De Leon Atajar
Jerome Calma
Quellie Ruth Darasin
Queen Zyrian Felisilda
Jericho Louise Guerrero
Earl Cristel Flores Lalogo
Ivan Jexter Poblete
Mark Jesster Reyes

Instructor: Mr. ALVIN T. REJUSO, RCrim, LPT

EARLY FORMS OF PUNISHMENT

Those living in the 20 century it may difficult to envision the savage treatment of offenders in
the past. The absence of Prison and Jail or even courts and trials to hear the side of the offenders is
difficult in order to achieve fair judgements. The concept of punishments are " Cruel and unusual" and
along with it our correctional practices. The torture, flogging and public humiliations that characterized
"correction" of the past conflict with today's concept of the worth of life and human dignity.

Definition of Punishment

• Punishment is a means of social control. It is a device to cause people to become cohesive

and to induce conformity.
• Punishment is the infliction of some sort of pain on the offender for violating the law.
• Penalty imposed, as for transgression of law any pain, penalty, forfeiture, or confinement
imposed by the court for a wrong doing.

PRIMITIVE FORMS OF PUNISHMENT

1. Blood Feuds – ancient culture developed the idea of justice based on vengeance, retribution
and compensation. The offender will seek refuge to his family and friends, as a result of this
system, blood feuds developed.
 2. Lex Taliones – the Law of Retaliation ( Lex Taliones) against the offender is reflected on the
code of Hammurabi. On a practical basis, personal retribution by the victim was still the
dominant methods of control

THE MEDIEVAL PUNISHMENT

1. Iron Maiden – Is a box-like device with the front half hinged like a door so that a person could
be placed inside; when the door was shut, protruding spikes both back and front entered the
body of the victim.

2. The Rack – a kind of a device that drags apart like joints in the feet and hands.

3. The Tower of London – where the rack stretched its victims, this machine compressed the
body of the victims; it is more dreadful and more complex than the rack. The whole body is
bent that some blood exudes from the tips of the hands and feet

4. Death by Sawing – This form of execution is most closely associated with the reign of the
Roman Emperor Caligula. The criminal was attached to an arch of wood and then saw
vertically from the groin down through the skull.

5. The Garrote – Garroting was outlawed in the Philippines in 1902. Garrote was used in Spain
for hundreds of years, the garrote is an efficient means of execution by asphyxiation. In an
earlier version, the victim was tied to stake and a loop of rope was placed around his/her neck.
A rod in the loop was turned until the rope tightened, choking the victim. In later versions, the
stake was replaced with a chair in which the victim was bound, and the rope was replaced with
a metal collar. Until 1940, Spain implemented a version of the garrote which included a metal
spike which was driven into the spinal cord as the collar tightened

6. Guillotine – Conceived in the late 1700's this was one of the first methods of execution
created under the assumption that capital punishment was intended to end life rather than
inflict pain. Although it was specifically invented as a human form of execution it has been
outlawed in France and he last one was in 1977.

7. Premature Burial – Somewhat self- explanatory, this technique has been used by
governments through history to execute condemned prisoners.

8. Chinese civilians alive – Used mainly in England, it is widely considered to be one of the
most brutal forms of execution aver devised. As the name implies. It came in three parts. In the
first victim was tied to a wooden frame and dragged to the location of their execution (drawn).
They were then hung until nearly dead (hanged). Immediately after being taken down their
abdomen was opened and their entrails were removed. As the victim watched they were then
burned before his or eyes. He was also emasculated and eventually beheaded. After all of this
his body was divided into four parts (quartered) and placed in various locations around
England as a public crime deterrent This punishment was only used on men for any convicted
woman would generally be burnt at the stake as a matter of decency

9. Electric Chair – Execution by electrocution, usually performed using an electric chair, is an

execution method originating in the United States in which condemned person is trapped to a
special built wooden chair and electrocuted trough electrodes placed on the head and leg.

10. Firing Squad – Execution by Firing Squad sometimes called fusillading (from the French Fusil,
riffle), is a method of capital punishment, particularly common in military and in times of war. A
 firing squad is normally composed of several military personnel or law enforcement officers.
Usually, all members of the group are instructed to fire simultaneously.

11. Banishment or Transportation – This is sending or putting away of offender which was
carried out either by a prohibition against coming into a specified territory, or a prohibition
against going outside a specified territory, such as island to where the offender has been
removed

ORIGIN OF CAPITAL PUNISHMENT

The death penalty is also known as capital punishment. It has been used to
punish those who have done wrong. According to historical records, even the
most primitive people used these tactics, such as murder, since they believed
that what a victim went through, the perpetrator must have gone through as well.
Hammurabi ruled Babylon from about 1792 to 1750 BCE. He is noted for his
surviving set of laws, which were inscribed on a stela in Babylon's temple of
Marduk. Hammurabi's Code was once considered the oldest promulgation of
laws in human history, though older, shorter law collections have since been
found.

1) CODE OF HAMMURABI
- Hammurabi, the king of Babylon is recognized as the first codifier of laws
- the Code was carved in stone
- the “law of talion”, or the principle of “tit for tat”,(an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth)
appears throughout the Code.

2) THE HITTITES
- the Hittites existed about two centuries after Hammurabi and eventually conquered
Babylon.

3) CODE OF DRAKON
- knows as the “ultimate in severity”
- codified by Drakon, the Athenian lawgiver of the seventh century BC.

4) LAWS OF SOLON
- Solon repealed all the laws of the Code of Drakon, except the law on homicide
- Solon was one of the first to see that a lawgiver had to make laws that applied equally
to all citizens and also saw that the law of punishment had to maintain proportionality to
the crimes committed.

5) ROME’S TWELVE TABLES

- the Twelve Tables were the foundation of all laws in Rome and written in tablets of
bronze. The Twelve Tables were drafted by the Decemvirs, a body of men composed of
patricians.
JUSTIFICATION OF PUNISHMENT
 Because it is harmful, painful, or unpleasant, punishment needs a justification. Imprisonment,
for example, causes physical discomfort, psychological pain, indignity, and general unhappiness,
among others. The two most frequently cited justifications for punishments are the following:

Retributivism. Punishment is justified on the ground that the offender deserves to be punished. The
retributivist principle, to a certain extent, is antithetical to reductivism. What is important deserves
punishment, to the retributivist and not is the fact that the offender has committed a wrongful act
which morally right in some way future to reform consequences evil for evil, of the i.e . punishment.
That two wrongs He/She can claim make that it is a right.

Reductivism. Punishment is justified on the ground that it helps reduce the incidence of crime.
Reductivism is a forward-looking theory; it seeks to justify punishment by its alleged future
consequences. The moral theory known as utilitarianism supports reductivist arguments. This theory
was first systematically expounded by Jeremy Bentham who claimed that actions which produce "the
greatest happiness of the greatest number of people" are moral (Gahar, 2013).

RETRIBUTION AS A PHILOSOPHY

Retribution appears alongside the restorative principle in law codes from the ancient Near East,
including the Code of Ur-Nammu, the Laws of Eshnunna, and the better known Babylonian Code of
Hammurabi.

BABYLONIAN CODE OF HAMMURABI

*Lex Taliones - Law of Retaliation or Law of Talion

*Principle of Tit for Tat
*First codifier of laws
*The code was carved in stone
*Index finger

❖ Retribution also forbids the punishment of offenders who cannot be held responsible for their
actions. If individuals do not or cannot form means rea, they do not deserve to be punished for
their actions. As in the time of Hammurabi, however, victims are entitled to damages, because
causing harm even in the absence of intent carries the obligation of restoring one’s victims.
❖ Deterrence - it is commonly believed that punishment gives a lesson to the offender; that it
shows others what would happen if they violate the law: and that punishment holds crime in
check.
• Specific Deterrence - punishment gives a lesson to the offender
• General Deterrence - the punishment of the offender warns the potential offenders or
gives lessons to others.

❖ Incapacitation and Protection - the public will be protected if the offender is held in
conditions wherein she/he is capable of harming others. Punishment is affected by placing
offenders in prison so that society will be protected from criminal activities.

❖ Reformation or Rehabilitation - helping the prisoners to become law-abiding citizens and

productive upon their return to the community.

❖ Expiation or Atonement – it is punishment in the form of group vengeance where the

purpose is to appease the offended public or group.

❖ Restoration – a goal which attempts to make the victim whole again.

 The very purpose or reason why society has to punish a criminal is to secure justice. The
society or state has to protect its existence, assert what is right for the people based on moral
principles, in which must be vindicated.

Juridical Conditions of Punishment

Penalty is defined as the suffering inflicted by the State on an individual for disobeying a law. In
general, it signifies "pain." In the juridical sphere, it means the suffering undergone by one who
committed a crime (Reyes, 2012). Different Juridical Conditions of Penalty

Punishment must be:

1. Correctional – Changes the attitudes of offenders and become law-abiding citizens.

2. Certain – No one must escape its effects.

3. Commensurate with the Offense – Different crimes must be punished with different penalties.

4. Legal – The consequences must be in accordance with the law.

5. Equal – Equal for all people.

6. Personal – The guilty one must be punished, no proxy.

7. Suffering – Without affecting the integrity of the human personality.

8. Productive of suffering – But it must not affect the integrity of the human personality

Penalties as to Gravity

• Death Penalty – capital punishment

• Reclusion Perpetua – life imprisonment, a term of 20 – 40 years imprisonment

• Reclusion Temporal – 12 years and 1 day to 20 years

• Prision Mayor – 6 years and 1 day to 12 years

• Prision Correctional – 6 months and 1 day to 6 year

• Arresto Mayor – 1 month and 1 day to 6 months

• Arresto Menor – 1 day to 30 days

• Bond to keep the peace – discretionary on the part of the court

Theories in Justifying Penalty

 1. Prevention. The state punishes the criminal to prevent or suppress the danger his/ her
criminal acts pose to the state.

2. Self-defense. The state punishes the criminal to protect itself from the wrong inflicted by the
criminal.

3. Reformation. The state punishes the criminal to correct or reform him/her.

4. Exemplarity. The state punishes the criminal to deter others from committing a crime.

5. Justice. The state punishes the criminal as an act of retributive justice and a vindication of the
absolute right and moral law he/she violated (Reyes, 2012).

DEVELOPMENT OF PRISONS IN EUROPE

The Romans, once nomads, did not use prisons for punishment even after they settled and built
the city and state of Rome, Roman criminals were punished primarily by being sentenced to hard labor
for a specified period of time or for life. The Roman's also imposed capital punishment of various forms
for very serious crimes that offended not only the Roman state but also the gods. Prisons were simply
places of detention to offenders awaiting trial or for criminals to be transported to the place where their
sentence was to be carried out.
From the 5th to the 11th centuries, under Germanic law, homicides were dealt with. "blood feuds"
or revenge killings by the victimized family against the offender's family. The feuds were not viewed as
private revenge. In fact, the law demanded and sanctioned the feud punishment. But the feud was
lawful only if completed in a timely manner and did not exceed in measure the harm done. Any revenge
committed thereafter or any that exceeded the limit was considered unlawful and would lead to legal
proceedings. Some unlawful killings could also be compensated by payment of wergild or money to
compensate for the loss of a warrior.
The late Middle Ages in Europe were marked by the emergence of strong rulers who gained
increasing control over the punishment of wrongdoers. Punishment, except that inflicted within the
family, became a function of the state. By converting compensation money into fines and by claiming
the estates of persons sentenced to death, rulers enriched themselves consequently, the death penalty
meted out for capital offenses was commonplace. During the reign of Henry VIII in England (1509-
1547), the number of executions increased dramatically, though not to the 72,000 that some writers
have claimed. The forms of punishment became even more cruel. Those sentenced to death were
hanged, burned at the stake, drawn and quartered, disemboweled, boiled, broken on the wheel, stoned
to death, impaled, drowned, pressed to death in a spiked container, and torn by red-hot tongs. Non-
capital punishments also rose to a level of unprecedented cruelty; prisoners were branded,
dismembered, flogged, and tortured, even for offenses that today are considered trivial. This state-
sanctioned brutality apparently did not reduce the crime rate, but it did condition the population to accept
cruelty as a part of daily life.
During the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603), the English began to experiment with
additional forms of punishment. Galley slavery was introduced. Queen Elizabeth characterized it as a
"more merciful" form of punishment. Many city-states in the European Continent also used this form of
punishment, selling their prisoners as galley slaves to the fleets of Italy, France, Spain, Denmark, and
other countries well into the 18th century. Conditions in the galleys were anything but merciful. Chained
to crowded rowing benches, exposed to all kinds of weather conditions, whipped by brutal overseers,
and fed on hard rations, the galley slaves often welcomed death.
 Imprisonment was not the principal means of punishment in England or in the European
mainland. The penal code of Emperor Charles V (1532) of the Holy Roman Empire mentioned punitive
incarceration only once. Gradually, however, incarceration evolved from the practice of forced labor, a
popular punishment because it supplied rulers with cheap workers. It was necessary to confine forced
laborers at night in secure places. Ultimately, imprisonment became to be the primary punishment
followed by forced labor. By the mid- 164 Century the old English castle of Bridewell had been
converted into a "house of occupations, or rather a house of correction-for repression of the idle and
sturdy vagabond and common strumpet "Bridewells" were later established in all the counties of
England (Adler et al. 2000).
Reformers in other countries created similar institutions. The Dutch, for example, established a
tuchthuis, a house of discipline, in 1589. Germany, Denmark, and Sweden soon followed suit. The
purpose of imprisonment was to make the offenders useful members of the community through hard
labor and religious worship. But soon after prisons were established, they became overcrowded. The
English addressed the problem by the prison hulk. Decommissioned and deteriorated warships were
converted into prisons. Most of these prison ships were docked on the River Thames. In the 1840s, the
British government had about 12 hulks that housed up to 4,000 inmates.
Hulks made no contribution to the correction of offenders. They were overcrowded, unsanitary
places of confinement, with high death rates due to communicable diseases. Today, the world
community agrees unanimously that at least prisoners of war should not be confined on prison ships.
The Bridewells and the houses of correction never measured up to the ideals of the reformers. In fact,
they became slave-labor camps in which the offenders' cheap labor contributed to the wealth of the
rulers. In 1832, prison inmates still worked on treadmills, holding on to a wooden bar above their heads
and treading steadily as the steps went round to produce power to move millstones. In the 18th century,
England invented yet another way to deal with convicted persons: It sentenced them to be "transported"
to the colonies. Virginia and the other southern colonies in America received many such persons who
labored for the development of towns and plantations. After the American colonies won their
independence, England transported offenders to Australia, which is proud to acknowledge its debt to
their labor.
Punishment and Prison in the New World
The first settlers of New England were Puritans opposed to the primacy of the Church of England.
Rejecting English law, they, nevertheless, imported the English means of punishment, including the
stocks and the pillory. Their religious beliefs were similar to those of the Calvinists of the Netherlands,
the country in which the Mayflower group prepared for the crossing to America. The tuchthuis, which
they saw in the Netherlands, must have stuck in their minds as d means of correcting wrongdoers. It
was not in New England, however, but in Pennsylvania that the American correctional movement
began. It started there with William Penn's "Great Law" of December 4, 1682, which provided for the
legal establishment of houses of correction. Penn's law restricted corporal and capital punishment,
though it retained whipping for the more severe offenses.
After the colonies declared their independence, Pennsylvania continued the liberal spirit of William
Penn. In Philadelphia, the physician William Rush (1745-1813) took up the cause of penal reform. He
worked to abolish capital punishment and introduce penitentiaries. Rush helped organize the
Pennsylvania Society for the Abolition of Slavery, and he became instrumental in the creation of the
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons (1787). As a result, a small
penitentiary wing was added to the Walnut Street Jail in 1790. Extended solitary confinement in a cell,
it was thought, would bring the offender to penitence. Even at work, prisoners were not allowed to
communicate with one another.
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