Test 2 - Establishment of Penitentiary System Flashcards
Jeremy Bentham
1748-1832
- British social reformer and Utilitarian philosopher
- Famous for his panopticon design
Panopticon Prison
Model penitentiary design in a wheel and spoked shape
- Influenced 19th C penitentiary architecture
(Betntham’s Panoption or The Inspection House (1791)) proposed panopticon pen. with prison cells located along the spokes of the wheel = guards could monitor from a central vantage point
- Solitary cells = enable rehabilitation-> private reflection and meditation
- Initially approved by Parliament (1794), disabled in 1803
-> Adopted in Pennsylvania (Eastern State)
Eastern State Penintentiary
One of 1st penitentiaries in Philadelphia in 1829, based on Bentham’s panopticon design.
“A machine of Reform”
Inmates:
- Complete isolation, most of time = solitary confinement -> working/meditating
- Forbidden to communicate, sing, whistle, scream…
- Solitary isolement = prisoners insane/suicide
1915: solitary confinement = abandoned-> 2-3 men in one cell
1956: Death row wing= lost redemptive mission, now to punish only
1971: Closed
Auburn System
Early 19th C penitentiary syst. based at Auburn penitentiary, NY
- Alt. to Eastern State (communal work + solitary confinement)
Inmates:
- Labour in groups (prison profits from)
- Grey uniforms w horizontal stripes
- Walk in lockstep (chained unison, eyes down)
Which systems are the dominant models and where
Eastern State and Auburn System
in North/ South America, Europe, Asia in 19th-20th C
19th C Penitentiaries in CANADA
Kingston Penitentiary
Kingston Penitentiary
Canada 1st penitentiary
- Kingston, 1835, designed after Auburn syst.
Inmates:
- Work in the day and Solitary confinement at night
Discipline:
- Regulated like clockwork; rose at dawn
- Hard communal work in day, in silence
- Disordely beh. (talk, laugh…) punished harshly (cat o’ nine tails (whip))
- Locked in tiny, dark cells, fed poor quality food
Inspired other penitentiaries of Canadas
