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Introduction
Early prison systems in the United States focused on the power of hard labor, religion, and inhumane conditions to correct persons convicted of petty and serious crimes, as seen in early women’s prisons and penitentiaries. However, as the 19th century progressed, reformers shifted towards new correctional practices as seen with the San Francisco Industrial School, later women’s institutions and psychological approach to correctional practices. -
First Solitary Confinement Experiment
The first experimentation with solitary confinement in the United States begins at the Eastern State Penitentiary in Philadelphia. The solitary confinement experiment was based on a Quaker belief that prisoners isolated in stone cells with only a Bible would use the time to repent, pray and find introspection. However, this intended effect did not materialize and prisoners often suffered mentally and were only further isolated from society upon release. -
US bans debtors’ prisons
At this time, the US federal government abolished debtors’ prisons, where people had previously been incarcerated for an inability to repay their debts for over 200 years. Over the following decades, Congress would develop bankruptcy laws to help resolve unpaid debts; bankruptcy law essentially replaced debtors’ prisons as time progressed. -
Nation’s first women’s prison opens
The first women’s prison in the United States opened when Mount Pleasant Female Prison opened in New York in 1835. This institution received harsh criticism for subjecting incarcerated women to violence, such as physical restraints and straitjackets, and other inhumane living conditions. As a result, the prison shut down 30 years after opening. -
Opening of the San Francisco Industrial School
The Industrial School, which was a perfect example of a 19th century reform school, was the subject of frequent scandals stemming from physical abuse to managerial incompetence. The facility was ordered closed in 1891, and it was denounced it as a failed system. Today, industrial schools are typically called youth correctional institutions that follow a classic congregate institutional model - concentrating large numbers of youth in highly regimented, penitentiary-like institutions. -
Women's Incarceration Shifts Towards Domesticity
Middle-class white women that had been put away for crimes often found themselves in women’s penitentiaries. These penitentiaries were often considered to be lower-security facilities. These institutions attempted to rehabilitate the inmates into "proper ladies" through routine practices of domesticity. Female inmates were often involved in programs in which they served as domestic servants in nearby private homes. -
Convict leasing becomes widespread
When the Civil War ended in 1865, convict leasing became widespread in Southern states. Convict leasing allowed prisons to lease out incarcerated people, predominantly Black men, to private businesses for a monetary fee. This system helped enrich southern states and businesses while treating the convict laborers dismally. -
Government establishes Federal Prison System
In 1891, Congress passed the “Three Prisons Act,” which created the Federal Prisons System. It allowed the first three federal prisons to open—USP Leavenworth, USP McNeil Island, and USP Atlanta—under oversight from the Department of Justice. Prior to the construction of federal prisons, prisoners were held at state prisons. -
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Psychological Assessments lead to Probation Systems
For United States prison system, the Progressive Era was marked by a move away from the concept of religion and hard labor as a means of correction and towards a correctional approach based on psychology. Reformers believed that inmates required individual, medical-like assessments to discover the proximate causes of individual deviance. This new approach brought about systems of probation, and by 1915, 33 states had adopted systems of probation. -
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Conclusion
American prison systems underwent numerous reforms throughout history. Methods of correctional reform followed significant events in American history, such as convict leasing resulting from the Civil War, but correctional reforms also lead to significant historical events. The introduction of individualized, medical-like assessments placed a focus on the uniqueness of each case of incarceration, which led to the establishment of probation systems, parole, and eventually psychiatric treatment.