Reforming the Treatment of Criminals Kat Marcil and Christina Cook

Prison reform: Major Contributors Dorthea Dix -Began as a teacher to women in jails and saw the abuse of many mentally ill patients. - Fought for the sick and insane "confined in this commonwealth in cages, closets, cellars, stalls, pens! Chained, beaten with rods, lashed into obedience." –Dorthea Dix. -Climax of prison and asylum reform was in Helped to establish 5 major hospitals for the mentally ill.

Dr. John Galt - Supported psychiatric hospitals in America - Believed the sick and insane deserved to be treated with dignity. - New treatments such as, -Use of drugs -Talk therapy -Advocating outplacement rather than life long stays

Louis Dwight, Samuel Gridley Howe, Francis Lieber - Louis Dwight began the first juvenile detention center. - Samuel Gridley Howe, began many of the in- prison libraries along with Lieber and Dix. All of these reformers fought the struggle for those who could not, to make the prison system fair.

Punishment vs. Penitence The constant controversy was between whether prison should be considered full time incarceration or a type of rehabilitation. Many would argue that a deviant could change with rehabilitation with a more positive environment. Although the reformers were struggling for a rehab in a sense they also wanted to make sure the prisoners were still keeping there most basic human rights.

Prisons in the 1800s

Modern Prisons

Capital punishment Then and Now In the 1800’s the ways of executing were much less humane. In this time period the idea of the death penalty was not as much of a controversy as it is in modern times. This cause the processes of persecuting a criminal much more brutal. They didn’t take the precautions of trials as we do today therefore people were commonly executed unfairly The money, time, and resources make sure that capital punishment is only used in the most extreme cases. This issue has been debated around the nation. Many believe that the execution of a criminal, no matter the degree of there crime, would be considered unjust. Because of religious conflicts, personal beliefs, and the uncertainty of capital punishment is still a nationwide controversy. Regardless of the fact that the death penalty has become more civilized many people still disagree with it.

A Message from the Wanderer by William E. Stafford Today outside your prison I stand and rattle my walking stick: Prisoners, listen; you have relatives outside. And there are thousands of ways to escape. Years ago I bent my skill to keep my cell locked, had chains smuggled to me in pies, and shouted my plans to jailers; but always new plans occured to me, or the new heavy locks bent hinges off, or some stupid jailer would forget and leave the keys. Inside, I dreamed of constellations— those feeding creatures outlined by stars, their skeletons a darkness between jewels, heroes that exist only where they are not. Thus freedom always came nibbling my thought, just as—often, in light, on the open hills— you can pass an antelope and not know and look back, and then—even before you see— there is something wrong about the grass. And then you see. That’s the way everything in the world is waiting. Now—these few more words, and then I’m gone: Tell everyone just to remember their names, and remind others, later, when we find each other. Tell the little ones to cry and then go to sleep, curled up where they can. And if any of us get lost, if any of us cannot come all the way— remember: there will come a time when all we have said and all we have hoped will be all right. There will be that form in the grass.

How did the Prison Reform changed America? The reform in the way we treat our criminals, mentally ill, and insane has made us more civilized as a country. This movement has created peace throughout our nation. It has helped us focus much more on rehabilitation instead of the constant harsh confinement of prisons in the 1800’s. If we hadn’t gone through this period of brutality, America wouldn’t have been able to prosper and offer a second chance that it does today.

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