Imprisonment is argued to be the ultimate sanction of modern Western societies, acting as a potent symbol of the power of the State to punish. It is suggested that the use of prison has become extensively superfluous with the current prison population of England and Wales at a staggering 84,628 people. The rise in population is perhaps explained by the evolution of prisons which has seen them become an unhealthy substitute for a health and welfare system within a modern society; Pat Carlen states that ‘prison still fulfils its old age function of catering for the homeless, the mentally ill, the stranger, the non-compliant poor, the abused and the excluded’. This essay will focus on England and Wales and will discuss the evolution of the
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Prison as a form of punishment is an ideal that has been slowly developed and integrated within society since the eighteenth century. Prison has been defined by Christie to be: a physical structure creating high internal visibility with possibilities for some absolute restrictions in movements, the stay is decided by other persons independent of the wishes of those staying there with the purpose of creating pain because those staying are to blame. Garland asserts that it was essential for punishment to be modified to include prison to combat the level of crime in a modern civilisation. The evolution of prison shall be considered to exhibit how the Criminal Justice System (CJS) tailored the purpose of said institution as an innovative solution to combat those thought to be inadequate or a threat to society. Originally, prisons were owned by a variety of municipal and private bodies and they had a distinct purpose to act primarily as secure sites to hold suspects who were awaiting trial, exile, execution or to enforce payment of debts. During the eighteenth century, the death penalty began to fall out of favour and so transportation emerged as a ‘prominent …show more content…
It must however be emphasized that there is no collective agreement as to a rationale of imprisonment. Having considered the evolution of prisons, the ideological development of the aims of the penal system can be easily recognised. To begin, the hulks held the primary aim of putting the prisoners to work which demonstrates rehabilitation as an aim. Rehabilitation was viewed by academics as a kind of moral and spiritual regeneration that would ensure that there would be no return to crime; therefore, it was believed during the nineteenth century that by putting the prisoners to work, criminal tendencies would be averted and an appreciation of traditional societal values would be developed. The move from public execution to private imprisonment demonstrates the transition from punishment of the body to the soul as the focus of prison was on rehabilitating the criminal. Unfortunately, as the use of prison grew the aim began to be manipulated by politicians and the CJS alike in order to tackle societal issues, such as the growing concern regarding migrants who came to the UK in search for employment. It is suggested that this marks the move from rehabilitation to the aim of providing deterrence and protection of the public. Today the
Prison as a form of punishment is an ideal that has been slowly developed and integrated within society since the eighteenth century. Prison has been defined by Christie to be: a physical structure creating high internal visibility with possibilities for some absolute restrictions in movements, the stay is decided by other persons independent of the wishes of those staying there with the purpose of creating pain because those staying are to blame. Garland asserts that it was essential for punishment to be modified to include prison to combat the level of crime in a modern civilisation. The evolution of prison shall be considered to exhibit how the Criminal Justice System (CJS) tailored the purpose of said institution as an innovative solution to combat those thought to be inadequate or a threat to society. Originally, prisons were owned by a variety of municipal and private bodies and they had a distinct purpose to act primarily as secure sites to hold suspects who were awaiting trial, exile, execution or to enforce payment of debts. During the eighteenth century, the death penalty began to fall out of favour and so transportation emerged as a ‘prominent …show more content…
It must however be emphasized that there is no collective agreement as to a rationale of imprisonment. Having considered the evolution of prisons, the ideological development of the aims of the penal system can be easily recognised. To begin, the hulks held the primary aim of putting the prisoners to work which demonstrates rehabilitation as an aim. Rehabilitation was viewed by academics as a kind of moral and spiritual regeneration that would ensure that there would be no return to crime; therefore, it was believed during the nineteenth century that by putting the prisoners to work, criminal tendencies would be averted and an appreciation of traditional societal values would be developed. The move from public execution to private imprisonment demonstrates the transition from punishment of the body to the soul as the focus of prison was on rehabilitating the criminal. Unfortunately, as the use of prison grew the aim began to be manipulated by politicians and the CJS alike in order to tackle societal issues, such as the growing concern regarding migrants who came to the UK in search for employment. It is suggested that this marks the move from rehabilitation to the aim of providing deterrence and protection of the public. Today the