One of the earliest known American prisons was established in 1705 (Donovan, 2023) under the name New-Gate Prison. The site, located in Connecticut, operated until 1827 and had a cavern capacity of 100 prisoners. During colonial times institutions like these were used to detain individuals awaiting trial or punishment (Meskell, 1999). Historically, punishments for crimes could often be quite cruel by today’s standards; forced labor, public restraint, flogging, maiming, and death were routine penalties for crimes of varying severity to deter repeat offenses (2023). Prisons were thus comparatively perceived as the more humane consequence and favored by the public.
Over time, the U.S. prison system evolved, and the concept of incarceration as a means of punishment became more formalized (Chennault & Sbicca, 2022) with the model being deterrence from future criminal behavior. In the 1800s, Americans expressed a desire for malefactors to be transformed into functioning citizens through the prison system rather than simply “detered” from future misdeeds. Therefore, the 19th and 20th centuries stepped away from deterrence and chiefly operated in a rehabilitative spirit (Duxbury, 2023) that gave inmates resources for change, such as treatment for their criminality, which was viewed as a medical disease at the time (2022).
However, in the 1970s, there was a significant shift in the criminal justice ideology and policy that governed prisons. This change is largely marked by Robert Martinson, an American sociologist, who published a study that criticized the effectiveness of the rehabilitation process. Martinson (1974) reviewed 231 studies of prison rehabilitative programs and concluded that treating offenders was predominately ineffective because “nothing works.” Offenders simply can never overcome their criminal tendencies. These arguments found widespread acceptance not only among the prevailing criminology scholars but also conservative political ideologies of the 1970s and 1980s. Critics, however, pointed out that Martinson had published his interpretation of the data without the consent of his collaborators and that he only included analysis of underfunded and untrained treatment programs while principally ignoring the efficacious ones (Hollin, 2000). Still, the media latched hold of his views and the country moved toward more punitive approaches, such as the “get tough on crime” policies and mandatory minimum sentences, which reduced the emphasis on rehabilitation in favor of punishment and deterrence (Gruman et al., 2016). President Richard Nixon’s “War on Drugs” heavily stigmatized and criminalized drug-use as a grave offense (Cullen, 1989) such that thousands of inmates were added to the prison system. It didn’t matter that Martinson later retracted his initial findings in 1979 after reviewing his erroneous study; the damage had been done. Another pivotal moment occurred in the 1989 Supreme Court Case Mistretta v. United States, where federal “guidelines” sidelined rehabilitation as a significant consideration in sentencing offenders (Dowden & Andrews, 2000). Defendants were instead sentenced primarily based on the nature of the crime committed, without regard to factors such as their amenability to treatment, personal history, efforts toward self-rehabilitation, or alternative sentencing options.
The U.S. incarceration rate has more than tripled since the 1970s (Chennault & Sbicca, 2022) and it is now the second largest prison system in the world with 1.68 million prisoners (Okonkwo et al., n.d.). Defunding rehabilitation in our penal systems strongly correlates with these increases in prison populations and recidivism. Twenty percent of released U.S prisoners commit a new violent offense within three years of their release (Yukhnenko et al., 2019). Contemporary discussion on the judicial system has been focused on how to keep people out of prison, but it is further necessary to de-emphasize the retribution model in favor of readopting rehabilitation as the model to address the major problems with our existing prison system.
Citations
Chennault, C., & Sbicca, J. (2022). Prison agriculture in the United States: racial capitalism and the disciplinary matrix of exploitation and rehabilitation. Agriculture and Human Values, 40(1), 175–191. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10460-022-10346-x
Cullen, F.T., & Gendreau, P. (1989). The effectiveness of correctional rehabilitation. In L. Goodstein & D.L. MacKenzie (Eds.), The American prison: Issues in research policy (pp 23-24). New York: Plenum.
Donovan, A. (2023, October 5). Notorious New-Gate Prison – Connecticut History | A CTHumanities project. Connecticut History | a CTHumanities Project – Stories about the people, traditions, innovations, and events that make up Connecticut’s rich history. Retrieved October 10, 2023, from https://connecticuthistory.org/notorious-new-gate-prison/
Dowden, C., & Andrews, D.A. (2000). Effective correctional treatment and violent re-offending: A meta-analysis. Canadian Journal of Criminology, 42 , 449-467.
Duxbury, S. W. (2023). Peculiar institution? The Legacy of Slavery and prison expansion in the United States, 1970–2015. Justice Quarterly, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1080/07418825.2023.2188073
Hollin, C.R. (2000). To treat of not to treat? A historical perspective. In C.R. Hollin (Ed.), Handbook of offender assessment and treatment (pp 3-15), Chichester, U.K.: Wiley.
Martinson, R. (1974, Spring). What Works?-Questions and Answers About Prison Reform. The Public Interest, 35, 22. https://ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu/login?url=https://www.proquest.com/magazines/what-works-questions-answers-about-prison-reform/docview/1298113963/se-2
Meskell, M. W. (1999). An American Resolution: The History of Prisons in the United States from 1777 to 1877. Stanford Law Review, 51(4), 839. https://doi.org/10.2307/1229442
Okonkwo, N. E., Aguwa, U. T., Jang, M., Barré, I., Page, K. R., Sullivan, P. S., Beyrer, C., & Baral, S. (n.d.). COVID-19 and the US response: accelerating health inequities. BMJ Evidence-based Medicine. https://doi.org/10.1136/bmjebm-2020-111426
Yukhnenko, D., Sridhar, S., & Fazel, S. (2019). A systematic review of criminal recidivism rates worldwide: 3-year update. Wellcome Open Research, 4, 28. https://doi.org/10.12688/wellcomeopenres.14970.2
Good morning! Thank you for your post. The shifts in philosophy experienced in the American prison system have had monumental and devastating consequences. Like you mentioned in your post, the system is now focused on punishment rather than rehabilitation. This has led to not only our epidemic of mass incarceration, but also our astronomical recidivism rate.
There are more than 2 million people incarcerated in America (The United States Department of Justice [DOJ], 2023). This is 20% more than the second-place nation, China, even though they have over four times our population (Benecchi, 2021). Our recidivism rates are the highest in the world, as well. Countries who have focused their criminal justice systems on reform and rehabilitation (like those found in Norway) have a recidivism rate between 20% and 30%, while the number in America hovers around 50% (Benecchi, 2021).
Restorative and rehabilitation-focused justice systems are the only way to reduce the recidivism rates in America. Unfortunately, like you mentioned, the American system is moving in the opposite direction. The ongoing privatization of our prisons brings profit into the mix, meaning that corporations are incentivized to keep people in prison and to ensure they return after they’re released (American Civil Liberties Union [ACLU], 2022). Empty prisons are good for humanity, but bad for shareholders in prison-running corporations. To see any true change in the recidivism and incarceration rates in our country, we must stop making a prisoner’s body into a profit creation machine and work to rehabilitate them so they can successfully rejoin society after their sentence.
References:
American Civil Liberties Union. (2022, February 15). Private prisons. ACLU. https://www.aclu.org/issues/smart-justice/mass-incarceration/private-prisons
Benecchi, L. (2021). Recidivism Imprisons American Progress. Harvard Political Review. https://harvardpolitics.com/recidivism-american-progress/
The United States Department of Justice. (2023). Recidivism and reentry. Bureau of Justice Statistics. https://bjs.ojp.gov/topics/recidivism-and-reentry