Prison Life History And Today

prison house house house domicile house Life History And Today prison sleep withs with pris oners from whole kinds of backgrounds. E very prisoner has various jobs and in that respect atomic number 18 a range of services on forwarder to help them while in prison to prep ar them for their evetual(prenominal) release. prison house is a place utilize for confinement of convicted criminals (Gaines, Miller, 2009). Aside from the destruction penalty, a sentence to prison is the harshest punishment imposed on criminals in the United States. On the federal take, imprisonment or incarceration is managed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, a federal agency within the subdivision of justice (Gaines, Miller, 2009). State prisons be supervised by a enunciate agency much(prenominal) as a department of corrections. Confinement in prison, too kn de be intimater as a penitentiary or punitory facility, is the punishment that courts to the highest degree comm b atomic number 18ly impose for serious crimes, such as felonies. For slighter crimes, courts ordinarily impose short consideration incarceration in a jail, detention center, or similar facility (Gaines, Miller, 2009).Prison passliness of the 1700s of an accuse was not as strict. There were windows that the prisoners could look through with(predicate) in order to solicit for charity from the people walking by, and both(prenominal) propagation prisoners would be includeed to sell things at the prison gates (Prison animation, 2011). Although there argon many another(prenominal) an new(prenominal)(prenominal) differences between the career of a prison in the 1700s and the life of a prisoner today, there are everywherely many similarities. Each acc employ individual was captured by the police and taken to the nearest holding prison cellular telephoneular telephone (Prison life, 2011). These cells were in prisons war cryed local prisons. The individual was then let free or convicte d of his or her crime. If convicted, the individual was taken to the closest common prison (Prison life, 2011).During the 1700s there were solitary(prenominal) local holding jails, common prisons, and houses of correction later, during the 1800s prisons became more than disordered and prisoners were assigned to the appropriate prison (Prison life, 2011). The convicted were not stripped of their belongings alike(p) in todays prisons, only if they were searched for weapons or objects that could be used to chip. Once inside, the prisoner was assigned a little(a)r cell do of hard ramparts, base of operationss cover in dirt and rodents, and a bed (Prison life, 2011). If the prisoner was lucky, this bed consisted of a small hammock tied to opposite walls, neertheless oftentimes times it was made of a wooden bench or the floor. For meals the prisoners were scarcely fed, but if they were, little rations of bread and pissing were disposed(p). Many times the prisoners died of starvation and aridity (Prison life, 2011).According to the Burlington County in New Jersey, in the 1800s when the prison was initially designed, for each one inpatient was to fuddle his or her possess cell with a fireside and a narrow, unglazed window placed above eye level (Prison life, 2011.)The rules of the jail directed that prisoners were to be bathed, deloused, and have their clothing fumigated, and that each cell should have a bible or prayer book to remedy the soul. Individual cells, planned for felons or criminals, were arranged in sets of tetrad, cleaning off a short planetary house at each end of the build (Prison life, 2011). These blocks of cells were to house separate groups, such as routine criminals, first offenders, or women. The bigger manners on the main hallways were to provide accommodation the debtors, imprison for owing money. These were common elbow rooms, whatsoevertimes holding three or four men at a time, although there are some records that paint a picture that up to 30 debtors were housed at one time in the jail(Prison life, 2011). During their day, debtors were to be allowed to move about the jail, operate oning at various cleaning chores or employed in the basement workshop (Prison life, 2011).Then the dungeon or uttermost- protective cover cell was in the center of the go on floor (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). That location was guardedly elect to hold open escape by digging, to minimize communication with criminals in the cell blocks, and to en certainly constant surveillance by guards making rounds. This was the only cell without a fireplace. It is flanked by niches for guards or visitors and has one very high, very small window and an iron ring in the center of the floor to which the prisoner could be chained (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008).Until 1888, the jail keeper and his married charr and family would live in devil rooms on the first floor of the jail. The Keepers wife was anticipated to supervise the fe young-be acquire(prenominal) inmates and the Keeper was to execute the rules of the jail as devised by the prison board, which was composed of members of the freeholders. The Keeper and his family lived in these quarters until the conterminous brick house, connected by a passageway, was constructed on the receding of Grant and high up Streets (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008).In keeping with the purpose designed into the structure, the basement level wrap workshops where prisoners were expected to learn a useful trade, such as how to trace brooms, baskets, or shingles (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). The notion didnt work, given the short time most inmates spent in the jail, and over time, the workshops became used as borderline security cells. Another, less supervised pastime of the inmates that endured through the ages was prisoner graffiti (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). depicting humor, despair, and a belated piety, several fine exercisings of this art have been ikon conserved and are on display throughout the building. The felons fertiliseing room, in gain in the basement, allowed delayled access to the forge yard with its twenty foot wall. Outside, prisoners could angle a small garden of fresh vegetables. In one corner of the yard, an area was set aside for the gallows, which were dismantled and stored between hangings (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008).Food, linens, cleaning supplies, and craftsmanship materials were stored in the basement near the kitchen, baking, and washing facilities. Once a day, the prisoners were to be served a main meal of meat and vegetables. The other two meals were usually cooked cereals or grains. They had milk and cider to drink, as well as water (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). One of the inmates was made chief cook, preparing all prison meals, and that inmate slept in a basement cell next to the kitchen. Large washtubs were provided for laundry and weak baths for the prisoners (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). Also the relatively few women who were imprisoned at the beginning of the nineteenth century were confined in separate quarters or travel of mens prisons (Sullivan, 2006). Like the men, women suffered from filthy conditions, overcrowding, and harsh treatment. In 1838 in the New York city Jail known as the tombs, for instance, there were forty two one person cells for s tied(p)ty women. In the 1920s at Auburn penitential in New York, there were no separate cells for the twenty tail fin or so women serving sentences up to fourteen years (Sullivan, 2006). They were all lodged together in a one room attic, the windows sealed to prevent communication with men. But women had to endure even more. Primary among these additional banish aspects was conjureual abuse, which was nameedly a common hailrence. In 1826 a woman named Rachel Welch became pregnant while serving in solitary confinement as a punishment and shortly after child abide she died as a result of flogging by a prison offi cial (Sullivan, 2006). much(prenominal) versed abuse was in fact so acceptable that the inch state prison actually ran a prostitution service for male guards, using female person prisoners (Sullivan, 2006). In addition, women received the short end of even the prison stick. Instead of spending the money to hire a matron, women were often left completely on their own, defenseless to attack by guards. Women had less access to the physician and cha bare and did not go to workshops, mess halls, or exercise yards as men did. Food was brought to their quarters, and they remained in that area for the full term of their sentence (Sullivan, 2006).As fearsome as the prison seemed, it was not escape proof. The walls were scaled and the roof penetrated many times in its history. The chosen routes to license seem to have been through the roof of the jail, and along the yard wall or the roof of the passageway to a place of descent. One notable escape occurred in 1875(Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2 008). Four inmates punched a hole through the chapiter of an upper corridor cell to gain access to the roof, went down the sloping presence wall and down around the woodpile beside the prison yard gate. A fifth accomplice was too large to fit through the hole and insisted at being left behind (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). Despite a quick response by the warden, it seems that at least some of these escapees were neer caught.In the Burlington County Jail, some criminals were fated to spend their last days on earth. State police mandated that criminals convicted of a capital crime were to be executed in the County in which they were found guilty, and Burlington County was no exception (Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008). Several public hangings were conducted in the prison yard on a gallows erected for each occasion. Originally designed to house approximately 40 prisoners, the Burlington County Prison held over 100 inmates when they were moved to a converted armory that formerly sto od behind the jail. Overcrowded conditions required yet another, larger prison which was erected in 1983(Johnson, Wolfe, Jones, 2008).The everyday life in Folsom State Prison back in 1880, prisoners were woken up by an early morning toll and were dressed and beds had to be made and stand in their cell verges with their nighttime buckets (Prison life, 2011). Once they were unlocked they marched down to the position of the building where there was a set of steel doors that were hinged to the floor (Prison life, 2011). When they filed out for the day, they would all dump their nights bollocks up from the bucket down a hole and then limestone would be thrown in the hole and water to flush the waste away. At dinner they would take to with them at so when the prisoner got locked up for the night again, they had their throne with them (Prison life, 2011).During that time the prisoner would eat beans for dinner which were place on nursing home and not utensils were used. You had to eat with your introduce down in the plate and no talking was ever allowed. If you were good prisoners could earn the right to eat turn beef and vegetables (Prison life, 2011). However if you were a con boss, which is somebody who is the boss of other prisoners, prisoner could then eat a variety of stewed meats and vegetables that were in season and use tin dishes and have utensils and talk during dinner(Prison life, 2011). Prisoners of Folsom State Prison generally worked seven and half hour days with no break. They accurate their work day by early afternoon and lights out was enforced by eight o clock with no exceptions (Prison life, 2011).Another example of past prison life was in the Andersonville prison during the late 1800s to consider with the horrible conditions within the stockade, prisoners turned to various activities (Prison life, 2011). They carved objects, sang songs, contend games such as checkers and cards, read any material they could get, and wrote earn a nd diaries. Letters home were censored by prison officials, and many never reached their destinations. Other prisoners, intent on escape, spent time digging tunnels (Prison life, 2011). Although there are no records of successful escapes via tunnels, some men did escape, mainly from work crews when outside the prison. The horrendous living conditions at Andersonville resulted in the deaths of thousands of prisoners (Prison life, 2011).Now despicable forward to current day prison life, In Arizona, the state prison system has four levels minimum, medium, unlikeable and supreme. As an inmate goes up in clasp level, the less freedom they are allowed. A minimum custody inmate typically lives in dorm style housing units and an open yard (Ranzau, 2009). Inmates would get woken up at 530 a.m. and they have free rein to walk the yard, go to chow on their own at the designated times and attend any classes and work assignments they have chosen until the yard locks down for the evening at 8 30 p.m (Ranzau, 2009). A closed custody inmate lives in a two-man cell with controlled front. Controlled movement means that officers escort the inmates anytime they devote their housing unit (Ranzau, 2009). A closed custody unit usually has a cluster of cells in a building with one control room called a pod. The control room uses a computer to access the doors to the cells though keys can be used to open cells in case of a power outage (Ranzau, 2009). This particular closed custody unit is provideed with one officer in the control room and one floor officer in charge of two pods of inmates (Ranzau, 2009). The inmates are escorted by an officer everywhere they go, either individually or as a group. They are escorted as a group to the chow hall for their meals and to the refreshment field for their exercise (Ranzau, 2009).Medium custody inmates also live in a dorm style setting similar to minimum custody inmates. Medium custody inmates have some controlled movement but are not escorted by officers (Ranzau, 2009). The control room officer, only allow out certain segments of their dorm at a time to eat or go to recreation, controls the movement. There are officers on the yard to hazard sure the inmates get to where they are supposed to go (Ranzau, 2009). A maximum custody unit is strictly controlled. The inmates are only allowed to leave their cell one hour a day to go to a recreation pen. These inmates are fed in their cells through food traps in the door (Ranzau, 2009). These inmates are usually considered the worst type of inmate or they whitethorn need protection from the general population for information they have given staff or for something they did on the yard (Ranzau, 2009). One would think prison life everywhere would run as smoothly as this, but no.Currently at Pelican request State Prison in northern California there are more than 1,200 inmates, its one of the largest and oldest closing off units in the coun guess, and its the model that doz ens of other states have followed. It is a maximum security prison. Although all the inmates are in isolation, theres lots of noise such as keys rattling, toilets flushing, and inmates shouting out to each other from one cell to the next(Sullivan, 2006). Twice a day, officers push plastic food trays through the small portals in the admixture doors. It is said they only contact that you have with individuals is what they call a pinky shake, which is when you stick your pinky through one of the little holes in the door. The hallways shoot out like spokes on a wheel(Sullivan, 2006).In the center, high off the floor, an officer sits at a panel of gloomy and red buttons controlling the doors. The officer in the booth can go an entire shift without actually seeing an inmate face to face (Sullivan, 2006). Far below, an inmate walks a few feet from his cell, through a metal door at the end of the hallway, and out into the yard. The exercise yards at Pelican Bay are about the length of two small cars. The cement walls are 20 feet high. On top is a metal grate and through the grate is a patch of sky (Sullivan, 2006). According to Sullivan, Associate Warden Williams says they dont allow inmates to have any kind of exercise equipment. Most of the time, they do push-ups. rough of them just walk back and forth for exercise. (Sullivan, 2006).It is just basically to amount out, stretch their legs and get some fresh air. Each month, officers squeeze soap, shampoo and toothpaste into paper cups for the inmates (Sullivan, 2006). Even though are edit outd a jumpsuit, in two days at the facility, there doesnt seem to be a bingle prisoner wearing one. All of them are wearing their underwear, white bagger shorts, t-shirts and flip-flops (Sullivan, 2006). In the psychiatric at Pelican Bay, some inmates stand in the middle of their cell, hollering at no one in particular. Anothers bang their period against the cell door. Many of the inmates are naked, some exposing themselves. Obviously prison life can play a massive toll the mentality. One in 10 inmates in segregation was housed there. Theres even a waiting identify (Sullivan, 2006).Recently in Georgia the horrible treatment and conditions of the prison made headlines. Finally fed up with bad food, unjust treatment, poor statement and inadequate health care, thousands of inmates in Georgias prison system staged Lockdown for Liberty, which was a peaceful protest on Dec. 9, 2010. According to Charlene Muhammad, a national corresponding for the Final Call newspaper all of the Black, White, and Latino inmates from Augusta, Baldwin, Hancock, Hays, Macon, Smith, and Telfair State Prisons refused to leave their cells for work and other activities, partly because they feel the Georgia Department of department of corrections treats them like slaves(Muhammad, 2010).Ironically in a 2006 report, Human Rights Watch characterized conditions in Georgia prisons as appalling. Many inmates were vulnerable to degrading treatment collect to overcrowding and unsanitary facilities, the report added (Muhammad, 2010). More recently, the State Departments 2008 human rights country report for Georgia noted that the countrys prisons and pre trial detention centers failed to meet international standards. It also expressed concern about Georgian Justice Ministry data that showed 94 inmates died while in custody in 2008(Muhammad, 2010). Overcrowding is a huge issue also. Today, there are approximately 20,000 prisoners in Georgia, a 300-percent increase over the past five years, concord to a 2009 PRI report (Muhammad, 2010).Georgias prisons are some of the worst in the U.S. Cells are overcrowded, packing prisoners into confined spaces like sardines (Muhammad, 2010). Prisoners are forced to work, doing the maintenance and servicing of the prison for little or no pay. The guards are corrupt and violent, instigating fights between prisoners for their amusement (Muhammad, 2010). Prisoners are forced to pay out rageous costs for the most minimal health care. On top of that most prisoners are denied access to programs for education beyond obtaining a GED. boilersuit Georgia spends $10,000 less per year per prisoner than the national average. The lack of musical accompaniment shows in how prisoners are treated. (Muhammad, 2010).Every day prison life for women differs from daily prison life for men. Unlike male inmates, women in general do not present an direct, violent physical danger to staff members and cub inmates. In fact, hardly any female prisons report any major instances of violence (Saxena, 2008). Violence is more often than not concentrated only in male prisons. In addition, female prisons do not feign the anti authority inmate social code oftentimes open up in male prisons (Saxena, 2008). In male prisons, life in prison is normally governed by mandates set forth by gang leaders. This includes no snitching, not cooperating with authorities, and attacking disloyal members. Gang activity is greatly minify in female prisons (Saxena, 2008).Furthermore, the little bit of gang activity that does occur in female prisons doesnt end up affecting the whole theme like in a male prison (Saxena, 2008). However, being restricted does cause a lot of sever anxiety and anger for many women, especially since they are separated from their families and loved ones (Gaines, Miller, 2009). Sometimes, women are in prison while pregnant and are oftentimes forced to give birth in the prison. Afterwards, their child is either instantly removed, or permitted to stay with the go for a short period of time (Gaines, Miller, 2009). Woman can also partake in conjugal visits, but this will not draw and quarter up for all the lost time.Women in prison also carry on with their problems differently. Unlike men, who direct their anger outward, female prisoners tend to revert to more self destructive acts in order to fill out with the situation. In fact, female inmates are much more likely than male prisoners to mutilate their own bodies and attempt suicide (Saxena, 2008). These activities include simple scratches, carving the name of their clotheshorse on their body, and cutting their wrists. Wrist cutting is actually a huge concern amongst prison officials (Saxena, 2008). Blood released from wrist cutting can distribute to others and drastically increase inmates and staff members risk of contracting an STD like support or hepatitis (Saxena, 2008).Another method utilized by female prisons for adapting to prison life is the falsehood of a make believe family (Gaines, Miller, 2009). These groups normally mince masculine and feminine figures that act as fathers, mothers, brothers, and sisters. Unceremonious marriages and divorces may even be performed (Gaines, Miller, 2009). Sometimes, an inmate may hold multiple roles. For example a woman can play a sister in one family and a wife in another. Oftentimes, gay women play the male roles (Gaines, Miller, 2009 ). Although an utmost(a) difference in prison life exists between men and women, the spite and frustration still remain the same (Gaines, Miller, 2009). What can be said, though, is that women deal with the situation differently than men.In a study conducted by degree Fleisher in 2006, according to Heidi Cool, Fleishers research was the first cultural study ever conducted on prison rape in U.S. prisons. This study includes research that he has done over the past twenty years on prison purification. Between 2003 and 2005, Fleisher composed information about prison life rapes by interviewing 564 inmates in mens high security and womens medium and high security prisons in the United States (Cool, 2006). The controlled interviews, with open ended questions, lasted between 90 minutes to, in numerous cases, six to seven hours and generated a widespread compilation of prison slang involving sex activity and rape and national cultural themes about prison rape shared by inmates acros s the country.Fleisher figured out that prison inmate life is a culture that is determined by a need for social order and the behavioral rules of prison sexual culture is drastically different from sexual conduct rules for outside of prison (Cool, 2006). The problem of consent is complicated on so many levels but in the end, consensual sex as we know it doesnt have an equivalent kernel in prison inmate culture, he states horrible images of unsafe prisons and widespread rape. The culture of prison sexuality, as well as ideas on rape, are not simply community depressions transported inside prisons, rather they are different beliefs and create a different social reality (Cool, 2006). There is no equivalent in inmate sexual culture thats equal to our detection of rape.Once a person enters and begins their prison life, they start reexamine their virtuoso of sexuality men and women who may have never before in use(p) in same sex relations will probably try it at some point during the ir sentence (Cool, 2006). Majority of same sex relations are voluntary, which means they dont have to do anything they dont want to do (Cool, 2006). However not all same sex relations are essentially deemed by inmates as homosexual relationships in the prison culture. Theres a broad range of same sex behavior but inmate culture views several acts as homosexual while other related acts are considered straight (Cool, 2006). The only true freedom they have in prison life is their sexual freedom. Another finding that surprised Fleisher according to Cool, was that in the worldview of both men and women inmates, there is a strong belief that men and women have a homosexual identity at their essence and that having same sex relations in prison help them make love to terms with this emerging sexuality(Cool, 2006). As for lesbian experience for women, studies have naturalized that even experienced inmates come across heterosexual women with husbands and children, begin same sex relations within days and weeks of their arrival but upon released growth to heterosexual behavior (Cool, 2006). Both men and women inmates put in plain words that same sex relations among those different with it as rarity (Cool, 2006).Within prison life, inmate society interprets mens slow but sure involvement in same sex behavior as getting in touch with their feminine tendencies (Cool, 2006). Inmates say that the bulk of them dont have sexual affairs but eventually an inner homosexual prevails in the life of a prisoner (Cool, 2006).Furthermore, it is very infrequent for the women to be raped or obligated into sex by male or female staff nevertheless personal relationships can develop between sexual relations. hope it or not female inmates state they do not recruit in having sex with male or female staff members unless it benefits them in some material way (Cool, 2006). Some of the benefits may include delivery them perfume or cigarettes or giving them money, which can be used for food , soap or stamps (Cool, 2006). Within Fleishers report, women prisoners say they will not deal with unnecessary sex among them and staff, although they have been notorious to use allegations of unwanted sex to acquire a transfer or to get revenge in a against a staff member (Cool, 2006). Evidence informs us that currently over 300,000 instances of prison rape occur in a year. 196,000 are projected to happen to men in prison in addition to 123,000 are estimated to happen to the men in county jail. (Cool, 2006).Obviously life in prison has evolved for the better but yet seems to get worse for todays times. It maintains that survival of the fittest mentality and almost an updated caveman reality. Prison life will never get better unless we get over crowding under control and get better standards as to how they are ran.