Institutional Corrections Reviewer 2
CORRECTION - it is a branch of the Criminal Justice System concerned with the custody, supervision, and rehabilitation of criminal offenders. It is that field of criminal justice administration which utilizes the body of knowledge and practices of the government and society in general involving the process of handling individuals who have been convicted of offenses for purposes of crime management and administration as well as the rehabilitation and reformation of criminals.
It is a generic term that includes all the government agencies, facilities, programs, procedures, personnel, and techniques concerned with the investigation, intake, custody, confinement, supervision, or treatment of alleged offenders.
Correction as a Process: Refers to the reorientation of the criminal offender to prevent him or her from repeating his deviant or delinquent actions without the necessity of taking punitive actions but rather the introduction of individual measures of reformation.
CORRECTIONAL ADMINISTRATION - it refers to the study and practice of a systematic management of jails or prisons and other institutions concerned with the custody, treatment and rehabilitation of criminal offenders.
PENOLOGY - the study of punishment for a crime or criminal offenders. It includes the study of control and prevention of crime through punishment of criminal offenders. The term is derived from the Latin word “POENA” which means pain or suffering. Penology is otherwise known as Penal science. It is actually a division of criminology that deals with prison management and the treatment of offenders and concerned itself with the philosophy and practice of the society in its effort to repress criminal activities.
Principal Aims of Penology:
1. To bring light in the ethical barriers of punishment, along with the motives and purposes of society inflicting it.
2. To make comparative study of penal laws and procedures through history between nations.
3. To evaluate the social consequences of the policies enforced at a given time
PENAL MANAGEMENT - refers to the manner or practice of managing or controlling phases of confinement as in jails or prison.
HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON CORRECTION
PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF PENOLOGY
1. Classical School – the doctrine of psychological hedonism or freewill.
2. Neo-Classical School – children and lunatics must be free from punishment.
3. Positivist/Italian School – denied individual responsibility and reflected on positive reactions to crime and criminality.
PUNISHMENT AND THE CRIMINAL
PUNISHMENT is the redress that the state takes against an offending member of society that usually involves pain and suffering. It is also the penalty imposed on an offender for a crime or wrongdoing.
ANCIENT FORMS OF PUNISHMENT
1. DEATH PENALTY – affected by burning, stoning, crucifixion, electrocution, gas chamber, beheading, and hanging, breaking at the wheels, pillory and other forms of medieval executions.
2. PHYSICAL TORTURE – affected by maiming, mutilation, whipping and other inhumane or barbaric forms of inflicting pain.
3. SOCIAL DEGRADATION – putting the offender into shame or humiliation.
4. BANISHMENT OR EXILE – the sending or putting away of an offender which was carried out either by prohibition against coming into a specified territory such as an island to where the offender has been removed.
5. Other similar forms of punishment like transportation and slavery.
METHOD USED IN PUNISHMENT
1. Gag - to put something (such as a piece of cloth) into or over a person's mouth in order to prevent that person from speaking, calling for help, etc.
- used to shame and constrain “scold” who openly, habitually and abusively found fault, unjust, criticized, or lied about others.
2. Bridle - it is an iron cage that fit over the head and had a front plate that was sharpened or covered with spikes designed to fit into the mouth of the offender making movement of the tongue very painful.
3. Ducking Stool – it has been used as a punishment as early as the 11th century. Those sentenced to be “ducked” were placed on a chair and suspended over a body of water and plunged into it.
4. Stocks - used as outside jails to punish the idle prior to the construction of houses of correction in England.
5. Pillories - dates back to the pre-Christian era. In England, they were commonly employed during the Tudor period, but their peak use was during the 17th century.
6. Branding - for offenders to be identified and stigmatized. It was employed for making offenders, slaves and prisoners of war recognizable.
7. Whipping/Flogging/Scourging - it is one of the oldest, most widely means of corporal punishment, dating back to ancient Egyptian times.
8. Russian Knot - the most formidable punisher ever devised This instrument was a wooden-handled whip that typically consisted of several rawhide thongs twisted together, terminating in a single strand that projected about 18 inches beyond the body of the knot. The strands sometimes had hooks or rings attached to the ends.
METHODS OF INFLICTING THE DEATH PENALTY
1. BEHEADING - is a method of capital punishment whereby a criminal’s head is sliced apart from the body, utilizing an axe or sword.
2. BLOOD ATONEMENT - A Religious belief utilized in capital punishment in which a convict’s blood must be shed during execution to “atone” before Christ for his sins. 3. BOILING TO DEATH - A Little-used method of capital punishment, utilized mainly to stun the victims before they were hanged on the gallows. The first use of this technique may have come soon after 1531, when it was made legal by King Henry VIII of England.
4. BREAKING ON THE WHEEL – A method of capital punishment marked by torzurous and agony-filled suffering on a wooden wheel while the condemned is stretched and has his or her limbs broken (by the executioner) with a metal rod or pole.
5. BURNING AT THE STAKE - A method of capital punishment in which the condemned is tied to a wooden stake, surrounded by flammable material (usually faggots or sticks of wood) assembled into a pyre, which is then lit a fire and allowed to burn until the victim is consumed.
6. CRUCIFIXION - Utilized in biblical times as a mode of torture and capital punishment, the act of crucifixion (“to crucify”) started mainly with the Roman system of justice. Rome used it from the beginning of the republic until the fourth century, though Roman citizens were exempt from the punishment by law.
7. DRAWING AND QUARTERING - A method of punishment, perhaps one of the most brutal, in which a prisoner was hanged until near death, torn down from the gallows, had his four limbs tied to two or four hours, and was then pulled apart as the horses ran off in different directions. Another part of the ritual was disembowelment. After he was hanged, while still alive, the culprit was dragged from the gallows, laid down on the ground, and his entrails were ripped from his body. Sometimes his genitals were also chopped off. Still alive after all this, the culprit was shown his entrails, before they were thrown on a fire and burned.
8. ELECTRIC CHAIR - A method of execution adopted in the United States in the last decade of the nineteenth century and used strictly in that nation.
9. GARROTE - A method of execution utilized almost exclusively in Austria as well as Spain before the latter nation abolished capital punishment in 1996. Many of the victims of the Spanish Inquisition suffered either the garrote or burning at the stake.
10. GAS CHAMBER - it is currently being phased out as “cruel and inhuman punishment.” After World War I, many people, disgusted with the brutality of electrocutions and hanging, sought a better, more efficient method of executing prisoners .
11. GIBBET - A method of displaying a condemned murderer’s body after execution, utilizing a steel cage usually hung near the place of execution. Halifax Gibbet. A method of execution, called the English guillotine; it operated on the same principle as the French model, with a larger base and pin instead of pulley to release the large blade.
12. HANGING - A method of execution in which the condemned is hanged by the neck with a rope or other cord from a gallows or, in the case of lynching, from a tree of lamppost. Hanging has always been considered a lowly form of punishment, a death reserved for cowards.
13. LETHAL INJECTION - After a prisoner is strapped down in a gurney, he is wheeled into the death chamber, in some cases the compartment where the electric chair or the gas chamber used to be situated. After the execution order is read, an intravenous needle is inserted into a vein, preferably in the arm, but if necessary- as often is the case with former drug users-in other veins. The tube connected to the needle is hooked up to a small machine containing three vials of solution. These chemicals are sodium pentothal (the trade name for thiopental), a barbiturate that renders the condemned unconscious; pancuronium bromide (brand name:Pavulon), which induces neuro-muscular paralysis; and potassium chloride (chemical name: KCI), which, in the prescribed dose, that stops the heart muscle. To ease the injection of the chemicals, a solution of sodium chloride, ordinary saline solution, is introduced.
14. MAZZATELLO - a method of capital punishment, utilized to a small degree in Italy during the era of the Papal States, which lasted from 756 to 1870 C.E. Crime historian Jay Robert Nash reports that the name of the process comes from the Italian word for the mallet, or poleax, used in the punishment.
15. STONING TO DEATH - a method of capital punishment, where a victim was chosen trapped in a corner, and pelted with heavy rocks and stones until his or her skull was crushed. This punishment was specified in the Mosaic Code, the laws of the Jews promulgated in the name of Moses.
EARLY FORMS OF PRISON DISCIPLINE
1. Hard Labor – productive works
2. Deprivation – deprivation of everything except the essentials of existence.
3. Monotony – giving the same food that is “off” diet, or requiring the prisoners to perform drab or boring daily routine.
4. Uniformity – “we treat the prisoner alike”, “the fault of one is the fault off all”.
5. Mass Movement – mass giving in cellblocks, mass eating, mass recreation, mass bathing.
6. Degradation – uttering insulting words or prisoners to degrade or break the confidence of prisoners.
7. Corporal Punishment – imposing brutal punishment or employing physical force to intimidate a delinquent inmate.
8. Isolation or Solitary Confinement – non-communication, limited news, “the lone wolf”
CONTEMPORARY FORMS OF PUNISHMENT
1. IMPRISONMENT - putting the offender in prison for the purpose of protecting the public against criminal activities and at the same time rehabilitating the prisoners by requiring them to undergo institutional treatment programs.
2. PAROLE - a conditional release of a prisoner after serving part of his/her sentence in prison for the purpose of gradually re-introducing him/her to free life under the guidance and supervision of a parole officer.
3. PROBATION -a disposition whereby a defendant after conviction of an offence, the penalty of which does not exceed six years imprisonment, is released subject to the conditions imposed by the releasing court and under the supervision of a probation officer.
4. FINE - an amount given as a compensation for a criminal act.
5. DESTIERRO - the penalty of banishing a person from the place where he committed a crime, prohibiting him to get near or enter the 25-kilometer perimeter.
JUSTIFICATION OF PUNISHMENT
1. RETRIBUTION – the punishment should be provided by the state whose sanction is violated, to afford the society of the individual the opportunity of imposing upon the offender suitable punishment as might be enforced. Offenders should be punished because they deserved it. - (Just Deserts) defined as “deserved punishment for evil done,” is a relatively primitive reaction. It is not difficult to understand why this justification for the use of punishment (just deserts) has received a high level of public support throughout history.
Some of the religious and philosophical justification used to support retribution follows:
1. It fulfills a religious mission through retaliation. There are biblical sanctions for the punishment of transgressors, so society is doing God’s work by carrying out His punishment.
2. It removes the tension in society caused by the criminal act, creating harmony through retaliation.
3. It washes the guilt of the criminal away through suffering and express society’s disapproval of the behavior.
4. It makes victims whole again by making the offender suffer as they did.
Distinctions between Just Deserts and Retribution
Just Deserts can be viewed as the modern reformulation of the retributive views. Its primary emphasis is on what offenders fairly merit for their crimes. Its central organizing principle is proportionality–the severity of the penalty should be proportional to the gravity of the offense.
2. EXPIATION OR ATONEMENT - it is punishment in the form of group vengeance where the purpose is to appease the offended public or group.
3. DETERRENCE – punishment gives lesson to the offender by showing to others what would happen to them if they violate the law. Punishment is imposed to warn potential offenders that they can not afford to do what the offender has done.
Types of Deterrence
a. Specific Deterrence - occurs when offenders do not recidivate because they do not want to face further sanctions.
b. General Deterrence - occurs when other potential offenders do not engage in criminal activity because they want to avoid penalties that others have received.
4. INCAPACITATION AND PROTECTION – the public will be protected if the offender has being held in conditions where he cannot harm others especially the public. Punishment is effected by placing offenders in prison so that society will be ensured from further criminal depredations of criminals.
Incapacitation strategies have taken the three approaches;
a. Collective incapacitation – all individuals convicted of a certain offense (e.g., robbery) receive the same sentence (e.g., 5 years).
b. Selective incapacitation – base sentences on predictions that certain offenders will commit serious offenses at higher rates than others convicted of the same types of crimes. These predictions are based primarily on the offender’s prior record, age, and juvenile and adult drug use.
c. Criminal career incapacitation – involves the identification of classes of criminals who typically have active high rates of crime.
5. REFORMATION OR REHABILITATION – it is the establishment of the usefulness and responsibility of the offender. Society’s interest can be better served by helping the prisoner to law abiding citizen and productive upon his return to the community by requiring him to undergo intensive programs of rehabilitation in prison.
What is PENALTY?
PENALTY is defined as the suffering inflicted by the state against an offending member for the transgression of law.
JURIDICAL CONDITIONS OF PENALTY
Punishment must be:
1. Productive of suffering – without however affecting the integrity of the human personality.
2. Commensurate with the offense – different crimes must be punished with different penalties (Art. 25, RPC).
3. Personal – the guilty one must be the one to be punished, no proxy.
4. Legal – the consequence must be in accordance with the law.
5. Equal – equal for all persons.
6. Certain – no one must escape its effects.
7. Correctional – changes the attitude of offenders and become law-abiding citizens.
PENALTIES AS TO GRAVITY
1. Death Penalty – Capital punishment
2. Reclusion Perpetua – life imprisonment, a term of 20-40 yrs imprisonment
3. Reclusion Temporal – 12 yrs and 1 day to 20 years imprisonment
4. Prison Mayor – 6yrs and 1 day to 12 years
5. Prison Correctional – 6 months and 1 day to 6 years
6. Arresto Mayor – 1 month and 1 day to 6 months
7. Arresto Menor – 1 day to 30 days
8. Bond to Keep the Peace – discretionary on the part of the court.
THE EARLY CODES
History has shown that there are three main legal system in the world, which have been extended to and adopted by all countries aside from those that produced them. In their chronological order, they are the Roman, the Mohammedans or Arabic and the Anglo-American Laws. Among the three, it was Roman law that has the most lasting and most pervading influence.
The Roman private law (which include Criminal Law), especially has offered the most adequate basic concepts which sharply define, in concise and inconsistent terminology, mature rules and a complete system, logical and firm, tempered with a high sense of equity.
BABYLONIAN AND SUMERIAN CODES
1. Code of King Hammurabi (Hammurabic Code) (also known as the Codex Hammurabi and Hammurabi's Code),
- credited as the oldest code prescribing savage punishment, but in fact, Sumerian codes were nearly one hundred years older.
- created ca. 1780 B.C.E., is one of the earliest sets of laws found and one of the best preserved examples of this type of document from ancient Mesopotamia.
- The code is a collection of the legal decisions made by Hammurabi during his reign as king of Babylon, inscribed on a stele, a large stone monument, and placed in a public place so that all could see it
- is best known for the promulgation of a new code of Babylonian law: the Code of Hammurabi.
- This Law was written before the Mosaic Code and was one of the first written laws in the world. The code of Hammurabi contained 282 laws, written by scribes on 12 tablets.
ROMAN AND GREEK CODES
2. Justinian code is a compilation of imperial constitutions made by a commission consisting of ten persons. The commission was appointed by Justinian and Tribonian was the head of the commission. The code was published in A.D. 529. The commission carried out the project in February A.D. 528 through April 529. Justinian Code replaced all prior imperial law, but was in force only until A.D. 534. The code was replaced by the Codex Repetitae Praelectionis. In modern writings, the A.D. 534 version is the work referred to as the Justinian Code. The Justinian code is also called as Code of Justinian, Codex Justinianus, Codex Vetus (“Old Code”), and Codex Iustinianus Repetitae Praelectionis.
3. The Twelve Tables (XII Tabulae), (451-450 BC) – represented the earliest codification of Roman law incorporated into the Justinian Code. It is the foundation of all public and private law of the Romans until the time of Justinian. It is also a collection of legal principles engraved on metal tablets and set up on the forum.
4. Greek Code of Draco – In Greece, the Code of Draco, a harsh code that provides the same punishment for both citizens and the slaves as it incorporates primitive concepts (Vengeance, Blood Feuds). The Greeks were the first society to allow any citizen to prosecute the offender in the name of the injured party.
5. The Burgundian Code (500 A.D) The code which specified punishment according to the social class of the offenders, dividing them into: nobles, middle class and lower class and specifying the value of the life of each person according to social status.
SIGNIFICANT DATES IN CORRECTION
1. THE SECULAR LAWS 4th A.D – Secular Laws were advocated by Christian Philosophers who recognizes the need for justice. Some of the proponents these laws were St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas. During this period, three laws were distinguished: External Law (Lex External), Natural Law (Lex Naturalis), and Human Law (Lex Humana). All these laws are intended for the common good, but the Human law only becomes valid if it does not conflict with the other two laws.
2. 5TH & 11TH CENTURY - Century of Darkness - corporal punishment are the mode of punishment
3. 13th Century – Securing Sanctuary In the 13th C, a criminal could avoid punishment by claiming refugee in a church for a period of 40 days at the end of which time he has compelled to leave the realm by a road or path assigned to him. In England at about 1468, torture as a form of punishment become prevalent.
4. 16TH CENTURY Transportation of criminals in England was authorized during the 16th century. At the end of the century, Russia and other European Countries followed this system. It partially relieved overcrowding of prisons. Transportation was abandoned in 1835.
5. 17TH C TO LATE 18TH CENTURY
Death Penalty became prevalent as a form of punishment.
GAOLS (Jails) were common. These are pre-trial detention facilities operated by the English Sheriff.
GALLEYS were also used. These are long, low, narrow, single-decked ships propelled by sails, usually rowed by criminals, a type of ship used for transportation of criminals in the 16th century.
HULKS - decrepit transport, former warship used to house prisoners in the 18th and 19th century. These were abandoned warships converted into prisons as means of relieving congestion of prisoners. They were also called “floating hells”.
6. THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT - The 18th Century is a century of change. It is the period of recognizing human dignity. It is the movement of reformation, the period of introduction of certain reforms in the correctional field by certain persons, gradually changing the old positive philosophy of punishment to a more humane treatment of prisoners with innovation programs.
THE EARLY PRISONS
1. MAMERTINE PRISON
- the only early Roman place of confinement, which is built under the main sewer of Rome in 64 B.C
- The Prison was constructed around 640-616 BC, by Ancus Marcius.
2. BRIDEWELL WORKHOUSE (1553-1700)
- The most popular workhouse in London which was built for the employment and housing of English prisoners.
- London’s Bridewell Prison was the location of many “firsts” in penology. For the first time in world history, imprisonment at hard labor was substituted for corporal or capital punishment, which is the very definition of a penitentiary.
- Bridewell, n. A house of correction for the confinement of disorderly persons; so called from a hospital built in 1553 near St. Bride s (or Bridget s) well, in London, which was subsequently a penal workhouse.
3. WALNUT STREET JAIL
- was originally constructed as a detention jail in Philadelphia was converted into a state prison and became the first American Penitentiary.
- the first prison built in the United States to use individual cells and work details.
- It was located on Walnut Street, where it acquired the name Walnut Street Jail.
- It was designed by Robert Smith. He was one of the most prominent architects in Philadelphia.
- The prison was overcrowded and dirty, and inmates attacked each other regularly.
4. THE NEW GATE PRISON
- Although known as the new gate prison, it was not a real prison but an abandoned cooper mine located at Simsbury Connecticut, the inmates were confined underground, and were considered A BLACK HOLE OF HORRORS, which really belong to barbaric past.
- The first juvenile reformatory was the New York house of refuge, which was opened in January 1825.
- The first U.S. prison exclusively for women is known as the MOUNT PLEASANT FEMALE PRISON, was established in 1837 in Ossining, New York.
5. BOOT CAMPS/ SHOCK INCARCERATION
- a short term correctional programs resembling some aspects of military basic training. Serves as an alternative to long term traditional incarceration. Its targets younger offenders who resist authority and refuse to listen or learn in traditional classroom or treatment environments. The usual length of incarceration in boot camps ranges three to six months.
- The GEORGIA DEPARTMENT OF CORRECTIONS officially established the first boot camp in 1983.
THE PIONEERS OF CORRECTIONAL REFORM
1. WILLIAM PENN (1614-1718) - William Penn fought for religious freedom and individual rights. He is the first leader to prescribe imprisonment as correctional treatment or major offenders. He is responsible for the abolition of death penalty and torture as a form of punishment.
2. ISAAC NEWTON - He published a book “PRINCIPIA” (1687), he encouraged intellectuals to investigate social phenomena scientifically and methodically.
3. JOHN LOCKE - he wrote an essay concerning human understanding.
4. CHARLES MONTESIQUIEU (Charles Louis Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesiquieu) (1689-1755) - Charles Montesiquieu was a French historian and philosopher who analyzed law as an expression of justice.
- He believes that harsh punishment would undermine morality and that appealing to morals sentiments as a better means of preventing crime.
5. VOLTAIRE (Francois Marie Arouet) (1694-1778)
- He was the most versatile of all philosophers during this period. He believes that fear of shame was a deterrent to crime.
- He fought the legality-sanctioned practice of torture.
6. CESARE BONESA, MARCHESE DE BECCARIA (1738-1794) - He wrote an essay entitled “An Essay on Crimes and Punishment”, the most exciting essay on law during this century. It presented the humanistic goal of law.
7. JEREMY BENTHAM (1748-1832) - He was one of the greatest of leaders in the reform of English criminal law. He believe that whatever punishment designed to negate what ever pleasure of gain the criminal derives from crime; the crime would go down. Bentham was the one who devise the ultimate PANOPTICAN PRISON – a prison that consist of the large circular building containing multi cells around the periphery. It was never built.
8. JOHN HOWARD (1726-1790) - He was sheriff of Bedsfordshire in 1773, who devote his life and fortune prison reform. After his finding on English Prisons, he recommended the following: single cells for sleeping, segregation of women, segregation of youth, provision of sanitation facilities, and abolition of fee system by which jailers obtained money from prisoners.
9. ALEXANDER MACANOCHIE - He is the Superintendent of the penal colony at Norfolk Island in Australia (1840)
- Introduced the “Mark System”. A system in which a prisoner is required to earn a number of marks based on proper department, labor and study in order to entitle him for a ticket for leave or conditional release which is similar to parole.
10. MANUEL MONTESIMOS - the Director of prisons in Valencia Spain (1835) who divided the number of prisoners into companies and appointed certain prisoners as petty officers in charge, which allowed good behaviour to prepare the convict for gradual release.
11. DOMETS OF FRANCE - established an agricultural colony for delinquent boys in 1839 providing housefathers as in charge of these boys.
12. SIR EVELYN RUGGLES BRISE - The Director of the English prison who opened the Borstal Institution for young offenders.
- The Borstal Institution is considered as the best reform institute for young offenders today.
13. WALTER CROFTON - He is the Director of the Irish Prison in 1854 who introduced the irish system that was modified from the Mocanochie’s mark system.
14. ZEBULON BROCKWAY - The Director of the Elmira Reformatory in New York (1876) who introduced certain innovational programs like the following: training school type, compulsory education of prisoners, casework methods, extensive use of parole, indeterminate sentence. The Elmira Reformatory is considered forerunner of modern penology because it had the all elements of a modern system.
15. JAMES V. BENNETT - he is the Director of Federal Bureau of Prisons who wrote about the closing of the Alcatraz Prison.
16. JEAN JACQUES VILLAIN - he pioneered the classification to separate women and children from hardened criminals.
OTHER PERSONALITIES
1. LOUIS DWIGHT (1793-1854) - Organized the prison discipline Society of Boston. He was the most vocal advocate of the Auburn system, and a director of the prison discipline society of Boston from 1825-1854, was the best source of information about the era of American prisoners.
2. SANFORD BATES (1884-1972)
- A legendary figure in American corrections. He became the first superintendent of the Federal prisons in 1929. The first director of the U.S. Bureau of Prisons in 1930.
- He is widely considered the FATHER OF MODERN PENOLOGY
3. ROBERT STROUD (1890-1963) - The birdman of Alcatraz.
- Most famous inmate in the Federal prison at Alcatraz
- Killed guard in front of 1100 inmates
- He served fifty four years in prison, forty of them in Solitary confinement.
4. MARY BELLE HARRIS - She was the first superintendent for the new women’s federal prison at Alderson, west Virginia.
TERMS TO PONDER
1. QUAKERS - Are religious group which has a strong pacifist and nonviolent ideology as a part of their faith. The best known quaker in America were William Penn and Richard M. Nixon.
2. JAILHOUSE LAWYER - Inmates claiming to have some legal knowledge who counsel and assist other inmates in preparation of legal document.
THE TWO RIVAL PRISON SYSTEM IN THE HISTORY OF CORRECTION
1. THE AUBURN PRISON SYSTEM - The prison system called the “Congregate System”.
Congregate System - Provided for prisoner confinement in separate cells but brought the inmates together into congregate workshops
- The prisoners are confined in their own cells during the night and congregate work in shops during the day.
- Complete silence was enforced.
2. THE PENNSYLVANIA PRISON SYSTEM - The prison system called “Solitary System”.
- Prisoners are confined in single cells day and night where they lived, they slept, and they ate and receive religious instructors.
- Complete Silence was also enforced.
- They are required to read the Bible.
Emphasized religion and penitence; sometimes referred to as the separate system.
Considered as the forerunner of modern penology located in Elmira, New York, 1976. It features a training school type of institutional program, social case work and extensive use of parole.
It had all the elements of modern correctional system among which were a training school type, education and extensive use of parole based on the indeterminate sentence.
Elmira Incorporated individualized treatment using a mark system, education, indeterminate sentence and vocational training. The reformatory was seen as not only a new model to rehabilitate young adults but also as a means to segregate them from hardened criminals and simultaneously lessen the problems of overcrowding.
This institution was considered innovative in its use of “good time” credits to increase inmate compliance and productivity, thereby decreasing the length of time served in prison.
HISTORICAL SETTING OF CORRECTION IN THE PHILIPPINES
The Philippines is one of the many countries that came under the influence of the Roman law. History has shown that the Roman Empire reached its greatest extent to most of continental Europe such as Spain, Portugal, French and all of Central Europe.
Eventually, the Spanish Civil Code became effective in the Philippines on December 7, 1889, the “Conquistadores”. The “Kodigo Penal”(now Revised Penal Code) was also introduced promulgated by the King of Spain. Basically, these laws adopted the Roman law principles (Coquia, 1996).
Mostly tribal traditions, customs and practices influence laws during the Pre-Spanish Philippines. There were also laws that were written which includes the Code of Kalantiao (promulgated in 1433) – the most extensive and severe law that prescribes harsh punishment, and the Maragtas Code (Datu Sumakwel)
What is a Prison?
- It is penitentiary, an institution for the imprisonment (incarceration) of persons convicted of major/serious crimes.
- A building, usually with cells, or other places established for the purpose of taking safe custody or confinement of criminals.
- A place of confinement for those charged with or convicted of offences against the laws of the land.
Who is a PRISONER?
- is a person who is under the custody of lawful authority. A prisoner is also a person, who by reason of his criminal sentence or by a decision issue by a court, may be deprived of his liberty of freedom.
- is any person detained/confined in jail or prison for the commission of a criminal offence or convicted and serving in a penal institution.
GENERAL CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS
1. DETENTION PRISONERS
- Those detained for investigation, preliminary hearing, or awaiting trial.
- They are detainee in lock up jail or prisoners under the jurisdiction of the Courts.
2. SENTENCED PRISONERS
- offenders who are committed to the jail or prison in order to serve their sentence after final conviction by a competent court.
- They are prisoners under the jurisdiction of penal institutions.
3. PRISONERS WHO ARE IN SAFEKEEPING
- includes non-criminal offenders who are detained in order to protect the community against the harmful behavior.
CLASSIFICATION OF SENTENCE PRISONERS:
1. INSULAR OR NATIONAL PRISONERS
- those sentences to suffer a term of sentence of 3 years and 1 day to life imprisonment/death.
- Those sentence to suffer a term of imprisonment cited above but appealed the judgement and unable to file a bond for their temporary liberty.
2. PROVINCIAL PRISONERS
- those people sentenced to suffer a term of imprisonment from 6 months and 1 day to 3 years or fined not more than 1,000 pesos, or both; or those detained therein waiting preliminary investigation of their cases cognizable by the RTC.
3. CITY PRISONERS
- those sentenced to suffer a term of imprisonment form 1 day to 3 years of a fine of not more than 1,000 pesos or both.
- Those detained therein whose cases are filed with the MTC.
- Those detained therein who cases are cognizable by the RTC and under preliminary investigation.
4. MUNICIPAL PRISONERS
- those confined in Municipal jails to serve an imprisonment from 1 day to 6 months.
- Those detained therein who trials there cases are pending with the MTC.
CLASSIFICATION OF DETAINEES
A. UNDERGOING INVESTIGATION
B. AWAITING OR UNDERGOING TRIAL
C. AWAITING FINAL JUDGEMENT
INMATES SECURITY CLASSIFICATION
A. High Risk Inmate
B. High Profile Inmate
C. Ordinary Inmate
CLASSIFICATION OF PRISONERS ACCORDING TO DEGREE OF SECURITY:
1. SUPER MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONERS
- A special group of prisoner composed of incorrigible, intractable, and highly dangerous persons who are the source of constant disturbance even in a maximum – security prison.
- They were orange color of uniform.
2. MAXIMUM SECURITY PRISONERS
- It is a group of prisoners whose escape could be dangerous to the public or the security of the state.
- It consist of constant trouble makers but not as dangerous as the super maximum-security prisoners.
- Their movements are restricted and they are not allowed to work outside the institution but rather assigned to industrial shops with in the prison compound.
- They are confined at the Maximum Security Prison (NBP Main Building), they wear orange color of uniform. Prisoners includes those sentenced to serve sentence 20 years or more, or those whose sentenced are under review of the supreme court, and offenders who are criminally insane having severe personality or emotional disorders that make them dangerous to fellow offenders or staff members.
3. MEDIUM SECURITY PRISONERS
- Those who cannot be trusted in open conditions and pose lesser danger than maximum-security prisoners in case they escape.
- It consists of groups of prisoners who maybe allowed working outside the fence or walls of the penal institution under guards or with escorts.
- They occupy the Medium Security Prison (Camp Sampaguita) and they wear blue color of uniforms. Generally, they are employed as agricultural workers.
- It includes prisoners whose minimum sentence is less than 20 years and life-sentenced prisoners who served at least 10 years inside a maximum-security prison.
4. MINIMUM SECURITY PRISONERS
- It is a group of prisoners who can be reasonably trusted to serve sentence under “open conditions”.
- This group includes prisoners who can be trusted to report to their work assignments without the presence of guards.
- They occupy the Minimum Security Prison (Camp Bukang Liwayway) and wear brown color uniforms.
What is a JAIL?
It is a place for locking up of persons who are convicted of minor offenses or felonies who are to serve short sentences imposed upon them by a competent court, or for the confinement of persons who are awaiting trial or investigation of their cases.
TYPES OF JAILS
1. LOCK-UP JAILS
- is a security facility, common to police stations, used for temporary confinement of an individual held for investigation
2. ORDINARY JAILS
- is the type of jail commonly used to detain a convicted criminal offender to serve a sentence less than three years.
3. WORKHOUSES, JAIL FARMS OR CAMP
- a facility that houses minimum custody offenders who are serving short sentences or who are undergoing constructive work programs.
- It provides full employment of prisoners, remedial services, and constructive leisure time activities.
Bigwas
Bigwas blog about Criminal law and Procedure, Criminology and Crimes, Philippine Banking and Finance, Insurance and Investment.