Chapter 2Chapter 2

Punishments: Punishments: A Brief History A Brief History

McGraw-Hill/Irwin © 2013 McGraw-Hill Companies. All Rights Reserved.

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Ancient PunishmentsAncient Punishments

Documented in: The writings of ancient Greek orators,

poets, and philosophers. Ancient Hebrew history: the Bible. The Roman Twelve Tables, published

in 451 B.C.

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Ancient IsraelAncient Israel

1. In the Old Testament punishments included 1. In the Old Testament punishments included banishment, beating, beheading, blinding, branding banishment, beating, beheading, blinding, branding and burning, casting down from a high place, and burning, casting down from a high place, crushing, confiscation of property, crucifixion, crushing, confiscation of property, crucifixion, cursing, cutting asunder, drowning, exile, exposure cursing, cutting asunder, drowning, exile, exposure to wild beasts, finding, flaying, hanging, to wild beasts, finding, flaying, hanging, imprisonment, mutilation, plucking of the hair, imprisonment, mutilation, plucking of the hair, sawing asunder, scourging with thorns, slavery, sawing asunder, scourging with thorns, slavery, slaying by spear or sword, use of the stocks, slaying by spear or sword, use of the stocks, stoning, strangulation, stripes, and suffocation.stoning, strangulation, stripes, and suffocation.

2. The purpose of physical punishment was 2. The purpose of physical punishment was primarily revenge.primarily revenge.

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Ancient GreeceAncient Greece

1. Due to the efforts of poets, playwrights, and 1. Due to the efforts of poets, playwrights, and philosophers, the Greek city-states provide the philosophers, the Greek city-states provide the earliest evidence that public punishment is part earliest evidence that public punishment is part of the Western tradition.of the Western tradition.

2. Many early crimes were punished by 2. Many early crimes were punished by execution, banishment, or exile.execution, banishment, or exile.

3. Other punishments in ancient Athens included 3. Other punishments in ancient Athens included “confiscation of property, fines, and the “confiscation of property, fines, and the destruction of the condemned offenders’ houses,” destruction of the condemned offenders’ houses,” public denunciation, shaming, imprisonment, and public denunciation, shaming, imprisonment, and public display of the offender.public display of the offender.

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Early RomeEarly Rome

1. The first written laws of Rome were 1. The first written laws of Rome were issued in 451 B.C. and called the Twelve issued in 451 B.C. and called the Twelve Tables.Tables.

2. Conviction of some offenses required 2. Conviction of some offenses required payment of compensation, but the most payment of compensation, but the most frequent penalty was death.frequent penalty was death.

3. Different versions of death were given 3. Different versions of death were given for different crimes (e.g., arsonists were for different crimes (e.g., arsonists were burned to death).burned to death).

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Physical PunishmentsPhysical Punishments

Flogging (whipping) The cat-o’-nine-tails, which had nine

knotted cords fastened to a wooden handle.

The Russian knout, which had leather strips fitted with fish hooks.

Branding Criminals were branded with a mark or

letter signifying their crimes. Mutilation

Lex talionis

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Physical Punishments - Physical Punishments - ContinuedContinued

Instant Death Beheading, Hanging, Garroting Frequently reserved for nobility

Lingering Death Burning alive, breaking on the wheel

Torture The rack, cording, and using red hot

pincers to pull flesh away.

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Physical Punishments - Physical Punishments - ContinuedContinued

Exile and Transportation A 1597 English law authorized the

transportation of convicts to newly discovered lands.

Public Humiliation The stocks and the pillory

Confinement

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Physical Punishments - Physical Punishments - ContinuedContinued

The Puritans, for example, sometimes The Puritans, for example, sometimes burned witches and unruly slaves; made burned witches and unruly slaves; made wide use of the stocks, the pillory, and wide use of the stocks, the pillory, and the ducking stool; branded criminal the ducking stool; branded criminal offenders; and forced women convicted offenders; and forced women convicted of adultery to wear “scarlet letters.”of adultery to wear “scarlet letters.”

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Exile and TransportationExile and Transportation

England passed laws to allow prisoners to be housed aboard hulks. When this proved impractical, the convict population

started to be shifted to Australia, New South Wales, Norfolk Island, and Van Diemen’s Land – n/k/a Tasmania

In 1791 France was transporting prisoners to Madagascar, New Caledonia, the Marquesas Islands, and French Guiana. Devil’s Island functioned as a prison until 1951.

As late as 1990, Russia was the last remaining Western nation to practice “Transportation”. Exile in Siberia from the early 17th century.

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IncarcerationIncarceration

Pieter Spierenburg Bondage: “any punishment that

puts severe restrictions on the condemned person’s freedom of action and movement, including, but not limited to, imprisonment.”

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The House of Correction The House of Correction (1550 – 1700)(1550 – 1700)

First workhouse in England was called Bridewell.

At first prisoners in workhouses were paid for their work.

Became informal repositories for those the community regarded as “inconvenient” (e.g., the mentally ill, irresponsible, or deviant).

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The Emergence of the PrisonThe Emergence of the Prison

Two main elements fueled the development of prisons as we know them today:

A philosophical shift away from punishment of the body, toward punishment of the soul or human spirit; and

The passage of laws preventing imprisonment of anyone but criminals.

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The Emergence of the PrisonThe Emergence of the Prison

Prisons, as institutions in which convicted offenders spend time as punishment for crimes, are relatively modern.

Prisons resulted from growing intellectualism in Europe and America (the Age of Enlightenment), and in reaction to the barbarism of corporal punishment.

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William PennWilliam Penn(1644-1718)(1644-1718)

Founder of Pennsylvania Was confined in the Tower of London for the

crime of promoting the faith. While imprisoned he wrote No Cross, No Crown.

Influenced the “Great Act” of 1682, through which the Pennsylvania Quakers reduced capital offenses to the single crime of premeditated murder and abolished all corporal punishments.

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John HowardJohn Howard(1726-1790)(1726-1790)

Was taken prisoner by pirates on a trip to Portugal.

Appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1773. Began arguing for the abolishment of spiked collars

and chains. In his 1777 work The State of the Prisons in

England and Wales he described clean and well-run institutions in which prisoners were kept busy doing productive work, as opposed to the abysmal state of actual English prisons.

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Cesare Beccaria Cesare Beccaria (1738–1794)(1738–1794)

Formed the Academy of Fists, a circle of intellectuals, which took as its purpose the reform of the criminal justice system.

In his 1764 essay On Crimes and Punishment he outlined a utilitarian approach; rejected torture as a form of punishment; rejected ex post facto laws; argued against the use of secret accusations; advocated swift punishment for its deterrent value; and supported punishment proportional to the offense.

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Jeremy Bentham Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832)(1748–1832)

Advocated utilitarianism, the principle that the highest objective of public policy is the greatest happiness for the largest number of people.

His idea that people are motivated by pleasure and pain and that the proper amount of punishment can deter crime gave rise to the “hedonistic calculus.”

Inventor of the panopticon.

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Bentham’s Hedonistic CalculusBentham’s Hedonistic Calculus

People by nature choose pleasure and avoid pain.

Each individual calculates the degree of pleasure or pain to be derived from a given course of action.

Lawmakers can determine the degree of punishment necessary to deter criminal behavior.

Such punishment can be effective and rationally built into a system of criminal sentencing.

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Sir Samuel Romilly Sir Samuel Romilly (1757–1818)(1757–1818)

Entered Parliament in 1806. Fought to “get the gentleness of the

English character expressed in its laws” through reduction of the number of capital crimes under English law.

His work inspired others to recognize the need for alternatives to capital punishment as a means of dealing with the majority of criminal offenders.

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Sir Robert PeelSir Robert Peel (1788–1850) (1788–1850)

British Parliamentary leader. Strongly influenced by Sir Samuel Romilly and Jeremy

Bentham Influenced the development of policing worldwide

through the organizational structure he employed in establishing the London Metropolitan Police Force.

Identified the fundamental functions of policing as the investigation of crime and the apprehension of criminals.

Punishment, he said, should not be imposed by the police, but by specialists in the field of penology.

Gaol Act of 1823 separated male and female prisoners, and mandated female prisoner supervision by females.

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Elizabeth FryElizabeth Fry(1780–1845)(1780–1845)

Motivated by strong Quaker faith to “expose the plight of women in prison” and fight for better conditions.

Believed women prisoners were more likely than men to change, and saw appeals “to the heart” as a promising approach for achieving rehabilitation.

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Mary Belle Harris Mary Belle Harris (1874–1957)(1874–1957)

First warden of the Federal Institution for Women in Alderson, West Virginia, she advocated correctional reforms and supported the reformation ideal.

Harris argued in favor of reformation, not punishment, as the primary focus of most correctional institutions/programs.

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Sanford BatesSanford Bates

Bates was the first director of the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP).

Bates wrote that “the perplexing problem confronting the prison administrator of today is how to devise a prison so as to preserve its role of a punitive agency and still reform the individuals who have been sent there.”

Bates believed in rehabilitation and in the value of inmate labor.

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George Beto George Beto

Former director of Texas Department of Corrections, he believed in the goal of rehabilitation.

Beto drew special attention to the importance of preparing inmates for release back into society.

Best known for developing the “Texas Control Model”, strict rule enforcement designed to foster discipline.