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Meskell, History of Prisons PDF
Meskell, History of Prisons PDF
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An AmericanResolution:
The History of Prisons in the
United States from 1777 to 1877
MatthewW. Meskell*
In this note, Matthew Meskell traces the rise of the penitentiary system in
the United States from 1777 to 1877. By focusing on how the penitentiaries
adapted to social and economic pressures, Meskell offers an explanation for
why the system changed from one predominantly concerned with reforming
prisoners to one predominantly concerned with containing prison. Ultimately,
the wardens' inability to quantify their rehabilitative successes led legislators
to set a new goalfor the prisons: economic profitability. Meskell concludes
that this shift in priorities best explains the deterioration of the early peniten-
tiary system.
In one corrupt and corrupting assemblage were to be found the disgusting ob-
jects of popular contempt, besmeared with filth from the pillory-the unhappy
victim of the lash ... the half naked vagrant-the loathsome drunkard-the
sick suffering from various bodily pains, and too often the unaneled malefactor.
Roberts Vaux, describing Pennsylvania jails in 1776.1
They are all, so far as adult prisoners are concerned, lacking in a supreme de-
votion to the right aim; all lacking in the breadth and comprehensiveness of
their scope; all lacking in the aptitude and efficiency of their instruments; and
all lacking in the employment of a wise and effective machinery to keep the
whole in healthy and vigorous action.
- Enoch Wines and Theodore Dwight, describing U.S. prisons in 1867.2
839
840 LAWREVIEW
STANFORD [Vol. 51:839
INTRODUCTION
3. See Randall McGowen, The Well-Ordered Prison, in THE OXFORD HISTORY OF THE
PRISON87 (1995).
4. See id.; see also ORLANDOFAULKLANDLEWIS, THE DEVELOPMENT OF AMERICAN
PRISONSANDPRISONCUSTOMS,1776-1845, at 33 (1967).
5. See JOHNLEWISGILLIN,CRIMINOLOGY ANDPENOLOGY 388 (1926).
6. See BARNES,supra note 1, at 80-82.
7. See, e.g., GUSTAVEDE BEAUMONT& ALEXISDE TOCQUEVILLE, ON THEPENITENTIARY
SYSTEMIN THEUNITEDSTATESANDITSAPPLICATION INFRANCE(1833).
8. WINES& DWIGHT,supra note 2.
9. See id. at 134-220.
April 1999] HISTORYOF PRISONS 841
occurred in the northern states, and so they are the focus of this note.
Though one scholar aptly noted thatprison history is more like a river than a
ladder,10for purposesof claritythis note is divided into three main time peri-
ods. The first traces the creation and failure of the original penitentiariesat
Walnut Street in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and Newgate in Greenwich
Village, New York. The second recounts the rough development of the first
moder prisons at CherryHill, Pennsylvania, and Auburn, New York, and
ends with their maturityin the 1850s. The final section of the note details
the 1867 reportby Wines and Dwight and discusses the new wave of prison
reformand ideology that followed.
Early colonial criminal law was a curious mix of religion, English bar-
barity,and pragmatism. The relatively small populationsof the early Ameri-
can colonies probablydeterminedmuch of the characterof the criminal law.
As late as 1765, the majority of Massachusettstowns had fewer than 1000
inhabitantsand only fifteen had over 2500.1 Pennsylvania had fewer than
50,000 inhabitantsin the entire province until well after 1730.12 With popu-
lations so low, the colonists could neitheraffordnor probablyfelt the need to
institutionalizeconvicts. Correspondingly,the characterof criminalpunish-
ments was immediate and depended on self-policing in the communities.
Some scholars have even arguedthat membershipin the local churchwas so
stressedbecause it provided an effective way of keeping track of community
members and enforcing criminal codes.13 Whateverthe merits of this argu-
ment, there is little dispute that many colonial criminal punishments de-
pended on the criminalbeing recognized as a partof the community.
Most punishmentswere public and involved either quick, corporal tor-
tures or more prolonged humiliation. Among the punishments designed to
deter crime by inflicting pain, the colonials often used the whipping post,
brandingand maiming, gags, and a device known as the ducking stool.14 The
latter device was essentially a chair connected to a pulley system where
"slanderers, 'makebayts,' 'chyderers,' brawlers, and women of light car-
If we look into historywe shall find thatlaws, which are, or oughtto be, con-
ventionsbetweenmen in a state of freedom,have been, for the most part,the
work of the passionsof a few, or the consequencesof a fortuitousor temporary
necessity;not dictatedby a cool examinerof humannature,who knew how to
collect in one pointthe actionsof a multitudeandhadthis only end in view, the
greatesthappinessof the greatestnumber.34
Beccaria and other membersof the Classical School of penology arguedthat
the source of crime lay in the disorganized,arbitrary,and impossibly draco-
nian criminalcodes of the day.35 As a solution, Beccaria recommendedthat:
(1) legislatures strictly define punishmentsfor various crimes and limit the
power of judges to arbitrarilymodify them, (2) laws be clear and public, (3)
punishmentsbe designed solely to specifically deter any given offender from
further offense and to generally deter society from criminal acts, and (4)
punishmentsbe the "least necessary" to achieve deterrence.36 These ideas
gathered enormous support in Europe and in fact formed the basis for the
Frenchcriminalcode passed in 1791.37
The newfound philosophy found a ready audience in America. Spurred
by Beccaria's essay, William Bradfordwrote a widely-circulatedarticle en-
titled An EnquiryHow Far the Punishmentof Death Is Necessary in Penn-
sylvania, WithNotes and Illustrations in 1793 in which he quoted with ap-
proval many of Beccaria's arguments.38Bradford's essay was immensely
popular and served to publicize furtherthe Classical School's theories re-
gardingcriminallaw. Even earlier,Americanthinkershad aired many of the
Classical School's arguments. For example, in 1787 Dr. Benjamin Rush
gave an address at the home of Benjamin Franklin. There Dr. Rush argued
that reformationand deterrenceof crime ought to be the sole goals of pun-
ishment, that the contemporarycriminal codes tended to harden criminals
and engenderhatredtowardsthe government,and that imprisonmentbe used
as the primarycriminalpunishment.39Pennsylvania's "GreatLaw" of 1682
carefully laid out a code of punishmentsthat ascended in severity depending
on the depravity and social consequences of the crimes-the same careful
balancingand proportionalityBeccaria urgeda centurylater.
In short, America in the late 1700s faced a powerful mixture of practical
pressures and intellectual arguments,as well as a healthy dose of optimism
from its newly won independence,that led to radical changes in the criminal
codes.40 It is difficult, if not impossible, to determine which forces were
necessitated some new space. Probablymost of the answer, then, rests with
the prison administrationsthemselves.
Early on appointmentsto prison administrationpositions became politi-
cal. By 1804, for example, the Jeffersonianshad forced Thomas Eddy, who
was a Federalist, to resign.90 Pennsylvaniawas equally politicized, and by
1818 the original society which had been almost singly responsible for Wal-
nut Street's renovation,gave up hope of reformingthe prison.91With politi-
cal appointees came a total breakdownin the original ideals of the prisons.
Wardens grantedpardons excessively for purely administrativereasons. In
New York, prison administratorsasked for and received permission to use
flogging and stocks in order to keep discipline, making the punishmentsof
many offenders even harsherthan under the old criminal codes.92 At both
Newgate and Walnut Street,legislatorsput immense pressureon the wardens
to cover prison expenses. Convict labor quickly became less of an instru-
ment of reform than state-runslavery.93 The politically appointed adminis-
tratorsthus sought to function day to day with no clear goals and no compel-
ling reasons for new funding. Amidst this chaos and decay, reformersand
legislatures turned to new ideas and grander penitentiaries. The Walnut
Streetprison did not formally close until 1835, but by the early 1820s it was
already dilapidatedand in disrepute.94New York finally abandonedNew-
gate in 1828.95
In the wake of the riots and chaos that prevailed as Newgate and Walnut
Street neared their ends, critics of the new prison system proliferated. A
prominentNew York lawyer argued that, "[o]urfavourite scheme of substi-
tuting a state prison for the gallows is a most prolific mother of crime," and
dubbed Newgate prison a "granddemoralizer"of the people. 96 Legislative
investigations lamented the rampantcrime rates and the ease of prison life
and called for harsher treatmentof inmates.97 Yet the early prisons had
achieved some success and neither the legislatures nor the public wished a
return to the old methods of criminal control. The opposition to the new
prisons was thus diffuse and disorganizedand without an effective response
to the reformers'newest weapon: optimism.
The first wave of prison reform was clearly rooted in the Calvinistic
teaching that people are born sinners and cannot fundamentally change.
Though the designers of the original prisons sought to make punishment
more humane, they never lost sight of the goals of deterringand horrifying
criminals. With the breakdownin security and the evolution of revolving-
door prisons, these first reformerswere left without an adequatedefense for
their creations. The second wave of reformersin the 1820s held out a much
grander enticement to legislatures and the public. Their rhetoric not only
explained the failures of the old ways, but also outlined a clear plan for
building a new system-a system that would protect society by making hon-
est citizens out of criminals.
In a spirit that would later manifest itself in the writings of the Positivist
criminologists Lombroso, Ferri, and Garofalo,98the new reformers argued
from a uniquely American standpoint. With the rise of Jacksonians to
power, many Americans viewed the increasedmobility and fluidity of soci-
ety with alarm and skepticism.99 The new reformersargued that it was ex-
actly this dissolution of social order that led to crime. Criminals were not
born, they were created by poor social conditions. Bolstering these argu-
ments were numerous studies cataloguingthe early childhoods of criminals
which seemed to confirmthe hypothesisthat social conditionsbred crime.100
If social ills were the cause of crime, the new reformersreasoned, then
society should be able to cure criminalsby separatingthem from corrupting
influences and by inculcating in them healthy habits. The old prisons had
failed not because imprisonmentwas wrong, but because offenders were in-
discriminately mixed together. Inspectors of Walnut Street in 1803 de-
scribedthe situation:
The great number of vagrants, untried prisoners, etc. produces hurtful effects on
the convicts, as the latter are, for want of room, obliged to be kept in too large
numbers in one apartment, by which the amelioration of their morals is either
prevented or greatly impeded.0l?
The new penitentiarieswould not make the same mistakes, and their creators
strove to ensure both absolute separationof prisoners and opportunityfor
reformation.'02
The idea of reformingprisonersthroughseparationwas relatively novel,
and Americans had little in the way of precedentto guide them. Reformers
received the most guidance in the area of prison architectureand design.
Since the convicts were to be reconstructedin a way, everything in the new
penitentiaries needed to instill the proper mental attitude. The building
98. See GILLIN,supra note 5, at 331-38.
99. See ROTHMAN, supra note 11, at 69.
100. See id. at 70.
101. BARNES,supra note 1, at 96.
102. See ROTMAN,supra note 10, at 35.
April 1999] HISTOR
Y OF PRISONS 853
103. JOHNSTON,
supra note 48, at 31.
104. See John Hirst, The AustralianExperience:The Convict Colony, in THEOXFORD
HISTORYOFTHEPRISON274, 275 (1995).
105. See id.
106. See ROTMAN,
supranote 10, at 34.
107. See DEBEAUMONT
& DETOCQUEVILLE,
supra note 7, at 40.
108. See LEWIS,
supranote4, at 89.
109. Seeid.
110. See JOHNSTON,
supra note 48, at 39-40.
111. See LEWIS, supranote4, at 89.
112. See id. at 239.
113. See BARNES, supranote 1, at 138.
114. See id. at 139.
115. See id.
854 STANFORD
LAWREVIEW [Vol. 51:839
oners, and the peculiarlayout of the sewer pipes allowed inmates to commu-
nicate through gratings.116When the Pennsylvanialegislature passed a law
in 1829 mandating labor for all prisoners, the already unwieldy Western
Penitentiaryproved unworkable. The cells were too small and too dark to
allow inmates to labor in them. On February7, 1833, lawmakersorderedthe
Western Penitentiary's cells demolished and completely reconstructed-a
decision that cost the state $60,000 in additionto the original $170,000 spent
to constructthe penitentiary.117
On March 20, 1821, Pennsylvania authorized the construction of the
EasternPenitentiaryat CherryHill. 118 It was this institutionthat would be-
come world famous and establish the system of administrationknown as the
Pennsylvania system. John Haviland's plan for the prison won the approval
of the building commissioners.119This intelligently laid out design allowed
for easy observationof the prisonersby a minimal numberof guards. Seven
wings radiatedfrom a central observationcenter with cells that were twelve
feet long, eight feet wide, and ten feet high. Attachedto each cell were exer-
cise yards, with the biggest located on the groundfloor.120The original 1821
law providedfor 250 cells but the legislaturedirectedthe building of "at least
400" more in 1831.121 Haviland took special care to ensure each cell had
enough light so that prisonerswould be able to labor. He also attemptedas
far as possible to make it impossible for convicts to communicate,but con-
tentions abounded that prisoners could do so through the pipes for a short
time each day.122By the final completion date, the prison had cost Pennsyl-
vania $772,600.123
New York and Pennsylvaniabuilt the penitentiariesat Auburnand Pitts-
burgh, respectively, to institute the policy of solitary confinement without
labor. The warden at the Western Penitentiarytried to carry out this policy
from 1827 to 1829 but the architecturaldifficulties of the prison renderedthe
endeavor impossible. From 1821 to 1823, however, the administratorsat
Auburndid adherestrictlyto the new policy of solitary confinementwithout
labor. When builders completed the north wing in late 1821, the prison ad-
ministratorsplaced eighty prisoners there as an experiment.124The results
were disastrous:
The unfortunates,on whom this experimentwas made, fell into a state of de-
pression,so manifest,thattheirkeeperswere struckwith it; their lives seemed
in danger,if they remainedlonger in this situation;five of them had already
succumbedduringa single year [1821-1822]; their moral state was not less
alarming;one of themhad become insane;another,in a fit of despair,had em-
bracedthe opportunitywhen the keeperbroughthim something,to precipitate
himselffromhis cell runningthe almostcertainchanceof a mortalfall.125
In 1823, the governor of New York pardoned twenty-six of the original
eighty inmates and allowed the others to leave their cells during the day to
work in common shops.126
The conclusion that solitary confinement without labor causes mental
breakdown and insanity has never been seriously questioned. Indeed, psy-
chological studies in the 1850s purportedto demonstrateconclusively the
negative mental effects of the system.127Certainly,New York never again
attemptedthe system afterits original experiment. The WesternPenitentiary
at Pittsburghcould neither corroboratenor contradictthe Auburnexperience
because it suffered so many problems from the beginning. For all its un-
doubtedpolitical force, however, the integrityof the New York experimentis
questionable. Until 1825, prison officials were not authorized to transfer
even obviously insane convicts to mental institutions.128Many of the eighty
convicts may therefore have been insane before enduringthe two year ex-
periment. Whatever the ultimate truth about solitary confinement without
labor, the administratorsat Auburnwere left without a system from almost
the beginning.
The replacementsystem ultimatelydevised at Auburnbecame known as
the congregate system. The inmates slept in separate cells, but worked in
common shops duringthe day. To ensure that prisonersdid not contaminate
each other, the administratorsmaintained a strict rule of silence.'29 Only
when absolutely necessary could inmates speak to a guard and never were
they allowed to communicatewith their fellows.130 Indeed, absolute disci-
pline permeated every aspect of a prisoner's life. When not sleeping, for
example, inmates were requiredto remain standingin their cells.'31 There is
no clear evidence of who createdthis system, but many scholars of the time
thought that Elam Lynds, the first wardenat Auburn,was the major creative
force.132
133. LEWIS,
supranote42, at 88.
134. See id. at 89.
135. Id. at 97.
136. See BARNES,supra note 1, at 159.
137. See DEBEAUMONT & DETOCQUEVILLE,supra note 7, at 82.
138. See id. at 72.
139. See BARNES,supra note 1, at 161.
April 1999] HISTORYOF PRISONS 857
mately won the day. The prison at Auburn cost $584 per prisoner to con-
structwhile the EasternPenitentiarycost $1,023 per inmate.145Additionally,
Auburn-style prisons produced annual surpluses146while the Eastern Peni-
tentiarycontinually lost money.147Legislaturesfound in the Auburnsystem
a programthat was cheap, could protectsociety, and might help fill their cof-
fers. The eccentric Pennsylvania system could offer only vague statements
about reformationthat were not only unsubstantiated,but also philosophi-
cally disputed. When de Tocqueville and de Beaumont summarizedtheir
visit to America, they wrote:
The Philadelphiasystem being also that which producesthe deepest impres-
sions on the soul of the convict, must effect more reformationthan that of
Auburn.The latter,however,is perhapsmoreconformableto the habitsof men
in society, and on this accounteffects a greaternumberof reformations,which
might be called "legal,"inasmuchas they producethe externalfulfillmentof
social obligations.
If it be so, the Philadelphiasystemproducesmorehonestmen, and thatof
New Yorkmoreobedientcitizens.148
With even the very notion of reform taken from it, the Pennsylvania
system existed only in Pennsylvania while legislatures everywhere else
began to constructtheir own Lyndsianprofitmakers.
Not many notable developments occurredin the evolution of American
prisons from 1840 to around 1870. Some minor reform movements at-
tempted to help rebuild inmates once the Auburn system had torn them
down. In 1845, for example, Massachusetts instituted a system of post-
incarcerationcounseling and maintaineda sizable prison library.149One of
the Massachusettswardens, FredericRobinson, organized a convict society
dedicated to increasing morality among the inmates.150 Connecticut ran a
fully functionalprison school by 1843.151These reforms achieved little per-
manent alteration. Well into the 1840s, for example, New York spent only
about one percent of all prison funding on reform-orientedprojects.152One
reformmovement in the 1840s that developed in response to the increasingly
harsh discipline used to control inmates underthe Auburn system did, how-
ever, achieve some fairly significantchanges.
In the early 1840s, under the leadershipof such reformersas Dorothea
Dix, strongpolitical pressuremountedagainstthe use of the whip in prisons.
III. WINESANDDWIGHTANDTHEFIRSTREFORMATORIES
fenders that eventually led to public and legislative apathy and contentment
to merely confine ratherthanreformcriminals.
The fervor Wines and Dwight generated,as spectacularas it was at the
time, was shortlived. In 1870 the National Prison Congress,made up of 130
delegates from twenty-fourstates, Canada,and South America, convened in
Cincinnati, Ohio.187 The delegates heard many papers, most notably a de-
scription of the revolutionarymethods of Sir Walter Crofton and Alexander
Maconocie collectively known as the Irish System.188 In his report to the
United States Congress, Wines describedthe most importantof Maconocie's
methods.189 Maconocie's twenty-one principles190stressed rewarding con-
victs for good behavior by grantingthem privileges, including taking time
off of their sentences.191 The National Prison Congress adopted most of
these principlesand advocated:
1. Reformation,not vindictivesuffering,as the purposeof penaltreatmentof
prisoners.
2. Classificationsmadeon the basis of a marksystem,patternedafterthe Irish
system.
3. Rewardsfor good conduct.192
The 1870 Congress and subsequentreform movement had little impact
on the vast majorityof convicts. One of the members of the National Prison
Congress, Zebulon Brockway,193did manage, however, to found a reforma-
tory for juvenile offenders at Elmira,New York.194The Elmirareformatory
looked much like other prisons but had more of an emphasis on education
and trade training. The two most radical provisions were that inmates' sen-
tences were indeterminateand all convicts were grouped into classes. An
inmate who flouted prisonrules earneddemeritswhich could push him lower
in the class ranking. Upwardmovement earnedthe prisonersprivileges and
only prisoners in the highest class could earn parole.195Twelve states fol-
lowed the Elmiramodel between 1876 and 1901.196
CONCLUSION