[ REPUBLIC ACT NO.

8177, March 20, 1996 ]

AN ACT DESIGNATING DEATH BY LETHAL INJECTION AS THE METHOD OF

CARRYING OUT CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, AMENDING FOR THE PURPOSE ARTICLE
81 OF THE REVISED PENAL CODE, AS AMENDED BY SECTION 24 OF REPUBLIC ACT
NO. 7659

Correctional Administraion Notes

Historical Perspective of Corrections:

13th Century – Securing Sanctuary

- In the 13th century, a criminal could avoid punishment by claiming refuge in a church for a
period of 40 days.

16th Century – Transportation of criminals in England was authorized. At the end of this
century, Russia and other European Countries followed this system. This practice was abandoned
in 1835.

Gaols - (jails) – the description given to pretrial detention facilities operated by English sheriff in
England during the 18th century.

Galleys – 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 – these are former warships used to house prisoners in the 18th and 19th century.

- These were abandoned warships converted into prisons as means of relieving congestion of
prisons. They were called as the floating hells.

Ordeal – is the church’s substitute for a trial until the 13th century wherein guilt or innocence
was determined by the ability of the accused of being unscathed through dangerous and painful
test.

Charlemagne (Carolus Magnus)– gave

bishops the power to act as real judges which enabled bishop tribunal to rule on secular matters.

- King of Franks and Roman

Emperor.
EARLY CODES:

1. Babylonian and Sumerian CodesCode of King Hammurabi

(Hammurabic Code) – Babylon, credited as the oldest code prescribing savage punishment. But
in fact, Sumerian codes were nearly 100 years older.

2. Roman and Greek Codes

a. Justinian Code – 6th century AD, Emperor Justinian of Rome wrote his code of law. An effort
to match a desirable amount of punishment to all possible crimes. However, the

law did not survive due to the fall of the Roman Empire but left a foundation of Western Legal
codes.

The Twelve Tables (451-450 BC) –represented the earliest codification of Roman law
incorporated into the Justinian code.

b. Greek Code of Draco – Greece, a

harsh code that provides the same punishment for both citizens and the slaves as it incorporates
primitive concepts.

- The Greeks were the first to allow any citizen to prosecute the offender in the name of the

injured party.

3. The Burgundian Code (500 AD) –it specified punishment according to the social class of

offenders, dividing them into: Nobles, Middle class and Lower class and specifying the value of
the life of each person according to social status.

EARLY PRISONS

• Mamertine Prison – the only early Roman place of monfinement which is built under the main
sewer of Rome in 64 B.C.

Bridewell (1557) – the most popular workhouse in London which was built for the employment
and housing of English prisoners.

- used for locking up vagrants,beggars, prostitutes and other misfits

Saint Bridget’s Well – England’s first

house of correction.

Walnut Street Jail – originally constructed as a detention jail in Philadelphia. It was converted
into a state prison and became the first
American Penitentiary.

Hospicio de San Michelle –the first home for delinquent boys ever established. Built by Pope
Clement XI in Rome for housing incorrigible

youths under 20 years of age.

The Pioneers:

1. William Penn (1614-1716)

He is the first leader to prescribe imprisonment as correctional treatment for major offenders.

He is also responsible for the abolition of death penalty and torture as a form of punishment.He
fought for religious freedom and individual rights

2. Charles Montesquieu

(Charles Louis Secondat, Baron de la Brede et de Montesiquieu – 1689 –1755)

A French historian and philosopher who analyzed law as an expression of justice. He believed
that harsh punishment would undermine morality and that appealing to moral sentiments as a
better means of preventing crime.

3. VOLTAIRE

(Francois Marie Arouet, 1694-1778)

• He believes that fear of shame was a

deterrent to crime. He fought the legality-sanctioned practice of torture.

4. Cesare Beccaria (Cesare Bonesa,

Marchese de Beccaria, 1738-1794)

- He wrote an essay entitled “ An Essay on Crimes and Punishment”. This book became famous
as the theoretical basis for the great reforms in the field of criminal law. This book also provided
a starting point for the classical school of criminal law and criminology.

5. Jeremy Bentham – (1748-1832)

• the greatest leader in the reform of English Criminal Law. He believes that whatever
punishment designed to negate whatever pleasure or gain the criminal derives from crime, the
crime rate would go down.

• He devise the ultimate PANOPTICON

PRISON– a prison that consists of a large circular building containing multi cells around the
periphery but it was never built.

6. John Howard (1726-1790) – the “Great

Prison Reformer”

• The sheriff of Bedsfordshire in 1773 who devoted his life and fortune to prison reform. After
his findings on English Prisons, he recommended the following:

• single cells for sleeping

• segregation of women

• segregation of youth

• provision of sanitation facilities

• abolition of the fee system by which jailers obtained money from prisoner

7. Alexander Macanochie – He is the Superintendent of the penal colony at Norfolk Island in

Australia (1840) who introduced the Mark System. A progressive humane 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 ticket for leave
or conditional release which is similar to parole.

*Macanochie’s Mark System cosnsist of 5 stages:

1. Strict custody upon admission to the penal colony

2. Work on government gangs

3. Limited freedom on the island within

a prescribed area

4. Ticket of leave

5. Full restoration of liberty

8. 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 behavior to prepare the convict for gradual release.

• 9. Domets of France –Established an agricultural colony for delinquent boys in 1839 providing
housefathers as in charge of these boys.
10. Sir Evelyn Ruggles Brise – The Director of the English Prison who opened the Borstal

institution for young offenders.

• Borstal Institution – is considered

as the best reform institution

for young offenders today.

• 11. Walter Crofton – he is the director of the Irish Prison in 1854 who introduced the Irish

system that was modifies from the Macanochie’s mark system.

12. 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 – considered as the forerunner of modern penology because it had all
the elements of a modern system.

13. Jean Jacques Philippe Villain –founded the Maison de Force in Gent, Belgium. He
introduced:

a. felons and misdemeanants should be separated and

b. women and children must have separate quarters

14. Fred T. Wilkinson- the last warden of

Alcatraz Prison

15. James Bennet – director of Federal Bureau of Prisons who wrote about the closing of
Alcatraz Prison.