LESSON 11

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, beheading, 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.
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 prisoners alike”, ‘the fault of one
is the fault of all”.
5. Mass Movement – mass living in cellblocks, mass eating,
mass recreation, mass bathing.
6. Degradation – uttering insulting word or languages on the part
of prison staff to the 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 program.
2. Parole – a conditional release of the prisoners after serving
part of his / her sentence in prison for the purpose of
gradually re-introduction 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 offense, 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 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 or the individual
the opportunity of imposing upon the offender suitable
punishment as might be enforced. Offenders should be
punished because they deserve it.
2. Expiation or Atonement – it is punishment in the form of
group vengeance where the purpose is to appease of 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.

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.
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 become law abiding
citizen and productive upon his return to the community by
requiring him to undergo intensive program of rehabilitation in
prison.
THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT
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 person, gradually changing the old positive philosophy of
punishment to a more humane treatment of prisoners with
innovational programs.
The End