Local Justice: The Jail (From Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society, P 297-327, 1995, Norval Morris and David J Rothman, eds. -- See NCJ-167509)

• NCJ Number: 167519
• Author(s): S McConville
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 31 pages
• Sale Source: Oxford University Press, Inc
• Publication Type: Historical Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Early jails in England were characterized by corruption and the economy of crime, and the idea of using jails to reform offenders were virtually nonexistent.

Abstract

Instead, jails were used to hold people while they awaited trial and sentencing. Several developments in the late 18th century encouraged jail reform, and politicians in both England and the United States attempted to curb jail excesses and to find new forms of punishment. Changes in jail procedures and functions were instituted in both countries that concerned bail, work, and mentally ill offenders. An integrated system of prison staffing and management emerged in England, while the pattern of penal administration inherited from colonial government in the United States developed within a federal structure of power and led to the proliferation of local jails. Both England and the United States experienced considerable growth in prison and jail populations between the 1970's and the 1990's, and imprisonment in both countries resulted in part from national attitudes. References and photographs