Title: The Prison Reform Movement | Encyclopedia.com
Headings: The Prison Reform Movement
The Prison Reform Movement
9: The Prison Reform Movement
WORDS TO KNOW
AIDS:
convict:
determinate sentence:
felony:
furlough:
halfway house:
incarceration:
indeterminate sentence:
inmate:
jail:
misdemeanor:
parole:
penitentiary:
prison:
probation:
recidivism:
work release:
Reform in colonial times
The nation's first prisons
"Moral terrorism" in the mid-1800s
Women and children, the poor, and the insane
Dorothea Dix
Post-war reforms
The Progressive Era
Progressive innovations
Chain Gangs
Riots and responses in the mid-twentieth century
Prison Categories
More strife behind bars
A changing approach
New century, same old problems
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Content: That payment comes in the form of a loss of personal freedom. Locking up criminals also serves to protect the public. A burglar, rapist, or murderer can no longer harm society while serving time behind bars. Many experts believe that imprisonment, or rather the threat of it, keeps would-be criminals from committing crimes because the fear of punishment is so great. Finally, throughout history many criminal justice experts have viewed incarceration as an opportunity to provide counseling and training to offenders so that they can be reformed, or changed for the better, and rehabilitated, or prepared for a return to normal life. The major problem facing prison reformers and administrators throughout history is that the various reasons for imprisoning people often conflict. For example, numerous experts suggest that strict punishments and long prison sentences do not necessarily keep people from committing crimes. They believe that the threat of prison does not increase public safety. During periods such as the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, when punishments became harsher and sentences longer, crime rates did not significantly decrease as expected. In addition, the failure of most attempts at reforming prisoners shows the difficulty of helping convicts change their ways while simultaneously subjecting them to the harsh realities of prison life.