Purpose and History PaperPurpose and HistoryWhen someone does something wrong no matter if it is a crime or something that your parents told you not to do there are consequences. The concept of being punished for what you do wrong is a concept that has been around for as long as history can tell us. Crime and punishment go hand in hand with each other. The prison system was developed in order to help the criminal justice system be able to punish those that committed crimes. The history and development of punishment as well as the prison system and development is something that not many individuals know but should learn.
Since ancient times imprisoning an individual for committing a crime has been a extremely popular form of punishment. This is still the most common way of punishing a criminal in today’s society. The history of punishment dates back to the early Mesopotamian cultures of the 2700 B.C. This is when the first though organized civilizations started. At this time when an individual di wrong they would have to pay and this was normally by paying a price in silver. Most of the crimes that took place during this time were civil crimes so that’s why the punishments were in the form on money (Lyons, 2003).
It was not till the biblical times were there the types of punishments for other crimes. During this time is when punishments began to include imprisonment, fines, banishment, and sympathetic punishment. At this time imprisonment was normally saved for the criminals that were repeat offenders and were convicted of a crime more than two times. The idea that was used came from the Bible. Exodus 21:23 states “life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, burning for burning.” So this mean that the offender receives the same injury that he inflicted on his victim. This is where punishment was started. Many of the current punishments for crimes get their roots from the ancient history punishments. In today’s society in the United States punishments are not always as extreme as those in history but the idea is still the same and that is to prevent crime from happening (Lyons, 2003).
The prisons that the current day society knows have developed and improved in so many ways over the years. However, there is still many things that can be improved to make the living environment better for the inmates. In the past prisons were created for just punishment so the prisons were harsher and dedicated to lots of punishing. Today the prisons are created for more of rehabilitating the inmates. This causes todays prisons to seem like they are luxurious. The number of individuals who are incarcerated has increased over the years with a major rise that started in the 1970’s. In the early 19th century prisons stated to be built in order to help control criminal behavior. Back in that time the ideas was to lock up as many criminals as it is possible for the longest amount of time that is allowed in order to decrease
Today, the prisons are for punishment, not to alleviate the needs of people which is why they lack the facility for that type of punishment, it is just more space to hold people. There are currently so many prisons in England that the current prison population is way high, that these prisons can’t handle the full volume of the population that is being released in the first place. If we go into prisons today and say “We are going to create a prison with 10,000 inmates which would be twice as big as the American prison system”, then the prison population would go down, because the prison population already has a high level of mental illness which makes it look like there is less problems at the prison and less problems at the prisons. However, the prison population of prisons in England is actually not as high as the American size due to much lower average crime as well, so I think those laws that have existed that have kept the level the same as it is now because inmates in prisons are already much more likely to commit. But in the future these laws will likely be changed, this could result in the growth of prisons or I don’t think it is entirely wise to expect the level the prisoners will be able to go up. If there were a large number of large cells built right now in prisons that would likely be filled in by inmates. Even if they were not and they were filled in, it would still be a really huge problem if that person was going to become a prisoner.