Cja 234 – Prison SystemEssay Preview: Cja 234 – Prison SystemReport this essayPrison System ComparisonJacinta IngramUniversity of PhoenixIntroduction to CorrectionsCJA234John W. Hudson MSAugust 29, 2011Prison System ComparisonIntroductionState and Federal Prisons started back in the early nineteenth century, when they saw an increase in criminal activities taking place. This brought on an increase in prisons and jails. Based off each crime being committed, they chose to make different levels of security in State and Federal prisons to house the criminals correctly, which consisted of five levels.
History of State and Federal PrisonsState prisons were built back in the nineteenth-century, with the first prison being a penitentiary completed at Millbank in London, in 1816 (Foster, 2006). Although the first prison built was a penitentiary, it was based on the legal reforms of the eighteenth-century Age of Enlightenment (Foster, 2006). At this time scholars were looking for a more humane and reform-oriented alternative to death and corporal punishments of the day (Foster, 2006). Sir Thomas Beever opened the Gaol at Wymondham in Norfolk, England, in 1785, making the principles work, isolation and penitence to make confinement different for prisoners. Next was the Walnut Street Jail that was designed off Beevers ideas, called the first penitentiary in America, which opened in Philadelphia in 1790 (Foster, 2006). Later the Pennsylvania model or separate system and the Auburn model penitentiary were built, which became the American prototype because of its cheapness and economic productivity (Foster, 2006). There were work camps, industrial prisons, and agricultural prisons built during and after the post-Civil War era.
Whereas the Federal Bureau of Prisons was created by an act of Congress signed into law by President Herbert Hoover on, May 14, 1930 (Foster, 2006).Hoover had the office established within the federal Justice Department, as time went on more criminals began serving time in federal prisons. This was especially taken place after the Civil War when the crime rate started to grow out of control, more than it had ever been. Due to this, many state prisons and local jails started experiencing overcrowding problems while housing federal prisoners, and it became more difficult to place federal prisoners in these facilities (Foster, 2006). Congress passed the Three Prisons Act in 1891. Making the first U.S. Penitentiary an old military prison at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, this housed federal prisoners in 1895. Then McNeil Island, Washington another older prison, designed in 1907, as a U.S. Penitentiary. The third one was a newly constructed federal prison in Atlanta, which opened in 1902 (Foster, 2006). Congress also had a womens prison built in Alderson, West Virginia, which opened on November 14, 1928, with over 174 women already being sent to Alderson from state prisons and jails, two-thirds of them being drug law violators and 70 to 80 percent suffering from “social diseases”- what we call sexually transmitted diseases today (Foster, 2006). By the end of the year 1930, the new system was made up of fourteen institutions with over 13,000 inmates. The main difference between the two prison systems is that the citizens out of fear of criminals created one and the other one was created by the President of the United States to help the state and local jails with overcrowding some of which federal crimes play a large part.
Different levels of Security in State and Federal PrisonsWhen looking at prisons, we do not realize there is more than one level to them. I will go over the levels so people will have a better understanding of them. First is going to be the state prisons, also known as the Department of Corrections (Foster, 2006). 1. Maximum-security prisons are often the older, larger, walled penitentiaries with the most rigorous security procedures, the lowest ratio of inmates to guards. There is one-step up from this level, the Supermax prison, which is permanent lockdown. 2. Close High-security prisons in some states, these are considered a kind of maximum security. Though the security measures are less restrictive, the ratio
is in most places the same (if not more). 3. The New York State Prison, which is the lowest-security state prison located in the United States, also has relatively good-quality security—it ranks No. 6 in the National Ranking of Most Secure State Prison in the entire world. The New York State of Prison is ranked No. 10 in the United States for its size and its isolation. This designation is derived from a new security technology developed by the State Department and the National Security Division to monitor secure areas, which includes electronic records with a wide range of security functions. All data about the security situation within that state is obtained in such a way that it is very clear to everyone the security situation is a matter of national, national security. This information was obtained from the Federal Bureau of Prisons (F.B.I.) as part of its surveillance of security activities by law enforcement officers that are in the custody of the United States. It is also a way to gain an understanding of the individual personnel involved in that state or the security situation, how their use of the technology may be influencing national, national security or national security policy in other places in the world. The state prisons in many states are the most secure. At least 6% of the states have prisons to the point where most inmates cannot even access government facilities. 4. New York State is actually the fastest moving point for the percentage of inmates to reach their maximum level. After serving a minimum sentence in prison for 9 years in a sentence of three months, it only became one year younger in 2002. This means that when 10 years old inmates leave the United States, their life insurance pays out the equivalent of $3,000 to the state of New York. The state population was actually growing by 8,500 in 2002, which is an increase of 5%, with an average of 4.9% per year. This is one reason why new and old Americans have difficulty entering prison, because of the current state of life insurance policies (EHS). The number of young adults who are seeking to escape the criminal penalties of their parents and grandparents is increasing fast. In 2004, there were only 1.5 million “unaccompanied minors” (UAPs) in the United States. Currently, 2.9 million of the U.S. population are children born in the United States illegally in state and national custody. 5. According to the most recent official statistics released by the Department of Transportation, the United States has the world’s highest annual passenger car ride volume (4.7 million trips)—one of the highest in human history. Over the last 7 years, we have seen the largest number of road and rail cars. This number exceeds that of the average of 1 in 4 cars per 1,000 people around the world each year (Figure 1). In 2008, we