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Essay on youth prisons
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Essay on youth prisons
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The Yuma Territorial Prison is one of the main pillars in the growth of Arizona as the wild west was tamed. Its existence served not only as a beacon of civilization but that of consequence for those who resisted human expansion’s natural progression. As it existed many thought of it as a joke giving those inside the easy life or the likes of a concentration camp but in the middle of civilian held war, the prison stood toward the future. From near modern advances to holding those refusing to be held and even continueing on helping those of Yuma for years to come. This paper will use sources explaining the history of the prison and be about the experience, conditions, and personality of many of the prisoners along with major events in the prisoners lives explaining how the prison evolved during and after their stay.
The prison, opened in 1876, was started by seven prisoners who built the first few cells. As more cells were build more prisoners were taken in and more manpower was available to build bigger, better, and faster. There were 3,069 prisoners, 26 of them female, through the 33 year run of the prison at 350 a time, most of them having crimes ranging from rape to murder and many more in between. No matter how cunning or dangerous the criminals were they didn’t have much chance to escape. Armed guards, deadly heat, spanning desert, the already secure structure, and rapid rivers that held no hope for any prisoner were all topped off by a Lowell gun which was superior to the Gatling gun at the time. Manufactured by the Ames Mfg. Co. it could fire up to 1000 times a minute and was said to be accurate up to 1000 feet under certain conditions making it fearsome to any prisoner dreaming of a false freedom.
However for those that...
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...from stories of the time. While many sources say that they argue with the wild perpetuation in their first paragraph they then maintain an indefinite description of the prison and attempt not to give a detailed look at the components and history of the prison before it lost life when shutting down aside from those stories describing how wild the west was. With this I was also not able to talk to any true experts of the prison, nor visit the prison or those surviving the ones who lived there on either side of the law causing my knowledge and research to be limited to the web, which as before mentioned is limited by lack of fresh or widely varied information. Had there been more sources that went into detail about the prisons other features aside from its capacity I would have been able to give more than an educated, generalized guess on how the some of the prison was.
In writing the book Newjack: Guarding Sing Sing, Conover undergoes a transformation as a correctional officer in order to expose the problems within our prison systems. The reader learns a lot about what is taking place in prisons right now and what it is like to be a guard, but in sum what one must foremost take into account is that this is not how prisons how they have to be. There are social, political, and economic realities that have constructed this system and in order to dispel them it is more beneficial to understand these factors rather than one man’s experience in a place of power at one prison.
Brubaker snuck into the prison, even after he was named the warden. Nobody in their right mind snuck into a prison, let alone this one in Arkansas. He wanted to see what life was actually like, instead of just hearing what others said (Brubaker). The prisoners believed that one warden or government official was just as bad as the next. They have no reason to believe any different. The prison was basically run by slave labor, using corporal punishment in everyday situations. These situations didn’t even need a reason; sometimes it was done just because.
It is 1787 in the home of Benjamin Franklin where a group of powerful Philadelphians held in high esteem have congregated to deliberate a very pressing issue. They are conversing on the present prison institutions established across America and Europe. It seems that the institutions in both countries are known for their appalling conditions. Benjamin Franklin and his colleagues have set out to change the course of prison history. Their plan is to make a prison system based entirely on reform and enlightenment instead of punishment and misery. They believe prisoners should repent and seek God to help them learn from their mistakes, hence the name penitentiary. After many long years, the men finally reach success and the Eastern State Penitentiary is opened in 1829. America was in a time of reform which was obvious by the opening of such a diverse prison. But no matter how much the Eastern State Penitentiary claims to be averse to torture and harsh conditions, it was after all a prison. From the outside, the Eastern State Penitentiary appeared to be marvelous and sensational, but what went on inside of those massive walls was something entirely different. Life at the Eastern State Penitentiary was unspeakable because of the cell life, disease, and treatment that the inmates had to endure.
Prisoners were put under a monotonous and strict routine designed to keep them from rebelling. They were given the basic human needs: clothing, food, shelter, and medical care. Any other privileges had to be earned. One of the inmates’ biggest complaints was that it was always cold on the island. Another complaint was the rule of silence which banned conversation between inmates except for during recreation time and meals. This rule was eventually discontinued. Prisoners who acted out at Alcatraz were put in either the strip cell or the hole. Both were cells in complete isolation from other inmates but in the strip cell inmates were placed in the lightless cell naked and the only ‘toilet’ was a hole in the ground.
Gresham M. Sykes describes the society of captives from the inmates’ point of view. Sykes acknowledges the fact that his observations are generalizations but he feels that most inmates can agree on feelings of deprivation and frustration. As he sketches the development of physical punishment towards psychological punishment, Sykes follows that both have an enormous effect on the inmate and do not differ greatly in their cruelty.
Governor John Miller suggested there should be a prison built in Jefferson City, Missouri. On January 3, 1833 the bill passed to build the penitentiary. The Missouri State Penitentiary was the first prison to be built. The first prisoner arrived to the prison in 1836. 6 years later the first female prisoner was brought to the prison. Factories and gave to the prison including 6 shoe factories. Prisoners were fed and had housing for 11 cents a day and was named the most efficient prison in the country. In 1900 more than 2,200 prisoners lived at the Missouri State Penitentiary and was called the “Greatest in the World”. Prisoners saved documents during the fire that destroyed the state capital. By 1932
Have you heard of small towns with a really deep and strong history inside it? Well, the small city of Yuma, Arizona, that overlooks the Colorado River, has had so much history that takes us back to the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. Back in 1875, one extreme prison facility opened its doors. This prison would later be an important part of Yuma. The Yuma Territorial Prison was so extreme that not the residents around it, but the own prisoners called it a “hell hole” because of its strong, dry weather, and of how they treated them! Now, we try and understand how things that are now around this State Historic Park helped this facility back in the late 1800’s to early 1900’s. What was the importance of the Colorado River,
They were all charged with armed robbery and burglary, told their legal rights, handcuffed, and shoved into a police to be taken to the police station. There the suspect went through the entire system. According to Zimbardo in his journal, they were booked, warned of their rights, finger-printed, identified, taken to a holding cell and blindfolded until they were transferred to the mock prison. There, each prisoner is brought in to be greeted by the warden one at a time. Being strip searched and then issued a uniform. The uniforms consisted of a dress, and heavy chain for the ankle, sandals, and stocking caps, each crucial to the emasculation and reality of the prison. In addition, prisoners were stripped of their real world identification and given numbers to be identified as. Combined with a disgracing uniform, this made prisoners lose all individuality, especially after having their heads shaved.
Have you ever wondered what’s the toughest jail in the United States is? Have you ever wondered if anybody has ever escaped it? Have you ever wondered how someone could escape it? Frank Morris was in the toughest jail in the U.S, and he has escaped it. The mystery of Frank Morris can be explored through his childhood, how he broke out, and theories on if he is still alive.Frank Morris had a sad childhood, as he was orphaned and was in and out of jail from a young age. Frank Morris’s mother died when he was very young. “From his infant years until his teens Morris was shuffled from one foster home to another.”(The Great Escape from Alcatraz - Page 1 ,2) . Frank committed his first crime at the age of 13. Frank got in a lot of trouble when he was in his childhood from in and out of jails from the age of 13 for robbery and offences.Frank Morris was a young guy who was by himself and that's what started him getting into jails and that eventually let to being incarcerated at Alcatraz. Frank Morris had a very high I.Q and found a plan to escape alcatraz.“The plan was extremely complex and involved the design and fabrication of ingenious lifelike dummies, water rafts, and life preservers, fashioned from over fifty rain coats that had been acquired from other inmates - some donated and some stolen. They would also require a variety of crudely made tools to dig with, and to construct the accessories necessary for the escape.”(The great escape from Alcatraz- page 1, 6). In May of 1962 they had dug through the 6 by 9 cell holes and were ready to take off. The Anglin Brothers had a cell right next to each other. Frank Morris was working with the Anglin brothers ( John and Clarence) were working with them along with Allen West.While the plan was in the process
Our textbook begins discussing early American correctional practices within the first chapter. A few of the main topics talked about in this first chapter were the ways in which people were punished in “early America.” In addition, we also learn where the early American practices originated from and if some were adopted from England. Lastly, this chapter also includes how the early American practices have evolved throughout time and whether they were a result of natural progression or a particular social movement.
The men who played the role of prisoner, like the guards, were selected at random. The harassment they endured, while all voluntary, was by any means less than humane. They were treated with very little respect, and denied basic rights, such as use of the restroom, and were forced to sleep on cold concrete floors for many nights as a form of punishment. When they arrived to the prison, they were stripped down, and given a change of clothes, but the “change of clothes”, was anything but what they expected to receive. They were actually dresses. The dresses were meant to emasculate the men even more than what they had been already. Rendered powerless, with lack of control of their environment, what other choice did they have than to accept what
Prisons have dated back to the twentieth century when the United States had almost two million people confined in prisons or jails. Prisons have been a form of government punishment that has shaped our nation to what it is today. The first jail was established in Philadelphia, in 1970. It was called the Walnut Street Jail and was recorded as the first use of imprisonment through solitary confinement. The basic principles of the new system were to reform those in prison, and to segregate those according to age, sex, and type of offenses charged against them (Schoenherr). The second prison was called Sing-Sing a...
The barracks were originally stables, so they had no heat. The barracks had holes in the walls that allowed the cold air inside. The barracks had no actual floors; they were made of dirt. (living conditions) The prisoners slept in barracks that were intended to hold forty prisoners, but they usually held seven hundred or more. They were extremely crowded in the barracks, especially when they slept. The prisoners had to sleep on wooden bunks made of splintery wood with up to fourteen people each level. (Berkovits Gross 47) They were given rags for blankets instead of actual blankets. (Living conditions) Not only that, but they had to share the “blanket” with about thirteen other people. The Nazis forced the prisoners to live in awful shelters that had no heat, floors, blankets, or actual
“The history of correctional thought and practice has been marked by enthusiasm for new approaches, disillusionment with these approaches, and then substitution of yet other tactics”(Clear 59). During the mid 1900s, many changes came about for the system of corrections in America. Once a new idea goes sour, a new one replaces it. Prisons shifted their focus from the punishment of offenders to the rehabilitation of offenders, then to the reentry into society, and back to incarceration. As times and the needs of the criminal justice system changed, new prison models were organized in hopes of lowering the crime rates in America. The three major models of prisons that were developed were the medical, model, the community model, and the crime control model.
The first place our sound guide took us to was the guard towers. They were about fifty feet tall and held enough room for maybe two guards. The towers looked too old for anybody to get into these days, but they had a view of a good portion of that side of the prison and a good section of the ocean. There were towers stationed the entire way around the prison with maybe 100 yards in between them. The towers were protected with bulletproof glass 360 degrees round. After viewing the towers Sean and I wanted to go see the prison cells. So we turned off our guide tapes for awhile and started heading up to the prison house. Everywhere Sean and I looked, it seemed like the entire place was just eroded. Some places were fenced off because they were not safe enough for spectators like ourselves to get close enough to look at.