Assignment on Criminal Justice in PDF

Running head: CRIMINAL JUSTICE
CRIMINAL JUSTICE
Name of the Student
Name of the University
Author Note

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Introduction
Prison reform refers to the attempt that is made in order to improve and progress the
conditions or circumstances in relation to the prisons. It is regarded as a process with the help of
which the helpfulness and the efficacy regarding a penal system is improved. Prison reform also
implement and apply alternatives or replacements instead of incarceration. Prison reform
emphases on making sure that the individuals whose lives are affected by misconducts,
wrongdoings and crimes, are reinstated. It may be said that in the present times, the notion
relating to the safety of living areas have expanded from the general civil population to the
prisons, on the ethical foundation that unsanitary and unsafe prisons shall cause a violation of the
constitutional law, which prohibits unusual and cruel punishment. Presently, the ideas in relation
to prison reforms generally involve access to family members, legal counsel, conjugal visits and
pre-emptive security and safety against violence. It also includes the implementation of house
arrest with assistance of modern technology (Pappe, 2017).
This paper forwards a discussion in relation to the prisons reforms, the history related to
prison reforms, the present activities of prison reforms, and developments in relation to prison
reform from the early years to the present days. This paper has discussed the writings of Alexis
De Tocqueville and Gustave De Beaumont in relation to the penitentiary structure of the nation
of the United States and the application of such in relation to the nation of France.
Discussion
The History
For centuries the prisons had been utilized for the purpose of chief punishment in relation
to criminal activities and wrongdoings. In the initial years, the kinds of punishments included

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public humiliation, banishment, corporal punishment, penal bondage and capital punishment.
The concept and idea in connection to incarceration was presented in the year of 1750 as a more
humanitarian and compassionate method of punishment in comparison to the capital and corporal
punishment as mentioned above. Such concept was articulated in connection to the criminals and
the wrongdoers in order to partake and contribute in relation to religious self-reform and self-
reflection. The term ‘penitentiary’ was formed keeping in mind the word ‘penance’ (Dikötter, &
Brown, 2018).
According to G. De Beaumont and A. De Tocqueville, the initial thought or idea in
relation to reform regarding the prisons of the nation of the United States, was evolved by a
particular religious faction in the state of Pennsylvania. The Quakers are considered to be an
association of Christian individuals. As per the aforementioned writers, the members of the
aforementioned group of Christian individuals detested any kind of bloodshed. This group never
supported such inhumane rules and laws and all the time protested and objected in contradiction
to the inhumane laws that took place in their nation (Blomberg, 2017). In the year of 1786, this
group was able to spread the awareness in relation to the inhumane laws that took place in the
nation of the United States. Hence, from this time onwards punishments such as mutilation,
death penalty and whipping were successfully eradicated by the legislature of the state of
Pennsylvania in most of the cases. Therefore, the convicts or criminals suffered less in
comparison to the initial punishments. It was permitted by the law that the courts shall be able to
authorize the infliction of solitary imprisonment in a particular cell in relation to all the
individuals who all were held guilty in connection to capital crimes. During such time the
‘Walnut Street Prison’ was created in the city of Philadelphia. The prisoners who all were
convicted were categorized in the aforementioned prison as per the nature of the crimes that they

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were involved in. It has been stated by the writers mentioned above that special cells and
chambers were erected in order to keep the individuals who all were penalized and condemned to
complete isolation by the courts of justice (Benson, 2017).
G. De Beaumont and A. De Tocqueville discussed that even with the abolition of the
capital punishment or the death penalty, the criminals and the wrongdoers who all were spared
must be subjected to a discipline in the prison framework that would cause the betterment of the
convicts. If there is no discipline, and rather than any kind of reformation, the prison structure
further degrades a particular convict, then it cannot be considered as a penitentiary system,
instead it shall be regarded as bad system in relation to imprisonment or confinement. It has been
mentioned by Beaumont and Tocqueville that the nation of France also repeated similar errors as
that of the nation of the United States in relation to the reform of the convicts of the prisons. As
per the Duke of La Rochefoucauld-Liancourt, the prison of the Philadelphia gained the status of
being a prison having an excellent structure. However, the Walnut Prison failed to gain such
status primarily because of two reasons. Firstly, it corrupted and tainted the convicts who
performed their work in a collective manner by the septicity of reciprocal and conjoint
communications. Secondly, it corrupted and tainted the redundancy of the convicts who were
lurched into isolation (Benson, 2017).
Reform
The reform shall be understood to be the reform in relation to the convicts and not the
reform in relation to the penal structure. The primary objective is the repairing of the deficiencies
in relation to a particular convict and send them back to the society as productive, prolific and
useful member in connection to the society. According to Tocqueville and Beaumont, it shall be
regarded as an idea or a standard that the most infamous, notorious and disreputable being may