Corrections is a term that describes the punishment, treatment, and supervision of people who are convicted of delinquent and criminal offenses along with a variety of legal entities required for carrying this out (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.5). These days, corrections are believed to fulfill the need of the society to adequately respond to the criminal behavior. In particular, corrections have the following aims: to stop the offensive conduct, decrease the likelihood it will occur again, as well as make the criminal pay a price. These are the goals of incapacitation, deterrence, and retribution (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.6). The investigation of the historical perspective on correction helps understand which factors from the past have the greatest influence on the modern system.
From one historical perspective, corrections, or the penal system, have been used throughout the centuries “to suppress whole classes of individuals that are considered treats to the existing social structure” (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.18). This view is supported by researchers Rusche and Kirchheimer, who, in particular, analyzed the history of corrections from the Marxist perspective, and by researcher Thorsten Sellin. Rusche & Kirchheimer, for example, wrote that “underprivileged social strata” were the focus of the penal system as the latter helped keep them in fear of further decline in their existence mode (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.18). Sellin, in his turn, believed that corrections were used to protect the society from being deprived of its values and conserve the society from various outside impacts. Thorsten’s powerful example of corrections is slavery, which he believed to be an extreme form of correction. Another view, which complements the first one, is that corrections have always served the economic needs of the governments and societies, which can be true judging by the transformations in treating prisoners occurring over time (Krisberg et al., 2014). For example, criminals were sent to colonies at the times of the birth of colonialism; during the time of industrialization, prisons were turned into factories to meet the demands of manufacturing. These days, when large prison population became unnecessary for the economy, the government, in certain cases, offers “alternatives to incarceration,” given the fiscal pressure on the state” (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.18). In addition, Sellin observes that corrections served still another purpose in the society – to help an individual save his/her soul through inducing him to repentance and atonement (Sellin, n.d., par.3).
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"Corrections History and Impact on Modern Corrections".
These past realities/factors have seriously affected the present corrections system and its operations. One example is the mass incarceration of black and Latino people as a means of control of one social class over another. This practice is rooted in the practices of the Angola Prison arranged on a former plantation and sustaining the racist and punitive environment as well as in the Jim Crow laws, which sanctified the mass incarceration and punishment of the black people (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.10). As a matter of fact, mass incarceration among blacks and Latinos today can be a tool of exerting control over minorities and migrants as the underprivileged class in the American society. Likewise, the focus on the poor and privileges for the rich in the present corrections system reflect the old ways and the desire of the rich to control the poor. For example, the poor received penal sanctions in the medieval times if they were unable to pay the fine (Krisberg, Marchionna, & Hartney, 2014, p.20). This reminds of the modern practice of bailment that only benefits those who are able to pay either themselves or through their relatives whereas the poor have to stay in a correctional facility because they do not have money. In this way, the poor are disciplined as a class these days as it was years ago.
In conclusion, the present corrections system is rooted in the historical realities. It has served certain historical purposes and even though much has changed many practices from the past continue to thrive today.
- Krisberg, B., Marchionna, S. & Hartney, C.(2014). American corrections: Concepts and controversies. SAGE.
- Sellin, T. (n.d.) Correction in historical perspective. Retrieved August 11, 2016 from http://scholarship.law.duke.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2768&context=lcp.
