The Pennsylvania System Dissertation Example

Free The Pennsylvania System Dissertation Example

Name: Instructor’s Name: Course: Date: The Pennsylvania System and Its Impact on the Current System The Pennsylvania system or the separate system was based on the principle that prisoners should be kept in solitary confinements so that prisoners could reflect on their acts, pray, study the Bible, repent and seek to live a better moral life upon their release (Currie 114). An inmate spent day and night in his or her cell, which had a small space for exercise, and they ate and worked of various crafts alone since the interaction between inmates was forbidden so as to avoid negative influence and encourage the inmates to change by contemplating on their wrongdoings (Currie 115). Certain approaches and actual methods may have been modified over the years, but rehabilitation is still a primary goal that of the criminal justice system in the United States. Just as the Pennsylvania system intended to make people live a better moral life after being released, the current penal system in the U.S. sends people to rehabilitation centers in order to reform them, so that they can be better people in the society (Currie 132). Although the physical condition of the solitary confinement prisons has changed, the system has taken its toll on prisoners just as it did in the ancient times. It is considered as the most severe type of punishment that an inmate can be forced to endure in the modern day. Despite being used sparingly, the system poses mental severe health problems. Under the current legal system, any form of abuse has a specified period that the perpetrator is subjected to inside a rehabilitation center (Currie 135). A person involved in drug abuse is usually admitted to a rehabilitation center where he or she is only released once the center is sure that the person cannot be involved in cases of drug addiction anymore (Currie 138). This is similar to the intentions of the Pennsylvania system where inmates were released once it is determined that one will have ...