Historical look at how the system (law enforncement, courts or corrections) began

Historical look at corrections systems

Criminal justice refers to the system used by a government to maintain social control , prevent crime , enforce laws and administer justice

Law enforcement (police , the courts and corrections (prisons ) are the primary agencies charged with these responsibilities

The discussion contained in this is on the corrections as a division in the criminal justice system

World over , the police are invloved in law enforcement . Those who break the law , regarded as offenders , are charged in a court of law and if found guilty are passed over to

the corrections Corrections , according to (The Wikipedia encyclopedia , n .d ) Rretrieved March 14 , 2007 , from http /en .wikipedia .org /wiki /Prison database , refer to one of the components of the criminal justice system that serves to punish and in many instances rehabilitate criminal offenders

Sentences given to offenders range from probation to serving time in prison , or community corrections program , home confinement , and electronic monitoring . Financial penalties may include fines forfeiture , and restitution . World over , prisons remain the primary type of institution for housing offenders

Prison , penitentiary , or correctional facility , Wakipedia encyclopedia says , is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned , and usually deprived of a range of personal freedoms

The prison , says (The Howard League for Penal Reform n .d ) History of Prison : Retrieved March 14 , 2007 , from http /www .howardleague .org database , is just one of a number of sanctions available to the courts to deal with those who commit criminal offences

A historical look at corrections systems

In the 16th and 17 century , according to The Howard League for Penal Reform , sanctions for criminal behaviour tended to be public events which were designed to shame the person and deter others these included the ducking stool , the pillory , whipping , branding and the stocks . At the time the sentence for many other offences was death

Prison tended to be a place where people were held before their trial or while awaiting punishment . Men and women , boys and girls , debtors and murderers were all held together in local prisons

It was very rarely used as a punishment in its own right . The correction system , by all standards was quite brutal as after one being convicted he or she was either subjected to instant punishment such as whipping or even death

Howard League of Penal Reform says that Evidence suggests that the prisons of this period were badly maintained and often controlled by negligent prison warders . Many people died of diseases like gaol fever which was a form of typhus

Houses of correction were originally part of the machinery of the Poor Law , intended to instil habits of industry through prison labour

Most of those held in them were petty offenders , vagrants and the disly local poor

By the end of the 17th century they were absorbed into the prison system under the control of the local Justices of the Peace

The league points out that although the 18th century has been characterised as the era...