Deck 2: The History of American Corrections: Where Did We Come From

Question 1

Who authored The State of the Prisons (1777), criticizing conditions in hulks, which encouraged British Parliament to pass legislation providing for the building of more safe, secure, and sanitary prisons on land?

A) Alexander Maconochie
B) John Howard
C) Cesare Lombroso
D) Walter Crofton

Answer 1

B

Question 2

Among most colonials of European ancestry, the most common explanation for committing crime was ________ in nature.

A) supernatural
B) destiny
C) religious
D) fateful

Answer 2

C

Question 3

Which of the following was the most common Colonial Era punishment?

A) The fine
B) The ducking stool
C) The stocks
D) The brank

Answer 3

A

Question 4

If offenders returned from exile or refused to leave, which was used as a last resort for the community to protect itself?

A) Hanging
B) Drowning
C) Shooting
D) Prison

Question 5

One practice in the 1700s to correct people from their lives of idleness, in effect, made it a crime to be ___________?

A) lazy
B) dumb
C) carefree
D) poor

Question 6

What was the birth state of the American penitentiary?

A) New York
B) Massachusetts
C) Pennsylvania
D) Connecticut

Question 7

The primary hallmarks of both the Pennsylvania and Auburn systems were _________ and _________.

A) total solitary confinement; developing trade skills
B) total solitary confinement; religious instruction
C) developing trade skills; religious instruction
D) religious instruction; group therapy sessions

Question 8

In order for inmates to be cleansed of evil influences, prisons were built where?

A) Remote areas
B) Small towns
C) Big cities
D) Industrial zones

Question 9

The ascendency of President ___________ and his egalitarian ideas signaled American attempts to help (and isolate) those who could not fit into mainstream society.

A) James Madison
B) James Monroe
C) John Quincy Adams
D) Andrew Jackson

Question 10

Under the ___________, a business interest or farmer would lease an inmate's labor from the state for a fee, or sometimes for free, to save the cost of feeding and housing the prisoner.

A) "rent-an-inmate system"
B) "borrow-a-convict system"
C) "inmate work release system"
D) "convict lease system"

Question 11

________ established indeterminate sentencing, in which the amount of time an inmate served depended partly upon his or her behavior while in prison.

A) Walter Crofton
B) Benjamin Rush
C) Alexander Maconochie
D) Robert Martinson

Question 12

Who authored the speech "The Ideal of a True Prison System for a State"?

A) Alexander Maconochie
B) Zebulon Brockway
C) John Howard
D) Robert Martinson

Question 13

The first completely separate women's prison was built in 1873 near ____________.

A) Indianapolis, Indiana
B) Chicago, Illinois
C) Boston, Massachusetts
D) New York City, New York

Question 14

The National Prison Association, which was founded in the _______, became increasingly active during the Progressive Era.

A) 1900s
B) 1890s
C) 1880s
D) 1870s

Question 15

__________, an Italian prison physician, published his beliefs that criminals could be identified by physical traits.

A) Cesare Lombroso
B) Benjamin Rush
C) Robert Martinson
D) Walter Crofton

Question 16

Supreme Court Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. wrote that "three generations of imbeciles are enough" in the decision upholding Virginia's sterilization laws in what case?

A) Holt v. Sarver
B) Buck v. Bell
C) Skinner v. Oklahoma
D) Ruffin v. Commonwealth

Question 17

Which case marked the end of most sterilizations?

A) Holt v. Sarver
B) Buck v. Bell
C) Skinner v. Oklahoma
D) Ruffin v. Commonwealth

Question 18

Which of the following was not listed as an example of a "big house" prison?

A) Alcatraz
B) Sing Sing
C) Stateville
D) Rikers

Question 19

The positivist ideal that criminal behavior could be "cured" through medical means greatly influenced American corrections through which decades?

A) 1910s and 1920s
B) 1930s and 1940s
C) 1950s and 1960s
D) 1970s and 1980s

Question 20

By the 1960s, some prisons, most notably in ________, were fully engaged in offering a wide array of programs.

A) California
B) Illinois
C) New York
D) New Jersey

Question 21

In 1964, President ___________, fulfilling an election promise to deal with crime, established a Commission to conduct a comprehensive study of crime and the administration of criminal justice in the United States.

A) John F. Kennedy
B) Lyndon Johnson
C) Richard Nixon
D) Gerald Ford

Question 22

__________ became the rallying cry of those who had long opposed prison rehabilitation and of others who had recently become disenchanted with rehabilitation efforts after Martinson's report was released in 1974.

A) "Zero tolerance"
B) "Change now"
C) "Total failure"
D) "Nothing works"

Question 23

Feely and Simon (1992), in "The New Penology," recognize a shift toward a(n) ______________ model of penology.

A) "punishment-based"
B) "rehabilitation-based"
C) "insurance-based"
D) "deterrence-based"

Question 24

Which state led the nation in the percentage of citizens in prison in the 1980s?

A) Georgia
B) Texas
C) Alabama
D) Arizona

Question 25

"America's toughest sheriff", Sheriff Joseph M. Arpaio, runs a "no frills" administration in his county jail located in what state?

A) California
B) Arizona
C) Arkansas
D) Nevada

Question 26

The American Revolution brought a halt to importation of English prisoners to the United States.

Question 27

Similar to a "scarlet letter" punishment, sometimes offenders in Colonial America were branded with a hot iron, for example, the letter "V" for vagabond or the letter "D" for drunkard.

Question 28

The U.S. Supreme Court has used the phrase "objectively reasonable" in deciding whether certain punishments are Constitutional.

Question 29

Eastern State Penitentiary was America's "first true correctional institution."

Question 30

The method of administration used at Eastern came to be known as the "Pennsylvania system" or "separate system," and Auburn became associated with the term "congregate system."

Question 31

What were some of the early forms of correctional punishment? Do you think these punishments were effective? Explain your answer.

Question 32

What was the convict lease system? What were some of the abuses that resulted from the use of the convict lease system?

Question 33

Did America move in the right direction during the deinstitutionalization movement? Why or why not?

Question 34

In view of the history of corrections, is the get-tough approach to dealing with offenders proper or misguided? Explain.

Question 35

Describe the differences between the Pennsylvania (separate) system and the New York (congregate) system of prisons.

Question 36

When viewing the history of correctional rehabilitation efforts, do you think those who said "nothing works" were correct? Explain.

Question 37

Some say to ignore history is to be condemned to repeat its mistakes. Do you notice any current practices that seem to ignore the lessons of history?

Question 38

Ethics Focus: What is Barbaric?
History offers examples of practices that were considered acceptable and even praiseworthy at one time but are now considered either barbaric or simply antiquated. One example is the use of punishments like the stocks, where offenders were put on public display to both punish them and deter others from such offenses.
-Are we doing anything in the twenty-first century that you think will eventually be considered barbaric or, at best, antiquated? For example, do you think that one day people might consider lethal injection barbaric?

Question 39

Ethics Focus: What is Barbaric?
History offers examples of practices that were considered acceptable and even praiseworthy at one time but are now considered either barbaric or simply antiquated. One example is the use of punishments like the stocks, where offenders were put on public display to both punish them and deter others from such offenses.
-Will the idea of locking people up in prisons ever turn into a practice that will appear cruel and unusual or just terribly old-fashioned, or, conversely, will the future provide a primary means of punishment that is so harsh that imprisonment will seem quaint by comparison? What do you think? Discuss.