3. Correction is the art of making right that which was wrong, a change that remedies an error or
defect. Until the times of Henry II in 1164, imprisonment as a corrective measure for criminals was
nonexistent. Cruel and, by today's standards, unusual corporal punishment were the only corrective
measures known. During the reign of Edward I in the latter half of the thirteenth century,
imprisonment came into extensive use and gradually replaced barbaric methods of corporal
punishment, which previously had been used as the sole corrective measure.
4. Both imprisonment and corporal punishment existed side by side as corrective measures until, by
the process of evolution, the latter faded into virtual nonexistence in civilized western society. The
only vestige of corporal punishment that a remains today in the United States, is the extreme form;
the death penalty. Today's prisons are highly specialized institutions based on sound psychological
and psychiatric principles for the treatment and rehabilitation of the convicted offender.
5. Primitive societies often attributed serious disasters, which affected them, as being imposed
through the intervention of supernatural agencies. Thus, an earthquake or flood was attributed to
the gods being displeased. Custom and tradition were regarded as necessary rules that had to exist
to keep the gods appeased. Later on, these customs and traditions were modified into laws. When a
member of society transgressed one of these rules, it was believed that the whole group would be
exposed to the wrath of operating supernatural agencies. Thus, to protect the group, the offender
was eliminated from the group, usually by execution or exile. Thus, continued survival of the social
order was assured.
6. Today, the convicted criminal is removed from modern society for actions considered dangerous
to the group, but such drastic means as recounted above are not used. At present, more than 1.3
million people are under correctional authority in the United States. Of these, only one-third are
confined in institutions of one kind or another. Deeply embedded in the social thinking of the
public is the belief that convicted criminals ought to be sent to prison. The public looks upon such
convicted persons as a menace and seems to breathe a sigh of relief when the convicted persons are
locked up. The average citizen has accepted the thesis, that a person who commits a crime is
dangerous, and therefore, should be sent to prison for punishment as well as to deter others from
committing the same offense.
7. This general belief on the part of the public is largely motivated by revenge. The better view,
which has emerged, is that individualized treatment and rehabilitation of offenders is the
appropriate policy. It is on this thesis that modern correctional facilities operate. This is not to say
that everyone who commits a crime, by definition, is a dangerous criminal. Some are, and for these
persons, long-term incarceration is the only alternative. However, there is no such thing as a
common motive crime. The thief, burglar, rapist, murderer, habitual traffic violator, drug addict,
corrupt politician, forger, drunk, deserter, Absent Without Leave (AWOL) Soldier, and conspirator
may all be considered criminals. Nevertheless, for as many types of criminals as you can think of,
some can, after paying their debts to society in some form, again be useful and productive members
of society. It is to this need that the science of penology and the art of corrections address
themselves.
8. It was long thought that recorded history was only a matter of some 3,000 years. Historians,
however, have found written historical records that existed at least 4,000 years before Christ. A
contemporary scholar has examined these earliest known written records and has concluded that
these ancient people believed that man was prone to evil since his creation and, therefore, criminal
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