crimes against persons and property. Kings delegated the authority to certain agencies to execute
punishment. Crimes were considered to be offenses against the king and the gods. Punishment
continued to take the form of execution, thus affording vengeance as well as acting as a deterrent.
Moses, one of our earliest lawgivers, originated the code of an eye for an eye. While there was still
a strong motive of retribution, gradually the intent of the offender began to be considered.
17. Crimes formerly settled by blood feuds became recognized as offenses against the king's peace
and were matters to be settled by public authorities rather than by individuals.
PART B - Historical Development.
1. It is a common misconception that incarceration has been a standard type of punishment since
time immemorial. Incarceration in dungeons was employed only for detention purposes before a
trial and infliction of the real punishment.
2. The advent of Christianity and the influences of the church on western civilization resulted in the
addition of a religious philosophy to the development of corrections. For example, individuals were
often made to serve a period as monks in repentance for their sins.
3. In addition to incarceration in castle-type facilities, the use of deportation became a means of
punishment. The first English law authorizing deportation was passed in 1557. In 1619, James I
directed that 100 dissolute persons be sent to Virginia. (Some of our earliest colonists, therefore,
were criminals.) In 1678, judges were empowered to deport certain traitors to America. From 1678
until the beginning of the American Revolution, some 15,000 to 100,000 persons were deported to
America. Masters of vessels often sold convicts to the highest bidder in the colonies. Some
deportees or convicts had considerable education for the times and became tutors and educators.
4. Separation of the original 13 British colonies from the mother country in 1776 stopped the
deportation of convicts to America. (The British, however, still used deportation to such countries
as New Zealand and Australia.) When deportation to America stopped, there were not enough jails
in England to hold the prisoners. Convicts were placed in old boats or hulks and were then
transported to other locations.
5. French penal colonies imitated the British scheme of deportation as early as 1791. French
convicts were sent to Guiana and New Caledonia. Convicts sent to New Caledonia in 1864 were
put to work on roads and in sugar refineries owned by planters. Early accounts tell us that they
made poor workers. About 20,000 persons were deported between 1864 and 1893. Some of these
lifers were still alive as recently as 1942. Efforts to found penal colonies in Guiana go back to
1763. During one of these early experiences, almost 14,000 people died.
6. The French still deport prisoners. Some of the most degrading and brutal conditions imaginable
are still found in French penal colonies, surpassed perhaps only by the Siberian convict camps.
7. Russia began exiling convicts to Siberia as early as 1648. Siberian convict camps constitute one
of the most brutalizing and degrading penal systems ever devised. Two types of exile existed under
the Siberian system: those convicts considered to have forfeited all civil rights and those who retain
civil rights only after undergoing long terms of penal servitude. During their incarceration, convicts
lost all property. Convicts were considered legally dead and wives could remarry. Under certain
6
Previous Page
