Introduction to Correctional Studies Masterworks.
1. Introduction to Gustave de Baumont and Alexis de Tocqueville.
On the penitentiary system in the United States and its application in France
FOR EXAMPLE;John Howard becomes High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. High sheriffs are ceremonial officials who preside over court proceedings for each of the former counties of England, Wales, and Northern Ireland. They can also be the head sheriff of many states with hired sheriffs. In 1773, Howard disliked the prison systems he worked for in England since the conditions were deplorable. There were diseases, vermin, dead people, and overall unsanitary conditions. (Panzarella & Vona, 2013, pp.227) Howard decided this was not his environment, so he traveled across Europe, searching for a prison with humane conditions. During his time there, he noticed that it was light and day from the previous prison he worked in. Howard went on to write The State of Prisons(1777). He provides a blueprint for a reformed jail based on what he had seen in Europe and details the appalling circumstances in English prisons. (Panzarella & Vona, 2013, pp.277) Once interesting in prison reform, people like Gustave de Beaumont and Alexis de Tocqueville, who came from aristocratic families, studied history and government where they graduated from the Paris university. The French government wanted to fix the prison conditions, so Baurmont and Tocqueville offered to go to America, where they would look into Penitentiary systems. The importance of these systems was because they offered a new philosophy of what a prison should do and what it should look like. (Panzarella & Vona, 2013, pp.280) Alexis de Tocqueville and Gustave de Beaumont are about the Penitentiary System in the United States and how these two researchers applied this knowledge in France. The work includes a critique of the Auburn and Philadelphia systems.(Panzarella & Vona, 2013, pp.283) Two competing American penitentiary disciplines. A determination of whether American penitentiaries can operate successfully in France. A thorough account of Houses of Refuge, the nation’s first juvenile detention facilities, and defense of penal colonization. The book offers insightful analyses of Tocqueville’s role as a statesman and takes a comparative look at citizen participation in the early French and American campaigns for criminal reform.
