Search results
Results From The WOW.Com Content Network
A 19th-century jail room at a Pennsylvania museum. A prison, [a] also known as a jail, [b] gaol, [c] penitentiary, detention center, [d] correction center, correctional facility, remand center, hoosegow, or slammer, is a facility where people are imprisoned under the authority of the state, usually as punishment for various crimes.
New York, New Jersey, and Virginia updated and reduced their capital crime lists. This reduction of capital crimes created a need for other forms of punishment, which led to incarceration of longer periods of time. The oldest prison was built in York, Maine in 1720. The very first jail that turned into a state prison was the Walnut Street Jail ...
David Marshall Williams (November 13, 1900 – January 8, 1975) was an American firearms designer and convicted murderer who invented the floating chamber and the short-stroke gas piston. Both designs used the high-pressure gas generated in or near the breech of the firearm to operate the action of semi-automatic firearms like the M1 Carbine.
A statute in May 1930 provided for the employment of prisoners, [7] the creation of a corporation for the purpose was authorized by a statute in June 1934, [8] [9] and the Federal Prison Industries was created by executive order in December 1934 by Franklin D. Roosevelt. [9] [10]
The prison was created in February 1864 and served until April 1865. The site was commanded by Captain Henry Wirz, who was tried and executed after the war for war crimes. The prison was overcrowded to four times its capacity, and had an inadequate water supply, inadequate food, and unsanitary conditions.
He traces how ideas about prisons transition from being discussed in theory to becoming physical buildings and implemented systems. Hirsch also shows that there wasn't just one compelling reason behind favoring penitentiaries as a solution. There were many conflicting beliefs. Thus, this made prison philosophy complicated and ultimately ...
When the Eastern State Penitentiary, or Cherry Hill as it was known at the time, was erected in 1829 in Francisville (the idea of this new prison was created in a meeting held at Benjamin Franklin's house in 1787) it was the largest and most expensive public structure in the country. [9]
An 1855 engraving of New York's Sing Sing Penitentiary, which also followed the Auburn System. The Auburn system (also known as the New York system and Congregate system) is a penal method of the 19th century in which prisoners worked during the day in groups and were kept in solitary confinement at night, with enforced silence at all times.