- Series
- Prison document
- Air Date
- 1958-01-01
- Duration
- 00:30:29
- Episode Description
- Traces the historical development of the concept of punishment for crime, establishes the current conflict in penal philosophy.
- Series Description
- A documentary series that examines prisons and their purposes.
- Subject(s)
- Creator(s)
- Florida State University (Producer)
- Contributors
- Stone, Thomas (Engineer)Ragsdale, Bill (Engineer)Flynn, Roy (Narrator)
- Genre(s)
- Geographic Region(s)
- regions
- Time Period
- 1951-1960
[00:05 - 00:09]
It is the judge of the law
[00:09 - 00:16]
of the ranch.
[00:16 - 00:17]
Would you
[00:17 - 00:29]
be in the county
[00:29 - 00:34]
courthouse the circuit judge sentences a convicted defendant within a few hours the
[00:34 - 00:38]
former accused will become a convict a prisoner an inmate of a state
[00:38 - 00:43]
penitentiary. What kind of institution will he enter. Under
[00:43 - 00:48]
what conditions will he do. What will be done to or for
[00:48 - 00:53]
him in your state. Will he be merely punished or will an attempt
[00:53 - 00:58]
be made to understand him as an individual in need of help to find a
[00:58 - 01:03]
partial answer to these questions. Questions to which the public is paid slight
[01:03 - 01:08]
attention from earliest times a representative of the Florida State University
[01:08 - 01:13]
visited state penal institutions throughout the United States. The result of these
[01:13 - 01:18]
visits is a prison document a series of radio programs in
[01:18 - 01:22]
which the individuals involved from the governor to the lowliest prison or
[01:22 - 01:27]
tell their own story it is because man has made spectacular
[01:27 - 01:31]
advances in fields of science and engineering.
[01:31 - 01:36]
It does not mean that his achievements have been equally significant in all
[01:36 - 01:40]
fields. The criminology is done today for instance
[01:40 - 01:45]
cannot take a happy view of progress in penal methods in
[01:45 - 01:50]
colonial America the colonists employed the penal methods inherited from their English
[01:50 - 01:51]
homeland.
[01:51 - 01:55]
Torture and corporal punishment were inflicted for minor offenses. Death was
[01:55 - 02:00]
usually given for felonies. Stocks pillory whipping post dunking
[02:00 - 02:05]
stool branding mutilation. All of these are forms of punishment. Americans
[02:05 - 02:10]
remember from high school history classes. Today's penal methods are generally
[02:10 - 02:14]
less fearsome presidents if you got caught talking to master our.
[02:14 - 02:19]
After the bell rang. But because I live under the
[02:19 - 02:24]
dome they might. Miss one
[02:24 - 02:29]
fiber of thought for getting up that she could watch it
[02:29 - 02:33]
for hours why he had allowed that for hours and it was
[02:33 - 02:36]
supper time when you lost me.
[02:36 - 02:40]
But that was an exception perhaps by the way did this happen
[02:40 - 02:45]
in your state. It did happen in a state penitentiary not
[02:45 - 02:49]
many months ago. That was the prisoner himself who told the story
[02:49 - 02:55]
as we started to say we do not have a stocks the dunking stool
[02:55 - 02:59]
branding and other forms of colonial torture in America today.
[02:59 - 03:04]
They had holes I wouldn't get mad. When you clean. Just
[03:04 - 03:10]
run down field or sell houses you get bread and water every day and you get a meal every three days.
[03:10 - 03:14]
That was in a different state. Was it yours. Another
[03:14 - 03:15]
exception.
[03:15 - 03:20]
I was accused of having a gun in the prison. How long were you in for
[03:20 - 03:25]
myself. It was. About six to six in
[03:25 - 03:33]
complete darkness. And of light our sound our shining
[03:33 - 03:38]
you know me all the time. Yes yes.
[03:38 - 03:42]
Did it have any effect on you when you came out did you have to
[03:42 - 03:45]
abstain and came out.
[03:45 - 03:50]
And I couldn't see. I overate and person I know my life and just
[03:50 - 03:54]
today in America we don't brand prisoners.
[03:54 - 03:57]
We don't have the pillory or the whipping post.
[03:57 - 04:04]
They're for life. In my hand that's playing
[04:04 - 04:10]
I mean it's tough because it brought them up pretty bad. I think I was
[04:10 - 04:14]
20. And how many legs do you get mice when I
[04:14 - 04:19]
did this happen in your state.
[04:19 - 04:25]
The harm done by crime is caused by a comparatively small
[04:25 - 04:30]
number of people but in harm is done by wrong methods of
[04:30 - 04:35]
punishment. The whole community is answerable. It is
[04:35 - 04:39]
therefore right that every member of the community should have the
[04:39 - 04:44]
opportunity of knowing what is done in his name by those
[04:44 - 04:49]
responsible for carrying out the methods of punishment provided by law.
[04:49 - 04:54]
These words of the Right Honorable Herbert Morrison expressed succinctly the purpose of this series
[04:54 - 04:59]
of programs prison document. It is in the administration of our criminal
[04:59 - 05:04]
justice that we find many of the most acute problems of American Penology and it
[05:04 - 05:09]
is with the administration of our criminal justice as it affects the adult male offender
[05:09 - 05:14]
imprisoned in state penitentiaries. But prison document is concerned the
[05:14 - 05:18]
stories you have just heard from the prisoners themselves tell an unpleasant side of
[05:18 - 05:23]
our penal methods. However not all aspects of today's prison life are
[05:23 - 05:28]
as dismal as the punishment of inmates for infractions of prison rules.
[05:28 - 05:31]
Yeah sure they would think that they are outstanding
[05:31 - 05:38]
now. It used to be that a prisoner wouldn't be
[05:38 - 05:43]
caught talking to me or to any of them if they
[05:43 - 05:47]
did the other prayer he would read every
[05:47 - 05:53]
now. I expect when I start back in there probably
[05:53 - 05:58]
be a half a dead stop and tell people you're singing with a more
[05:58 - 06:00]
friendly.
[06:00 - 06:05]
They have gotten even tougher over the problem unless you are proud of being proud and
[06:05 - 06:10]
saying that they wouldn't dream of killing in
[06:10 - 06:14]
spite of instances of treatment of prisoners by guards.
[06:14 - 06:18]
They are co-occur studio offices the most up to date institutions. We find
[06:18 - 06:23]
but vengeance still motivates much of our basic penal law the
[06:23 - 06:28]
public still vacillates between a desire to make well-adjusted citizens out of offenders
[06:28 - 06:33]
and a desire to make them pay dearly for their offenses. More than one
[06:33 - 06:38]
majority on criminology firmly believes that although imprisonment may seem to be
[06:38 - 06:42]
an advance over physical punishment inmates have very seldom been treated
[06:42 - 06:47]
intelligently by wardens or guards. In visits to prisons
[06:47 - 06:52]
our reporter found some evidence of poor inmate officer relations.
[06:52 - 06:57]
While I was talking with a group of prisoners in a recreation yard one of them left the group and
[06:57 - 07:01]
started to walk toward a small building nearby. Immediately the guard on the nearest
[07:01 - 07:06]
tower started to yell and swear at the man telling him to get his blank so-and-so away from the
[07:06 - 07:11]
building and get back to the group. Other prisoners told me that this was a common
[07:11 - 07:16]
occurrence and that the same guard had served notice on one of them that if the prisoner did not
[07:16 - 07:21]
cut out his blank swearing he would blank Well report them into the warden. The chaplain
[07:21 - 07:26]
confirmed this and also told me that at least one guard at this institution was in the habit
[07:26 - 07:29]
of bragging to outsiders about having killed two prisoners.
[07:29 - 07:35]
Underlying all of our penal treatment are the basic considerations by which we justify the
[07:35 - 07:40]
measures employed. One theory justifies brutal and coercive treatment by
[07:40 - 07:45]
rationalizing that society could act no differently under the circumstances.
[07:45 - 07:50]
Other theories attempt to deal logically with criminals on the basis of their offenses.
[07:50 - 07:54]
Still a lot of theories are concerned with helping the offender through redirecting his
[07:54 - 07:59]
attitudes into a will to conform before attempting to
[07:59 - 08:04]
understand our prisons. We should consider the present conflict in penal theory
[08:04 - 08:06]
a real credo.
[08:06 - 08:11]
A Filipina nom de guerre he would have said we were already
[08:11 - 08:15]
Moti con crew member that I thought it had a very bad credit probably
[08:15 - 08:20]
cracked back in me just sat here. Meaning Of course he barely
[08:20 - 08:25]
passed it and I believe he now can be
[08:25 - 08:30]
inactive a balance of one army against a private member with a
[08:30 - 08:34]
savvy. It should be public good and
[08:34 - 08:35]
necessary.
[08:35 - 08:40]
Police department all the cases proportionate to the crime
[08:40 - 08:46]
and the permit by law in the 18th century because of the Italian
[08:46 - 08:51]
scholar might have summarized his assumptions justifying punishment in those
[08:51 - 08:56]
words. Credit is generally given to big aria for having established the
[08:56 - 09:00]
classical school of Penology for a box the German classicist
[09:00 - 09:05]
also add here to a belief in the establishment of punishment on the basis of the
[09:05 - 09:09]
abstract crime. No punishment without long no
[09:09 - 09:15]
crime without law but you'd better on and after that first but.
[09:15 - 09:20]
38 a goodish to stop her and elope with a country Korea and the north
[09:20 - 09:25]
then declare it the old known to. Good appellate film
[09:25 - 09:30]
that regarded the breaking of the law well probably ever a just punishment
[09:30 - 09:35]
is a logical consequence based on the necessity of
[09:35 - 09:40]
preserving order. Every violation of the law.
[09:40 - 09:44]
Must be a perceptible offense menacing to the order of
[09:44 - 09:50]
the age old eye for an eye theory survives and many facets of present day
[09:50 - 09:55]
criminal codes. And this theory is given philosophical refinement. It is
[09:55 - 10:00]
called classical. Not merely because it has persisted from classical times
[10:00 - 10:05]
but because it is based on the notion that the penalties are severe. People will fear the
[10:05 - 10:10]
law and hence conform to the rules laid down. The
[10:10 - 10:14]
opposing positive theory is based less on rationalism and takes the offender into
[10:14 - 10:19]
consideration. The term positive is used in the sense of scientific
[10:19 - 10:24]
or direct knowledge. The many variations of penal theories which have appeared are
[10:24 - 10:29]
covered broadly by these two philosophies because Italians made the most significant
[10:29 - 10:32]
early contributions to this theory.
[10:32 - 10:36]
But terms positive school and a talian school were originally used
[10:36 - 10:40]
interchangeably. I'm recall FEIGHERY who died in 1929
[10:40 - 10:46]
was distinguished both as a jurist and for his interest in sociological theory.
[10:46 - 10:52]
He had once served as chairman of a committee for the revision of the Italian penal code but his
[10:52 - 10:56]
proposals were never implemented because of the rise of fascism. Among his
[10:56 - 11:01]
most significant ideas a punishment was Perry's emphasis upon the social
[11:01 - 11:05]
practice producing crime. And what he calls his penal
[11:05 - 11:07]
substitutes.
[11:07 - 11:12]
I must emphasize that there are many social factors which
[11:12 - 11:18]
produce crime. We should do without Must with think Penno substitute.
[11:18 - 11:22]
By this I mean we should plan to prevent crimes by removing
[11:22 - 11:27]
social factors which precipitated this could be
[11:27 - 11:31]
accomplished by the adoption of free trade by allowing or restricted
[11:31 - 11:36]
immigration by lowering the tax rate on necessities ration it and
[11:36 - 11:41]
alcoholic drinks. We can substitute metal money for paper
[11:41 - 11:46]
currency spread but we would control legalized egoists.
[11:46 - 11:51]
We might prevent this heatwave which produced crime in the first place.
[11:51 - 11:56]
Of all the Italian positivists. Theory seems to have been the most forward looking
[11:56 - 12:01]
and the most scientific. For he aim to attack the crime at its source
[12:01 - 12:06]
both classicist positivists were aiming at the promotion of Social
[12:06 - 12:11]
Welfare of the group. They both agreed that punishment should serve
[12:11 - 12:15]
society. It was a means to this and that they were so far
[12:15 - 12:17]
apart.
[12:17 - 12:22]
The classical idea still survives and much of our present day penal theory and the
[12:22 - 12:26]
theory that a man is a free moral agent who exercises the capacity of choice and
[12:26 - 12:31]
matters right are wrong. If a criminal is held responsible for his actions he
[12:31 - 12:36]
must possess such a capacity. The positive school rejects this
[12:36 - 12:41]
viewpoint by subscribing to the position that neither the crown nor the normal citizen has much
[12:41 - 12:45]
freedom of choice and his conduct if conduct is considered to be the
[12:45 - 12:49]
resultant biological inheritance social environment and past
[12:49 - 12:50]
experience.
[12:50 - 12:55]
It is obviously foolish to punish a man for something for which he was not entirely
[12:55 - 13:00]
responsible in succeeding programs of prison document which will visit state
[13:00 - 13:05]
institutions representing classical positive penal theories.
[13:05 - 13:10]
We will visit a camp prison and talk with custodial offices like this formidable
[13:10 - 13:12]
honor squad working on the highway.
[13:12 - 13:14]
I'd much rather have an honest and I don't
[13:14 - 13:23]
give me any trouble.
[13:23 - 13:27]
I know they seem to act like what if we
[13:27 - 13:34]
get a lot of passion you know I've been in my squad now.
[13:34 - 13:39]
You jumped off of my truck going in one afternoon we caught him in 45 minutes.
[13:39 - 13:43]
I don't know if he'd go to way. And. Get it mind right. He had a
[13:43 - 13:49]
long time when he wouldn't anything in the world would get him out but you don't count.
[13:49 - 13:53]
He wouldn't be happy that I couldn't. Do what he
[13:53 - 13:58]
needed down he gained a confidential. Rationale to get big name like
[13:58 - 14:01]
you know. Getting recommended.
[14:01 - 14:09]
We'll talk with wardens and it is significant that in every penal institution visited
[14:09 - 14:14]
by our reporter wardens cooperated fully seeming even to welcome the
[14:14 - 14:18]
opportunity to tell the prison story to the public. This man for example with
[14:18 - 14:21]
comments on pets.
[14:21 - 14:26]
Know inmates and I have a lot to have at the institution for many reasons.
[14:26 - 14:31]
Many years ago in a certain institution a prisoner was
[14:31 - 14:36]
permitted to receive a pair of canaries at the present time the canary
[14:36 - 14:40]
population at that particular institution is an accountant which leads to trouble some
[14:40 - 14:45]
inmate stealing a. Pet from another one. We can identify him
[14:45 - 14:50]
and make up that have perhaps such as dark animals like
[14:50 - 14:55]
that or rather perhaps in ourselves. It would not be sanitary and they
[14:55 - 15:00]
would soon get out of control. I haven't mixed it with Captain
[15:00 - 15:05]
Scott inside the institution and requested permission to. Have the
[15:05 - 15:10]
authorized hospital and have I been forced to deny this
[15:10 - 15:14]
as other inmates would then capture rabbits and other small animals and try to
[15:14 - 15:18]
keep them for pets. It would not be practical nor desirable.
[15:18 - 15:24]
In some states we found a discrepancy between officially stated policy and
[15:24 - 15:28]
actual practice in some cases practice followed policy
[15:28 - 15:34]
to check such matters which will talk with a man such as the state commissioner of Corrections
[15:34 - 15:39]
we have a division of education in the Department of Correction with the director.
[15:39 - 15:44]
And with. Not a full complement of
[15:44 - 15:48]
teachers we have about 200 teachers. It's not enough it's a problem
[15:48 - 15:53]
because. Again the salary question we can't compete with teachers on the outside
[15:53 - 15:58]
means we get teachers who. Have examinations for community
[15:58 - 16:03]
teaching positions. Or for some other reason. Do not
[16:03 - 16:07]
qualify. We have one very interesting development there certainly
[16:07 - 16:12]
obvious. When you think about it this.
[16:12 - 16:16]
Cooperative plan that I spoke of before Department of Labor and the
[16:16 - 16:22]
Department of Corrections. The main functions of that body is to.
[16:22 - 16:27]
Coordinate the training progress of the institution with the labor market needs outside and we have a
[16:27 - 16:31]
high school regents diploma as distinguished from training for a
[16:31 - 16:35]
recall of.
[16:35 - 16:40]
Equipment. We found that a top executive level there was concern for a
[16:40 - 16:45]
resolution of the confusion in penal methods to document this. We will hear from
[16:45 - 16:46]
the governor.
[16:46 - 16:51]
Well as Governor my principal duties are direct duties in connection with our state's
[16:51 - 16:56]
correctional institutions. Centered around my service as chairman of the
[16:56 - 17:01]
Board which administers all state institutions. In our state the
[17:01 - 17:06]
governor has no and dependent power of pardon but in this case also
[17:06 - 17:10]
serves as chairman of a board charged with this responsibility.
[17:10 - 17:15]
Personally I have not looked with favor upon using prison labor on our
[17:15 - 17:20]
Public Highways. And I feel that way very strongly now.
[17:20 - 17:25]
I think the impression made upon the public is a bad one and I doubt that proper
[17:25 - 17:30]
rehabilitation programs can be carried on under such circumstances. I
[17:30 - 17:35]
realize how about that having the prisoners engaged in some useful activity under proper
[17:35 - 17:40]
conditions is preferable to having them behind bars.
[17:40 - 17:45]
But I still think that we should provide for this occupation and offer them in other
[17:45 - 17:47]
ways than working them on our highways.
[17:47 - 17:53]
Because the whole area of correction seemed to be in a state of flux after
[17:53 - 17:58]
centuries of remaining almost static. We wondered if this were peculiar to the United
[17:58 - 18:03]
States or whether this huge sting of prison reform was international.
[18:03 - 18:08]
For some insight into this question we will hear from an authority on criminology in
[18:08 - 18:09]
France.
[18:09 - 18:14]
Generally speaking now with the easy when one thinks criminals
[18:14 - 18:19]
welcome epically also thinks crazy that this was not
[18:19 - 18:24]
always so. For many centuries the only use
[18:24 - 18:29]
that was made of prison was to keep the suspect. They.
[18:29 - 18:34]
Still could appear before they are judged to be by game condemned
[18:34 - 18:38]
to the most usual punishment. That is Jacket auditioning
[18:38 - 18:43]
which excluded you very simply Laila. All further education
[18:43 - 18:48]
columns. In some countries. There exist. An
[18:48 - 18:53]
institution which had many similarities with Britain the workhouse
[18:53 - 18:58]
with megatons who we have Didn't you look in those dives and
[18:58 - 19:02]
we're going to get a great danger for the public peace. We are forced to
[19:02 - 19:07]
work. It is only since the end of the 18th century that
[19:07 - 19:12]
the current president has taken on its modern signification. Although the
[19:12 - 19:17]
signification only out public gives it. And which can be
[19:17 - 19:21]
expressed as follows. A man who has acted against the laws of
[19:21 - 19:25]
society must. Take a prize.
[19:25 - 19:30]
And this prize consists in a certain amount of guy increasing
[19:30 - 19:34]
the head of a Scandinavian penal system will speak.
[19:34 - 19:41]
For many years no crime in Norway has been decreasing.
[19:41 - 19:46]
The daily evidence appears in population over all categories is between 200
[19:46 - 19:51]
and sixteen hundred. Of these number. More than three hundred
[19:51 - 19:55]
and fifty are under remarked. About one hundred and
[19:55 - 20:00]
seventy are serving short prison sentences hailing payment of.
[20:00 - 20:06]
About two hundred and fifty two a drunkard's and vagrancy sentenced to
[20:06 - 20:11]
a period of detention in that way. Close about 50 are young offenders
[20:11 - 20:16]
attending skewed and about 100 a mentally deficient person
[20:16 - 20:21]
who are sentenced to security detention. For the
[20:21 - 20:25]
remaining six to seven hundred serving prison sentences only
[20:25 - 20:30]
about two hundred and fifty are sentenced to more than six months.
[20:30 - 20:35]
The great majority are committed to a quite short term and the judge must
[20:35 - 20:40]
impose sentences on men convicted of crime must attempt to use judgment
[20:40 - 20:43]
in utilizing the prevailing system of correction.
[20:43 - 20:48]
I don't understand how this is done we should listen to the opinions of a circuit judge in
[20:48 - 20:53]
determining the sentence in any gaze of the factors to be considered.
[20:53 - 20:59]
The probability of a repeating repeating of the crime or some
[20:59 - 21:05]
other crime by the individual. Second the.
[21:05 - 21:09]
Deterrent effect upon others of the disposition that is made upon this case
[21:09 - 21:14]
and. The fact that the disposition of this
[21:14 - 21:19]
case may have upon community attitudes and in the sense.
[21:19 - 21:24]
That if the average citizen does not recognize the fact that the
[21:24 - 21:28]
law will punish those who commit crimes he is strongly
[21:28 - 21:33]
inclined to take the law into his own hands when his personal affairs have been
[21:33 - 21:37]
invaded his property damage to his person or members of his family has been injured
[21:37 - 21:44]
and because prison document is an effort to organize information for the so-called average
[21:44 - 21:44]
man.
[21:44 - 21:49]
The individual who together with other individuals comprises the public
[21:49 - 21:54]
which I hear an opinion of a randomly selected man in the street.
[21:54 - 22:02]
I don't know seems to me that I waited. Too much who inspires reaction and
[22:02 - 22:06]
you know. I think. Primarily I think peace and some sort of course
[22:06 - 22:12]
of training that will help him in his. Life when I get out again and get him situated in some.
[22:12 - 22:16]
Job that I. Might prevent a lot of people. Back.
[22:16 - 22:23]
You know. Bear in mind that all reporters stockpiled an amazing mass
[22:23 - 22:28]
on the scene interviews and comments approximately two hundred twenty eight
[22:28 - 22:32]
half hour tape recordings. These have been edited in order to condense
[22:32 - 22:37]
documentary evidence on the single question. Where do our state prisons
[22:37 - 22:42]
at the present time between the two extremes in penal theory and other words
[22:42 - 22:48]
do our prisons exist to punish ma'am or to treat them.
[22:48 - 22:53]
We find some of the most significant evidence in apparently random conversation.
[22:53 - 22:58]
The prisoner is rarely aware of the current conflict in philosophies he knows that
[22:58 - 23:02]
things are little better or a little worse than they used to be. He has
[23:02 - 23:07]
small interest in theory. His comments are directly personal. I
[23:07 - 23:11]
am concerned such things as and those.
[23:11 - 23:15]
Where when I want to take you to the building where they
[23:15 - 23:16]
had a man.
[23:16 - 23:25]
Later Leggett you want to put a shadow.
[23:25 - 23:28]
Or a glass or two of milk.
[23:28 - 23:34]
Say five years ago may help is a rarity.
[23:34 - 23:37]
This is just.
[23:37 - 23:42]
It's just like having something sweet actually been away from a long time can sell for
[23:42 - 23:47]
he thinks about whether his clothes fit.
[23:47 - 23:51]
When you
[23:51 - 23:57]
and I go to nominate it and I've been to know what you do
[23:57 - 24:02]
mostly take what you get penal philosophy is beyond the
[24:02 - 24:07]
cam of men whose concern is for their immediate personal needs.
[24:07 - 24:12]
Well if you had to get out of the bathroom which there was no trick to
[24:12 - 24:18]
playing there just a bucket in the front of the floor with a bucket on each end of the.
[24:18 - 24:22]
Two bucket facility in the end if you had.
[24:22 - 24:27]
He cannot focus his attention on administrative procedure when mail call is the
[24:27 - 24:30]
big thing he looks forward to.
[24:30 - 24:32]
And it kind of foreign policy don't get no letters you know.
[24:32 - 24:37]
Neil makes kind of better the prisoner lives the end
[24:37 - 24:42]
result of prison reform. It may be simply a matter of does
[24:42 - 24:45]
he wear chains are does he not.
[24:45 - 24:49]
Then you're taken into the back of. The
[24:49 - 24:55]
chain which is the bad apple. Which in turn
[24:55 - 25:00]
tactile bocce. Well with my.
[25:00 - 25:05]
Change in bed and sleep he remembers
[25:05 - 25:09]
details that have to do with fitting into the system it didn't look
[25:09 - 25:20]
like Why did they issue will you wear a tooth brush in the house.
[25:20 - 25:24]
And yet even without exposure to the historical and philosophical
[25:24 - 25:29]
approach to Penology he is sometimes surprisingly articulate on the
[25:29 - 25:31]
needs of fellow prisoners.
[25:31 - 25:36]
Yes we could use some schooling here we have quite a few that can't read or write. Victor
[25:36 - 25:39]
I know that I read your letters.
[25:39 - 25:44]
Consultant for prison document is Dr. Vernon Fox of the School of Social
[25:44 - 25:49]
Welfare at Florida State University. Dr. Parks believes that improvement in
[25:49 - 25:53]
penal matters will be achieved more quickly when the public is better informed
[25:53 - 25:58]
concerning the latest thinking and progressive correctional method.
[25:58 - 26:02]
The history of man's treatment of offenders has followed a steady
[26:02 - 26:07]
trend from primary concern for the group and no concern
[26:07 - 26:12]
for the individual. To a primary concern for the individual
[26:12 - 26:17]
as a member of the group. Prisons are fairly new.
[26:17 - 26:22]
There are only about a hundred fifty years old long before prisons
[26:22 - 26:27]
came into existence. Punishment far exceeded the
[26:27 - 26:31]
magnitude of the offenses. Consequently when the
[26:31 - 26:35]
ancient eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth
[26:35 - 26:41]
philosophy was implemented it was a progressive step in
[26:41 - 26:46]
the Christian era brought some humanitarianism but with
[26:46 - 26:51]
pity and compassion rather than with understanding. The
[26:51 - 26:56]
transportation era replaced the practices of mutilation
[26:56 - 27:01]
but ended when the colonies became large enough to register a protest.
[27:01 - 27:07]
If prisons were a progressive movement to prevent mutilation
[27:07 - 27:13]
to reduce capital punishment and to eliminate transportation.
[27:13 - 27:18]
Prisons began about 1771 in Belgium about
[27:18 - 27:23]
1773 in Connecticut. Soon after the beginnings
[27:23 - 27:28]
of Prisons big carea introduced his classical
[27:28 - 27:32]
school in which he said Let the punishment
[27:32 - 27:37]
fit the crime. Which brought a balance between the group
[27:37 - 27:42]
and the individual. Lambros Owen ferry in
[27:42 - 27:47]
their positivistic school first turned the focus toward the
[27:47 - 27:52]
individual and held that the sentence should fit the offender.
[27:52 - 27:57]
Modern Psychiatry is being felt in corrections in the
[27:57 - 28:02]
attempt to find a sentence or a commitment that best
[28:02 - 28:07]
permits diagnosis and Therapy of the individual personality
[28:07 - 28:12]
problems of which the crime is but a symptom.
[28:12 - 28:18]
We are coming to realize that the problem prisons are trying to meet. It
[28:18 - 28:22]
is but one phase of the broader problem of mental health.
[28:22 - 28:28]
The history of the development of treatment procedures in prisons. Are
[28:28 - 28:33]
parallel to the history of the development of treatment procedures in
[28:33 - 28:38]
mental hospitals. But they are just about a century behind.
[28:38 - 28:43]
Prisons are making progress. The progress of thinking was crystallized in the
[28:43 - 28:47]
resolutions of the American prison Congress in Cincinnati in
[28:47 - 28:51]
1870 almost 100 years ago.
[28:51 - 28:57]
There are a few prisons today in which that thinking is implemented the
[28:57 - 29:02]
philosophy and thinking must always preceded action. Although
[29:02 - 29:07]
sometimes we wonder why philosophy and thinking has to precede
[29:07 - 29:12]
action by so great a distance. The fact remains that.
[29:12 - 29:17]
The professional associations representing those people who work in prisons
[29:17 - 29:22]
have agreed in essence to the mental health and correctional
[29:22 - 29:26]
approach to the offender. And are actively working to implement
[29:26 - 29:30]
that philosophy. In all the prisons in America.
[29:30 - 29:36]
This has been a prison document a series of programs on the adult male in
[29:36 - 29:41]
the state penitentiary. We have examined penal theories and given a
[29:41 - 29:46]
preview of future programs in the series all references to actual
[29:46 - 29:50]
persons and places have been purposely deleted. We are indebted to prison
[29:50 - 29:55]
officials over the country and throughout the world. For their cooperation and
[29:55 - 30:00]
enthusiasm for the project. It is our sincere hope that prison documents might
[30:00 - 30:04]
provoke in each of you a desire to understand the philosophies and problems in the
[30:04 - 30:09]
correctional department of your own state. Production has been by the
[30:09 - 30:14]
staff of the FSU FM at Florida State University Tallahassee
[30:14 - 30:19]
field recording by Thomas St.. Tape editing and engineering
[30:19 - 30:24]
by Bill Ragsdale. Narration and production supervision by
[30:24 - 30:29]
Roy play and present document has been produced and recorded
[30:29 - 30:34]
under a grant from the educational television and radio center and is distributed by the
[30:34 - 30:38]
National Association of educational broadcasters.
[30:38 - 30:41]
This is the n AB Radio Network.
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