Discuss a contemporary problem in penolog Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 500 words

Discuss a contemporary problem in penolog - Essay Example According to Pollock (2005), the Big House was depicted as a world inhabited by individuals who appeared deceased than alive. This maximum-security prison emerged in 1920s as well as 1930s. This system developed as an uncomfortable transition following the collapse of â€Å"factory† prison, which dominated the last part of 1800s. The Big House prison being a walled institution often contained several thousand inmates who were idle from decreased industrial work (Johnson, n.d). From plantation prisons, which were agrarian comparable to industrial prisons, emerged the Big House to offer discipline to inmates unable to work in the road works and in the fields. Plantation prisons had gross population of black prisoners since they were newly emancipated and were prone to being arrested for the flimsiest pretext to work in hard labour in prisons usually called chain gangs. The shackled prisoners were used to construct several public works like railroads and roads (Pollock, 2005). The Big House gave way to correctional Institution, which was the new prison system that first emerged in 1940s as well as 1950s. These prisons were typically large cell blocks with shops and a yard as well as industrial workstations. About 2,500 prisoners from rural and urban areas spend their time in every institution (Pollock, 2005). During the 1960s and 1970s, treatment programs were established in the correctional institution with the aim of establishing security, order, and discipline. As the number of offenders increased in the last 30 years, so was the prison population. The number of inmates from urban and rural areas greatly increased with many of them engaging in violent offenses. The shift from crime control that emphasized on the significance of incarceration in the previous establishments meant an increase of inmates in the correctional institutions (Cole, Smith &