Historically, justice ideas have evolved from its primitivistic nature to current correctional concepts. Sometimes, these ideas took different directions while other times they agreed (Panzarella and Vona, 2013). Over the period of evolution, corrections would either take the direction towards pursuing punishment, reforming an individual, deterring some people, incapacitating the offender, protecting the community or simultaneously focusing on other various goals.
The common law, as Holmes indicates, simply considered justice was complete only via revenge mostly in the form of physical punishment. Every crime was solved by retribution (Panzarella and Vona, 2013). However, the Middle Ages challenged the concept of retribution for injustices and the attention was directed to criminals from crime. Therefore, the question arose about how a person should be corrected. In response, the punishment was to be used to administer justice as a correction instrument but not for revenge as before. Before eighteenth-century prisons were used to keep debtors until they settle their debts but after this period, their roles shifted to corrections centers for injustices (Panzarella and Vona, 2013). The ancient prison guards – who were less experienced – were later substituted with civil servants whose titles changed from guards to correction officers. Consequently, prisons turned into money-making parastatals for states.
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The ideas of achieving justice continued to be influenced by various characters. Howard John is a good example. When John became Bedfordshire High Sheriff in England, he noticed how miserable prisons were. He traveled across Europe and identified a humane prison system especially in Belgium and Italy. After returning to England, Howard wrote a book, “The state of prisons” that transformed both American and England prisons – an idea that matched the views of Quaker founders from Pennsylvania (Panzarella and Vona, 2013). These frameworks present an evolving social organization with the resolution principles designed by various prison associations that outlines beneficial results for appropriate correctional practices.
Reference
Panzarella, R. and Vona, D. (2013). Criminal justice masterworks: Correctional Studies Masterworks. Durham, North Carolina: Carolina Academic Press, pp.271-349.
