The Telling Beginning of the Penitentiary in Britain

This video, beginning @ approx. 18:40 discusses the implementation of the penitentiary in Britain and the British Penitentiary Act of 1779.

As the name suggests, Penitentiaries are about Penitence. 

​ We would say the reason Penitentiaries haven't worked is that they tend to justify inhumane treatment on moral grounds and because the primary focus has not been on SAFETY -- they often don't keep the community safe.

There have been REHABILITATION efforts of greater and lesser success for quite some time.

However, the FUNDAMENTAL problems with the flawed rationale of trying to view bad acts as isolated, one-time, intentional moral events as opposed to evidence of often complex cognitive problems -- often brought on and/or exacerbated by complex societal problems -- is only beginning to be fully acknowledged.

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Begins discussing Penitentiaries @ approx. 18:40

The Penitentiary Act (19 Geo. III, c.74) was a British Act of Parliament passed in 1779 which introduced a policy of state prisons for the first time. The Act was drafted by the prison reformer John Howard and the jurist William Blackstone and recommended imprisonment as an alternative sentence to death or transportation.  
​                     -----Wikipedia

The video above indicates the penitentiary was designed to address some of the laxity and excess of Britain's "Debtors' Prisons."

Abandoned Prison in Madrid. Photo Credit-- Cristina Medrano. Click picture to go to photo & Medrano's page on Flickr.

Nils Öberg, Director-General of Sweden’s Prison and Probation Service. Click picture to go to The Guardian's article.

‘Prison is not for punishment in Sweden. We get people into better shape’