Types of the us correctional institutions

Today the typical state prison in the United States is a walled fortress of stone and steel. Within are cell houses, administrative offices, schools, chapels, factories, workshops, a dining hall, an auditorium, a hospital, a recreation yard, and sometimes a gymnasium. Outside are the main adminis­trative offices, houses for the warden and his principal assist­ants and their families, and sometimes a prison farm. The normal capacity of the state prison may range from a few hundred to thousands. Many institutions have a capacity of 1,000 to 3,000. The Michigan State Prison at Jackson, which is the largest prison in the United States, has a nor­mal capacity of 6,000. Most of the state prisons are built along the lines of the original Auburn plan with interior cell blocks. The cells are small, the average being about five feet wide, eight feet long, and eight feet high. They are usually equipped with an iron bed, bedding, a locker, a small table, a chair, an electric light, a toilet, and a wash bowl.

The typical men’s reformatory looks very much like a state prison. Although usually the reformatory is smaller, its facilities and equipment are the same as those of the prison. Women’s prisons and reformatories, however, are quite different. In general, their buildings are attractive and well kept, having individual bedrooms and pleasant living and dining rooms. Some of the newer correctional institu­tions for women are built on the cottage plan. Even when women are confined in a section of the men’s prison, their quarters are more attractive than those of other prisoners in the institution. Prison farms and camps have dormito­ries and farm buildings, often surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Road camps may have either permanent buildings or portable structures, and these, too, may be enclosed by a fence.

Дата добавления: 2015-09-01