Tracing the History of the Federal Prison System

By Luke Yang, TWR Youth Action Fellow ‘20

ONLY 114 YEARS AGO, THE FIRST FEDERAL PRISON IN THE UNITED STATES WAS BUILT. SINCE THEN, THE CRIMINAL JUSTICE SYSTEM HAS TRANSFORMED INTO ONE OF EXPLOITATION AND MASS INCARCERATION.

On February 1, 1906, the first federal prison in the United States was opened in Leavenworth, Kansas. Standing tall and wide, the building could take the place of any other government building when viewed from afar, with its dome, pillars, and pediments resembling the features of many federal buildings. However, upon closer inspection, it becomes clear that this building has a much different purpose than the White House or Capitol. The most telling sign of what sets this building apart are the bars that span its stately windows. It is no law making establishment; it houses prisoners, and with them, the legacy of the U.S. federal prison system. If anything, the building is a rather apt metaphor for the system it represents - old-fashioned, overly large, and heavily fortified to prevent those inside from coming out, and those outside from looking in.

The history behind the U.S prison system provides insight into how the system came to its current state. Since the beginning, conditions inside these facilities have been questionable at best, and downright inhumane at worst. In 1790, the Walnut Street Jail was expanded in Philadelphia, becoming the first penitentiary in the country. Inmates were locked in their cells for the entire duration of their sentence, in solitary confinement. This was believed to be the best way for prisoners to reflect on their actions, an idea now proven by modern studies to be cruel and unusual punishment in many cases. The practice continued in 1829, when again in Philadelphia, Eastern State Prison opened. This facility also utilized solitary confinement in a misguided attempt to reform prisoners. 

In addition to the use of these inhumane techniques to house prisoners, the exploitation of prison labor once again dates back to the nineteenth century. Following the Civil War, which ended in 1865, the South struggled to find a way to fill the role that slavery had played in its economy. The solution could arguably be considered a continuation of slavery. States began to lease the labor of their prisoners (the vast majority of whom were black) to local employers, who would in return pay the state a fee. To the prisoners themselves, employers paid an almost negligible fee. In this way, the convict leasing system was different from slavery: the employers had a much lower investment in their workers, so they had much less of a reason to treat them well. As a result, many of the prisoners were treated barbarically, and often not compensated at all for their labor. Abhorrent as the system was, it raised massive profits both for states and employers, so it persisted.

In 1871, the Virginia Supreme Court reaffirmed the legality of using prison labor in this way, declaring that prisoners were “slaves of the state”, who had given up their constitutional rights in committing their crimes. This ruling enabled prisons throughout the country to continue abusing their prisoners and denying them their human rights for the better part of a century. In fact, the U.S. Penitentiary at Leavenworth was built using prisoners’ labor. It was only in 1928 that the last state, Alabama, outlawed convict leasing, that the practice in its form at the time came to an end. However, it was by no means the end of using inmates for labor, as the system of using chain gangs began to rise in prominence. 

It was only around 1940 that conditions began to improve in U.S. prisons. Many northern states adopted the “correctional institution model”, which held that prisons should aim to rehabilitate their prisoners, providing privileges such as vocational training, recreation, visitation, and therapy. However, these benefits were only provided for the people considered to be “capable” of rehabilitation, something that was not believed to be possible for people of color. 

Coming back to modern-day prisons, it is abundantly clear that the U.S. prison system is in desperate need of reform. Though prisons are purported to be centers of rehabilitation, sending out people ready to integrate back into society once their sentences are over, the current system does not appear to be living up to its goals. The U.S. has the third-highest recidivism rate* in the world, indicating that prisoners are not being “reformed” as claimed. 

What’s more, the prison system does nothing to address external factors that may have led to an individual’s arrest, whether it be a poorly dealt-with mental health crisis, systematic racism, or even a simple lack of evidence or justification for an arrest. Combined with these forces that have yet to be stopped, or even investigated properly, the United States’ ranking for recidivism is unsurprising, but inexcusable nonetheless. 

While in prison, pay for labor remains low, with the current average minimum daily wage being $0.86, while the average maximum daily wage stands at just about $3.45. Since 2001, these figures have dropped from $0.93 and $4.73, respectively. Plainly, the trend of exploiting prison labor has continued over time, as has the trend of imprisoning people of color at much higher rates than their white counterparts. Though African Americans and Hispanics comprise just 32% of the U.S. population, they account for 56% of the U.S. prison population. African Americans are five times as likely to be imprisoned for the same crime when compared to white people on the whole. Even when taken as a whole, the prison system is much bigger compared to other countries, with 1 in 37 adults in the U.S. being under prison supervision, and the prison population increasing by 700% since 1970. 

Just over 114 years after the birth of the U.S. federal prison system, it is vital that we take action to reform the penitentiary system of this country. The U.S. system is a long way off from other modern countries in areas such as morality, effectiveness, racial equality, recidivism, and prison labor. It also remains comically far from the level of justice, compassion, and dedication that incarcerated people deserve. 

In thinking about how we can help to reform this system, we must consider many factors. How can we reduce the rate of incarceration while ensuring that crimes do not go unpunished? What can be done to eliminate the disparity in incarceration rates between different races? How can we ensure that prisoners are being fairly compensated for their work? Though there is much work to be done to ensure that answers to these questions are properly implemented, one thing is certain: we must pay careful attention to the history of the prison system in the U.S. to ensure that the mistakes made will never happen again. 

*recidivism rate: the rate at which convicted criminals commit offenses once out of prison

Luke Yang is a sophomore at Miami Palmetto Senior High School. He is a Youth Action Fellow and Managing Editor of the Blog. He is also a Youth Ambassador for the Miami Beach Holocaust Memorial, through which he works to put on Holocaust remembrance programs each year.