NCJ Number
130015
Journal
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice Volume: 7 Issue: 1 Dated: (March 1991) Pages: 60-68
Date Published
1991
Length
8 pages
Annotation
This discussion recounts the observations of Jeremy Bentham, who wrote the letters which constitute the Panopticon Papers while in Russia in 1787, and Enoch Wines, who became secretary of the New York Prison Association in 1862, on the privatization of corrections.
Abstract
The penitentiary model described in Bentham's letters provided the basis of a proposal for which he lobbied vigorously in England. Several letters address issues that are at the heart of the modern privatization debate. Relative to the mode of management, Bentham recommended using a contract system, giving the contractor all the powers needed to make the most of his bargain, and requiring the contractor to disclose, and even to print and publish, the entire process and detail of his management. Enoch Wines soon became an important figure in American penal reform. His national prison tour with Theodore Dwight in the 1860s produced the most important correctional assessment since John Howard's European survey in the 1770s. The observations recounted derived from his wide-ranging examination of the nation's prison system. 2 references and 1 note (Author abstract modified)