How Will Prisons Change as Society Changes?.

             Have you ever thought of what prisons will be like in the future? The technology will be different and the ways of rehabilitating the criminals will be better. Technology is advancing so rapidly it is hard for prisons to keep up with it. No one can know exactly what prisons will be like in the future, but everyone hopes it will work better.

             The first prison in the United States was the Walnut Street Jail in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Most of the first prisons weren"t made to punish criminals, they were made to hold criminals until punishment. Prisons were labor camps. This worked and made the criminals ready to return to society, but it people claimed it was unconstitutional so then prisons were made for isolating the criminal from the outside world. Now were are still at the act of isolation where the criminal is locked in a room not able to interact with society. (Grolier 1997).

             When it comes to prisons, technology is never-ending. Technology in prisons advances very rapidly. New products are constantly being released to make better ways to rehabilitate people so they may be released back into society. Technology is tested in test prisons throughout the country. Companies put their technology into prisons to test if it helps to rehabilitate people. Technology is advancing so rapidly that it is hard for prisons to keep up with it. (Prison Reform 1).

             In the Constitution of the United States of America it states that any inmate cannot be treated harshly and in cruel conditions. Many times that amendment is broken. Most prisons are over crowded. There are more than one million eight hundred thousand adults in prison in the U.S.A. Many guards in prisons beat the inmates and let other inmates beat each other. Many people state that prisons are inhuman (Prison Reform 2).

             In 1997 alone, 7,400 youths were sent to adult facilities. That"s seven out of every ten who are convicted.