The Pennsylvania System Assignment

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Click “Example Sources.”

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Since your graduation from the AIU Online Campus, you have decided to pursue a career in corrections. After going through the application process for 16 months, you have been hired as a Federal Correctional Officer in your home state; it is very unusual for someone to graduate and then go directly into federal service. The warden likes to pick recent graduates and new hires to give classes to fellow guards so they will have the latest teachings from the universities. The warden, Ms. Sarah Jones, has asked you to give such a class on the below listed topics and questions; however, she first wants you to write a paper of 2–3 pages for her review so she can see what the class will entail.

Warden Jones gives you the following principles and questions:

One of the first prison systems was called the Pennsylvania System. The ideology of this system was used in the Eastern State Penitentiary in the early 1800s. This system had very definite ideas on how a prison should be organized and managed. The operation of this prison was based on the following 5 general principles (Clear, Cole, & Reisig, 2006):

Do not treat prisoners harshly, but instruct them that hard and selective forms of suffering could change their lives.

Solitary confinement will prevent further corruption.

Offenders should reflect on their transgressions and repent.

Solitary confinement is considered punishment.

Solitary confinement is economical.

Discuss the following:

Who actually formed these ideas?

Expand upon the ideas of the 5 general principles.

Why do you think they were implemented?

How did they have an effect upon the prisoners?

Has this basically changed? Why or why not?

You must proofread your paper. But do not strictly rely on your computer’s spell-checker and grammar-checker; failure to do so indicates a lack of effort on your part and you can expect your grade to suffer accordingly. Papers with numerous misspelled words and grammatical mistakes will be penalized. Read over your paper – in silence and then aloud – before handing it in and make corrections as necessary. Often it is advantageous to have a friend proofread your paper for obvious errors. Handwritten corrections are preferable to uncorrected mistakes.

Use a standard 10 to 12 point (10 to 12 characters per inch) typeface. Smaller or compressed type and papers with small margins or single-spacing are hard to read. It is better to let your essay run over the recommended number of pages than to try to compress it into fewer pages.

Likewise, large type, large margins, large indentations, triple-spacing, increased leading (space between lines), increased kerning (space between letters), and any other such attempts at “padding” to increase the length of a paper are unacceptable, wasteful of trees, and will not fool your professor.

The paper must be neatly formatted, double-spaced with a one-inch margin on the top, bottom, and sides of each page. When submitting hard copy, be sure to use white paper and print out using dark ink. If it is hard to read your essay, it will also be hard to follow your argument.