Historically, the society was believed in the power of the penalty to change the criminal behavior and to restore the social order. Since the Enlightenment, informal and formal social controls are implemented on women to indicate the gender roles in society. Punishment is the form of disciplinary action that performs the action to control the women offender’s crime by different schemes …show more content…
The maternal reformers believed that the model of the penitentiary penalty was based on the male structure. Women were held in male prisons and controlled or monitored by the male officers like the Kingston Penitentiary, which is known for the corporal punishment (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 51). So the maternal reformers took responsibility to change the penal structure for women by providing a separate prison for women. “In an effort in the justice of women, the maternal reformers stressed the qualities of a loving mother and a role of the domestic wife based on a cottage plan and not a congregational model” (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 51).
In the nineteenth century, the American maternal reform movement played a great role in establishing a separate prison for women. “The American maternal reformers motivated by the Elizabeth Fry reform movement, which affected Canada, and Britain to set up different woman-centered prisons” (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 47). And, the first separate prison for women was set up in “Mount Pleasant at Ossining, New York in 1835” (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 49). This Mount Pleasant prison for women was the revolution where women’s were held and supervised by the female supervisor (Hannah-Moffat 2001: …show more content…
Thus, the reformers were blamed on the individuals that women were unwilling to reform rather than on the maternal policies (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 55). “These unreformable women offenders received harsh punishments such as cold baths or spanking and got separated from other women in penalty quarters” (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 55).
In any case, Strange notes that maternal reformers could not satisfy the objective of the change in women’s prison (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 66). “The reformatory model disregarded the liberal thoughts of correctional nature, which focused on the significance of the proportionality, a rule that was valued by a significant part of the establishing father of the prison model and penalty should fit the crime” (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 66).
However, Rafter contends that the discipline of men was subjectively not quite the same as that of ladies since it depended on behavioral guidelines that were not inexorably similar to norms forced on men in reformatories (Hannah-Moffat 2001: 66). Men were sent to the Central Prison for discipline and ladies to the Mercer. However, the success of Mercer prosperity that establish within a framework of generosity, companionship is less obtrusive and abusive than other punishment in a reformatory (Hannah-Moffat 2001: