Question: why did the united states begin opening prisons

title: History of United States prison systems
text: Starting in the 1820s , a new institution , the `` penitentiary '' , gradually became the focal point of criminal justice in the United States . At the same time , other novel institutions -- the asylum and the almshouse -- redefined care for the mentally ill and the poor . For its proponents , the penitentiary was an ambitious program whose external appearance , internal arrangements , and daily routine would counteract the disorder and immorality thought to be breeding crime in American society . Although its adoption was haphazard at first , and marked by political strife -- especially in the South -- the penitentiary became an established institution in the United States by the end of the 1830s . New 

Answer: answer: Starting in the 1820s, a new institution, the ``penitentiary'', gradually became the focal point of criminal justice in the United States. Although its adoption was haphazard at first and marked by political strife -- especially in the South -- the penitentiary became an established institution in the United States by the end of the 1830s.