Confinement as Punishment

Prison History Confinement as Punishment

Introduction to Confinement as Punishment

During the 15th century, particularly in Scotland and England, the first prisons that housed large numbers of offenders for long periods began to appear. Local governments established numerous debtors’ prisons to confine individuals who could not pay their bills. These prisons also housed social misfits and criminals and kept them isolated from society. Early institutions were principally custodial, serving merely to house and guard prisoners. Conditions were miserable since officials considered it wasteful to feed and clothe outlaws who would either die a natural death or be executed anyway.

Influential mercantile interests soon transformed Scottish and English debtors’ prisons into profitable enterprises. These so-called houses of correction, or workhouses, functioned as slave labor camps, where unpaid prisoners produced marketable goods cheaply. The Bridewell workhouse, established in the mid-1500s to house London’s undesirables, is a notorious example of such institutions. In theory, Bridewell and other workhouses like it were established to help prisoners acquire special skills through their labor as craftspeople. In reality, these workhouses represented private profiteering where workhouse officials and mercantile interests benefited greatly from the unpaid labor of the prisoners. The workhouse concept continued well into the 1700s.” (1)

Resources

Notes and References

• Information about Confinement as Punishment in the Encarta Online Encyclopedia

Guide to Confinement as Punishment