NCJ Number
137566
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 32 Issue: 2 Dated: (Spring 1992) Pages: 125-143
Date Published
1992
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Imprisonment became a favored form of judicial punishment in the Netherlands and other Western countries beginning in the 18th century. By the early 19th century, prison systems in Philadelphia and New York used solitary confinement as the principal means of enforcing order and discipline.
Abstract
To date, explanations offered by historians, criminologists, and sociologists for the rapid spread of the cellular prisons have been ad hoc in nature, shedding little light on similar penal developments in other societies. Most explanations try to cast the rise of cellular prisons in the light of the humane or inhumane feelings of powerful, individual penal reformers and politicians, or as part of a broader socioeconomic development. This author contends that the use of penitentiaries was actually a component of blind, largely unplanned, yet structured processes including a growing aversion to physical violence, a gradual internalization of external social constraint, and a shift in emphasis from deterrence to moral improvement of offenders. Furthermore, by the end of the 19th century, most governments had invested so much capital into building cellular prisons that they were unwilling to tolerate any criticism. 34 notes and 51 references