On Prison Reforms
Initially, between the sixteenth and seventeenth century, prisons were not meant to punish offenders. Rather, they were the holding places in which the people who dared to break a law and social norms remained until their due punishment. In other words, if one were to steal of murder, he or she would go to prison and wait for trial after which, based on the type of crime, the punishment would ensue. From whippings to executions, the kinds of sanctions in the years leading to prison reforms were swift. Accordingly, prisons lacked any form of order and were mostly poorly ...
