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   From: DEMI_GOD_@SHAW.CA   
      
   development of the prison system   
      
   Prisons were virtually non existent before the 1700s; prison was not   
   considered a serious punishment for crime, and was seldom used. Instead,   
   governments imprisoned people who were awaiting trial or punishment   
   whereupon they would receive the more common capital or corporal types of   
   punishment. Common punishments at that time included branding, imposing   
   fines, whipping and the death penalty (capital punishment). The authorities   
   punished most offenders in public in order to discourage people from   
   breaking the law; this falls under the theory of deterrence. Some prisoners   
   were punished by being made to row the oars on ships called galleys.   
      
   However, English and French rulers kept their political enemies imprisoned   
   in such prisons as the Tower of London and the Bastille in Paris. In   
   addition, people who owed money were held in debtors' prisons. In many such   
   cases, offenders' families could stay with them and come and ago as they   
   pleased. But the debtors had to stay in prison until their debts were   
   settled. Despite these two exceptions, these 'early prisons' bore virtually   
   no exception to the modern prison system.   
      
   During the 1700s, many people criticised the use of executions, mutilations   
   and other harsh punishments. This was the beginning of the early prison   
   reform. These critics included the British judge Sir William Blackstone. As   
   a result, governments turned more and more to imprisonment as a serious form   
   of punishment.   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)