This paper is a comprehensive study of incarceration in history, stressing modern reforms, probation, parole, prevention and rehabilitation arguments, homosexuality, conjugal visits and the need for greater reform.
The purpose of this research is to examine the concepts of correction and penology as they have been used in human affairs throughout history. Specifically, the intent of this paper is to study the more modern concepts of penology in terms of their historical context.
Most authorities tend to agree that the use of incarceration as a means of punishing criminals is a comparatively new concept. There is no evidence (either in fact or on paper) of institutions that in any way resemble the modern penitentiaries dating back further than the last three centuries. The prison, in fact, was invented with the most humanitarian of intentions. The purpose of incarceration was, originally, to spare wrongdoers from the barbarism of corporal and capital punishment. This concept of the prison as a humanitarian institution might be very …