History of prisons

Vivre en prison à l’époque abbasside

by Mathieu Tillier

Published in: Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient, 52 (2009), p. 635-659.

In this article, we investigate the conditions of life in jail under the Abbasids. A comparative study of chronicles,... more In this article, we investigate the conditions of life in jail under the Abbasids. A comparative study of chronicles, biographical dictionaries, adab and legal literature allows a reconstruction of the main features of prison life. We argue that prisoners were supplied with the bare necessities by the prison institution and highly depended on their relatives or on public charity. The degree of promiscuity, hunger and dirtiness was quite similar in the politico-military prisons and in those of qādīs; in the first type of jail it played a major role in the criminals' punishment, in the second one it was part of the pressure put on debtors.

Nous proposons dans cet article d'examiner les conditions de vie dans les prisons à l'époque abbasside. Le croisement des chroniques, des dictionnaires biographiques, de l'adab et de la littérature juridique permet de reconstituer les principales caractéristiques de l'univers carcéral. Il apparaît que les détenus n'étaient entretenus qu'a minima par l'institution carcérale et dépendaient dans une large mesure de leurs familles ou de la charité publique. La promiscuité, la faim et la saleté, d'un degré comparable dans les prisons du pouvoir politico-militaire et dans celles des cadis, contribuait au châtiment des malfaiteurs dans les premières et à la pression exercée sur les débiteurs dans les secondes.

Troubleyn, L., Kinnaer, F., Ervynck, A., Beeckmans, L., Caluwé, D., Cooremans, B., De Buyser, F., Deforce, K., Desender, K., Lentacker, A., Moens, J., Van Bulck, G., Van Dijck, M., Van Neer, V., & W. Wouters, 2009, Consumption patterns and living conditions inside Het Steen, the late medieval prison of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium)Liesbeth Troubleyn, Frank Kinnaer, Anton Ervynck, Luk Beeckmans, Danielle Caluwé, Brigitte Cooremans, Frans De Buyser, Koen Deforce, Konjev Desender, An Lentacker, Jan Moens, Gaston Van Bulck, Maarten Van Dijck, Wim Van Neer, Werner Wouters: Consumption patterns and living conditions inside Het Steen, the late medieval prison of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium), Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries 1.2, 5-47.

by Journal of Archaeology in the Low Countries

Excavations at the Main Square (Grote Markt) of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) have unearthed the building remains of a... more Excavations at the Main Square (Grote Markt) of Malines (Mechelen, Belgium) have unearthed the building remains of a tower, arguably identifiable as the former town prison: Het Steen. When this assumption is followed, the contents of the fills of two cesspits dug out in the cellars of the building illustrate aspects of daily life within the early 14th-century prison. An integrated approach of all find categories, together with the historical context available, illuminates aspects of the material culture of the users of the cesspits, their consumption patterns and the living conditions within the building.

Reading Prisoners on the Scaffold: Literacy in an Era of Disciplinary Spectacle

by Jodi Schorb

List of contributors to the excellent collection by Michele Lise Tarter and Richard Bell, eds.  Buried Lives: Incarcerated in Early America.  Univ. of Georgia Press, 2012.

This essay explores the connection between reading literacy and public execution rituals in eighteenth-century New... more This essay explores the connection between reading literacy and public execution rituals in eighteenth-century New England and demonstrates how prisoners' reading habits became an issue of intense interest and scrutiny nearly a century before the rise of the penitentiary.

Women and poverty in seventeenth-century Waterford

by Greg Fewer

Published in: Teachers' Union of Ireland/Aontas Múinteorí Éireann Congress Journal (2012), pp. 35-44.

NOTE: Due to considerations of space, the footnotes and one illustration were cut from the printed version of the article.

The Unproductive Prisoner: Labor and Medicine in Canadian Penitentiaries, 1867-1900

by Ted McCoy

PHDabstract-résumésdethèse

by Claude-Olivier Doron

This document includes english and french abstracts of my PhD Thesis on 'Races and degeneration. The emergence on the... more This document includes english and french abstracts of my PhD Thesis on 'Races and degeneration. The emergence on the knowledge on the abnormals', a detailed description of the different chapters (in french) and of its main results (in french) and its table of contents.

Incarceration and liberation: Prisons in the cistercian monastery

by Megan Cassidy-Welch

Viator 32 (2001), 23-42

This article explores the means by which Cistercians from the thirteenth century were able to use and justify... more This article explores the means by which Cistercians from the thirteenth century were able to use and justify imprisonment in their monastic houses. It traces the invention of the monastic prison from the advent of cenobitic monasticism and explores the discursive construction of captivity as a fundamental element of western monastic life. The author particularly looks at the tension between spiritual understandings of freedom in confinement, and the reality of actual incarceration in a monastic setting. The article positions a history of monastic prisons within specific cultural contexts; in this way, it departs from a traditional reading of imprisonment as part of legal and political history. In tracing the meanings given to imprisonment by Cistercians, the author contends that medieval understandings and uses of imprisonment were closely linked to understandings of space and that the specific historical and ecclesiastical contexts of the early thirteenth century were pivotal to Cistercian justifications of incarceration.

Testimonies from a Fourteenth‐Century Prison: Rumour, Evidence and Truth in the Midi

by Megan Cassidy-Welch

French History 16:1 (2002), 3-27

This article explores the ways in which the inhabitants of early fourteenth‐century Albi fashioned individual and... more This article explores the ways in which the inhabitants of early fourteenth‐century Albi fashioned individual and collective truths about their hated bishop, Bernard de Castanet. The article primarily focuses on a manuscript now held in the Vatican Secret Archive (Collectorie 404). This manuscript contains the written testimonies of those who asserted that among other nefarious activities, Castanet had improperly used imprisonment and torture against his enemies, had engaged in sexual misconduct and had interfered with the quotidian affairs of the Albigensians to an inordinate degree. This article explores the grievance of the citizens of Albi within the context of inquisitorial influence and practice. I argue that the testimonies of those who complained to the pope about Castanet's conduct both reveal the complex means by which evidence and truth were created and communicated in the early fourteenth‐century milieu, and provide us with important insights into the manufacture of testimonial authority, the historical use of rumour and the ways in which medieval people could choose to narrate past experiences.

La influencia chilena en la construcción del primer edificio penitenciario argentino

by Alejo Garcia Basalo

Publicado en la Revista de Estudios Criminológicos y Penitenciarios Nº 9, Diciembre 2006, Santiago de Chile, 113-151

Historia del primer edificio penitenciario argentino, construido en Mendoza en 1865, cuyo proyecto tuvo claras... more Historia del primer edificio penitenciario argentino, construido en Mendoza en 1865, cuyo proyecto tuvo claras influencias de la Cárcel Penitenciaria de Santiago de Chile, que a su vez estuvo inspirada en la célebre Penitenciaria de Filadelfia. Diferencias entre el partido radial y el panóptico.

"Research Notes from the Underworld: The Entry Logs of the Rio de Janeiro Casa de Detenção, 1860-1969"

by Amy Chazkel

Latin American Research Review - Volume 46, Number 2, 2011, pp. 181-199

The Rio de Janeiro state archive's collection of entry logs for the city's central detention center, going back to the... more The Rio de Janeiro state archive's collection of entry logs for the city's central detention center, going back to the mid-nineteenth century, provides a rare glimpse into the lives of Rio's—and Brazil's—poor and working classes who otherwise left few written records behind. During the time when the institution maintained the entry logs, police exercised broad power to make arrests. Although relatively few detainees were ever prosecuted or even formally charged, the detention center kept detailed records of detainees' physical appearance, attire, home address, nationality, sex, affiliation, and so on, as well as information about any criminal charges. This article explores the wealth of empirical data that the entry logs provide. It also suggests how scrutinizing this type of document across time shows how record keeping itself changed, in turn affording researchers rare insight into the inner workings of modern Latin American society.


O acervo do Arquivo Público do Estado do Rio de Janeiro possui os livros de matrícula da casa de detenção da cidade do Rio, que cobre o período a partir da metade do século XIX. Estes documentos proporcionam pistas raras sobre as vidas das classes pobres da cidade do Rio de Janeiro e do Brasil, cujos registros são muito poucos. Enquanto esta instituição mantinha estes livros de matrícula, a polícia tinha uma larga noção de criminalidade e em função disto fazia um número acentuado de prisões. Apesar do fato da maioria dos detentos não ter um processo formal instaurado, a casa de detenção mantinha registros de detentos nos quais eram destacados, entre outros, a aparência física, a vestimenta, o endereço residencial, a nacionalidade, o sexo, a filiação, assim como informações sobre os delitos alegados. Este artigo analisa a riqueza de dados empíricos dos livros de matrícula desta instituição. Também sugere como devemos perscrutar este tipo de documento através do tempo para perceber como a forma de registro mudou e como esta mudança pode auxiliar o pesquisador a construir conhecimento sobre o funcionamento da sociedade moderna latino-americana.

La prison urbaine: Pratiques civiques, discours religieux et enjeu social

by Guy Geltner

Enfermements. Le cloître et la prison (VIe-XVIIIe siècle), ed. Isabelle Heullant-Donat, Julie Claustre, and Elisabeth Lusset, Homme et société 38 (Paris: Publications de l'Université Paris-Sorbonne, 2011), 321-30

‘The Best Place in the World’: Imaging Urban Prisons in Late Medieval Italy

by Guy Geltner

in: Cities, Texts, and Social Networks, ed. Caroline Goodson, Anne E. Lester, and Carol Symes (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2010), 263-78

This essay introduces some of the main social and political elements that influenced the representation of prison... more This essay introduces some of the main social and political elements that influenced the representation of prison spaces in late medieval urban Europe, especially in several Italian city-states.

No-Woman’s Land? On Female Crime and Incarceration, Past, Present, and Future

by Guy Geltner

Justice Policy Journal 7 (2010)

The perception of penitentiaries as male institutions dates back to the late Middle Ages, when urban governments... more The perception of penitentiaries as male institutions dates back to the late Middle Ages, when urban governments across Europe began constructing prisons as cogs in their growing machineries of justice. Already then, female incarceration contrasted sharply, intentionally, and symbolically with that of men, rendering women prison “incasts” in ways that parallel their marginal and vulnerable situation today. And yet few of the major pains of incarceration afflicting modern female prisoners seem to have been common to the experiences of their medieval predecessors. What made the difference, and how can it inform approaches to female inmates and female criminality in general?

Detrusio: Penal Cloistering in the Middle Ages

by Guy Geltner

Revue Bénédictine 118 (2008): 89-108

An examination of the medieval penal practice of casting laypeople into monasteries and the extent to which it... more An examination of the medieval penal practice of casting laypeople into monasteries and the extent to which it foreshadowed and functioned as a form of penal incarceration beyond the strict jurisdiction of the Church.

Isola non isolata. Le Stinche in the Middle Ages

by Guy Geltner

Annali di Storia di Firenze 3 (2008): 9-30

A detailed study of Le Stinche, an early purpose-built prison that operated in Florence between c. 1300 and 1833. An... more A detailed study of Le Stinche, an early purpose-built prison that operated in Florence between c. 1300 and 1833. An arena for negotiating many of the city's tensions, in numerous ways it exhibited many features supposedly only characteristic of of post-Enlightenment prisons.

Medieval Prisons: Between Myth and Reality, Hell and Purgatory

by Guy Geltner

History Compass 4 (2006): 261-74

An introduction to the study of medieval prison life and imaginary aimed at a broad audience. An introduction to the study of medieval prison life and imaginary aimed at a broad audience.

Coping in Medieval Prisons

by Guy Geltner

Continuity and Change 23 (2008): 151-72

A description and analysis ofl ate- medieval prison life based on several Italian case studies, this article... more A description and analysis ofl ate- medieval prison life based on several Italian case studies, this article challenges numerous preconceptions of pre-modern incarceration, including its legal, social, and environmental aspects.

Complejos Penitenciarios. Alcance de la relación entre arquitectura y régimen penitenciario

by Alejo Garcia Basalo

Publicado en la Revista de Estudios Criminológicos y Penitenciarios, Nº 6, Mayo 2003, Santiago de Chile, 59-91

Antecedentes sobre la creación de complejos penitenciarios, definición, características. Descripción del Complejo... more Antecedentes sobre la creación de complejos penitenciarios, definición, características. Descripción del Complejo Federal de Ezeiza, Argentina.

"Social Life and Civic Education in the Rio de Janeiro City Jail'

by Amy Chazkel

published in the Journal of Social History 42:3 (Spring 2009), 697-731

This article reconstructs the social ecology of the Brazilian capital city's principal Detention Center (Casa de... more This article reconstructs the social ecology of the Brazilian capital city's principal Detention Center (Casa de Detenção) at the beginning of the country's First Republic (1889–1930). Most of the persons in Rio's city jail at this time were only detained for a relatively brief period and without any formal charges. This detention center's manuscript entry logs, annual ministerial reports, administrative correspondence, and published prison diaries and journalistic accounts reveal this institution as a living theater that dramatizes the gap between legal code and real-life juridical practice more powerfully than perhaps any other institution in modern, urban Brazil. The criminal justice system provided the primary interface between the state and nonelite members of Rio society. During their time in the Casa de Detenção before being acquitted, transferred to a different penal facility, or deported, an astonishingly heterogeneous group of detainees interacted with each other and with agents of the state. Ultimately, I argue, detainees' experiences in the city jail provided them with a civic education of sorts; in this setting, inmates—and indirectly their families and associates outside the jail—learned not only how to navigate the criminal justice system but also, more generally, the informal and formal rules that governed their society. Going beyond the assumption that the incarcerated were socially "dead," this article seeks to contribute an understanding of the social ripple effects of informal judicial and policing procedures in urbanizing, post-abolition Brazil in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.

THE MECCAN PRISON OF ʿABDALLĀH B. AL-ZUBAYR AND THE IMPRISONMENT OF MUḤAMMAD B. AL-ḤANAFĪYA

by Sean Anthony

forthcoming, draft only