PRISONS (OF., Fr. prison, from Lat. prcnsio, seizure, from premiere, prehendere. to seize, take, from pew-, before ± -hemicre, Gk, xeradretv, chon &mein, to seize; connected with Guth. k--qitan, to rind, 014G. lirgezzan, Ger. rcrgeswn, to forget, AS. gitan, Eng. get). Prisons have been used from antiquity as places of detention or seclu sion, but only in modern times as places of punishment for crime. Of the former class were the famous Tower of London, the Bastille of Paris, the Bicare, the Seven Towers of Constan tinople, and the Castle of Spielberg in Austria. In the sixteenth century workhousea were erected in England, and also on the Continent, to which vagrants were committed: London (1550), Am sterdam (1588), Nuremberg (1588). There was at first little classification, and conditions were bad. Gradually, however, improvements were introduced. The rules and regulations necessary to the sheltering and employment of vagrants developed into prison discipline, while the neces sity for classification led to the development of prison architecture. Imprisonment under the new conditions came to be viewed in a different light, and thus became a recognized punishment for crime.
Prisons were first looked upon as a possible means of reformation in 1704, when l'ope Clement XI. established the Hospital of Saint "Michael at Home. This was not strictly a prison, but in the criminal wards the plan was intro duced of having separate cells at night with work in common by day, silence being main tained. This plan is the basis of what is now known in America as the Auburn plan. A prison which became the architectural prison model for Western Europe and America was constructed at Ghent in 1773. The cells were in blocks, tier upon tier, radiating from a central octagon. The corridors were thus against the outer walls. This probably suggested the form of the Eastern Penitentiary at Philmlelphia, in which, however, the corridors were placed in the centre of the blocks of cells, as at Saint Aliehael's. These plans, which make the entrance to each cell visible from the central room, have been adopted in many later prisons. Beccaria (q.v.), in his great treatise on Crimes and Punishments (1764), protested effectively against barbarous punishments, and John lloward (q.v.), who
spent sixteen years in visiting the prisons of Europe, was able to effect radical changes in the prison of England. Two plans were henceforth followed. In one the prisoners are separated. They eat., work, and sleep in their cells apart from nil other inmates. This is theoretically the policy of the Eastern Peniten tiary of Pennsylvania and that adopted in Eu rope. By the other plain the men have separate cells, but work, and often dine, together. This is the common plan in America. In either case mach of the corrupting influence attendant upon the intermingling of prisoners is to a large ex tent avoided. Early prison conditions in Amer ica were exceedingly bad. At Simsbury, Conn., an abandoned copper mine was used as a State prison from 1773 to 1827. Reform began with the building of the Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia in 1817 and the Auburn State Prison of New York (1816), which became the models for American prisons. Between the two systems fierce rivalry arose, but after many trials the Auburn plan has been generally adopted. With the introduction Of steam heat, electric lights, and modern sanitary conveniences, prisons have been greatly improved. About the prisons are usually high walls on which guards are stationed, while the electric lights make undetected escape over the walls by night ex tremely difficult.
Prison management and discipline have not kept pace with mechanical improvements. The old forms of torture and barbarous punishment have, however, disappeared. while escapes are relatively infrequent. In the larger institutions there is great reluctance to tolerate idleness, which is always found to be demoralizing in the extreme. The question as to the proper occupa tion of the convict, however, is difficult or solu tion. (See CONVICT LABOR.) Inefficient man agement often destroys many of the good influ ences which modern penology demands shall sur round the prisoner. Trained men are more and more needed both for efficient financial manage ment and for wise discipline.