The History of Prisons

I've been reading lately about the history of prisons in Medieval Europe.  Prisons (and lunatic asylums) have traditionally been where society places individuals who cannot or will not conform closely enough to societal norms.  It hadn't occurred to me independantly, but the whole concept of a prison has to have started somewhere. 

In Medieval Europe, prisons originated as places to confine prisoners awaiting trial, torture, or execution.  In short, the concept of detention as a form of punishment wasn't part of the general culture prior to 1000 AD.  That accords with my (limited) knowledge of prior civilizations as well.  There are no indications that Romans or Egyptians used imprisonment as anything other than a means of holding a prisoner until the "real" punishment would be administered.

This change in attitude (that imprisonment itself forms a type of punishment) actually requires a fair bit of insight.  At first glance, the idea of having a guaranteed roof over your head, meals provided, religeous needs attended to could even be appealing to members of the lower classes at least.  At the time, you had to pay for the priviledge of being imprisoned so it wasn't free but still...  Even today, you can sometimes see people referring to low-security prisons as having it "easy."  So the attitude that "time in jail" counts as a punishment and/or a deterrent requires quite a leap. 

Truly, what it requires, is an acknowledgement that basic needs such as food, shelter, and sex are not sufficient for happiness and satisfaction in life.  (Prostitutes frequented medieval prisons so imprisonment did not imply chastity.)  Imprisonment can only be viewed as a form of punishment once personal liberty is seen to be of value.  Thus the establishment of prisons as a deterrent reflects a basic change in the attitudes of society toward valuing liberty.

Ideallists today would prefer to see prisons as a place of reform rather than punishment.  This is reflected in terms such as 'department of corrections' and in the very concept of parole.  So we see a progression in the attitudes society shows toward criminals.  Initially, they were faceless beings upon whom vengence is warranted.  Then, they were recognized as human enough to suffer such abstractions as a loss of liberty.  Today, they are viewed (by some at least) as people who still have potential to contribute positively to society and to grow personally.  Somewhere along the way, vengence has been diluted by empathy.

So What?

 

Before I get too deep into documenting the changing face of violence in society, it's reasonable to ask why it matters.  As far as I'm concerned, 'because it's interesting' is a perfectly valid answer. I'm a supporter of pure research in all its various forms. However this particular line of inquiry could have more immediate impact. Specifically, it could lead to a change in our approach to various aspects    of social policy and even to metaphysics.

The most obvious effect would be on our approach to censoring violence in the media. On one hand, censors could argue that if less violence is the way of the future, then we should work to usher it in sooner. I would lean in the opposite direction though. I would say that to the extent violence in movies and video games is a problem, it's fixing itself and so we should leave it to take its course. Moreover, history seems to demonstrate a common human drive to witness violence and we should simply be glad that these days it's sublimated into fantasy worlds and no longer involves actual violence toward living beings. Either way, this investigation would certainly inform the debate.

The next obvious question is whether this effect is reflecting a change solely in Western culture or a deeper change in human nature itself. That could easily be addressed by cross-cultural historical comparisons. Unfortunately, my personal knowledge only extends to Western history. If, as I personally suspect, this effect extends across cultural boundaries, then we start discussing changes in human nature.

The trends that I have been documenting are changes in the amount of violence desirable or acceptable to the average citizen in a given time period. It is beyond question that there are always people who are far from average. In this case, on one side we get saints and on the other, psychopaths. If we can understand how and why society is changing, then perhaps we can apply that knowledge to help bring the psychopaths closer to the societal average. (I’m not particularly interested in finding a way to give saints a taste for blood.) Imagine how different our world would be if prisons became truly a place for reform rather than punishment or deterrence!