PAPER Topics

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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 m ....

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... 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. Early prisons were dark, dirty, unhygienic and overcrowded. ...