The Prison Experience: Disciplinary Institutions and Their Inmates in Early Modern Europe

Abstract

The prison occupies a central position in the penal systems of most countries today. Many historians believe that imprisonment did not become a major judicial sanction until the nineteenth century. Pieter Spierenburg corrects this view. First as a disciplinary institution and later as a penal option, the prison has played an important role in European societies from the late sixteenth century to today. Spierenburg traces the evolution of the prison during the early modern period, with particular emphasis on the prisons of the Netherlands, Germany, and France, but with reference to all of Europe. Spierenburg looks at the daily lives of inmates, a focus that is unusual in historical studies of prisons. He also analyzes the long term nature of change in prisons and the conceptions of prisoners as persons who had broken away from family bonds. His work adds to our understanding of social change and daily life in early modern Europe and will appeal to historians, sociologists, and criminologists.