Should prisons treat or punish?

Resumo

Since ancient times, prisons have been used for the involuntary incarceration of people from all strata of society including royalties, political dissidents, prisoners of war, slaves, vagrants and criminals. Many had been imprisoned until their release from captivity, execution or transfer to another site of incarceration. The Roman Empire constructed an underground prison at the foot of the Capitoline Hill more than two thousand years ago on a site adjacent to the Forum Romanum, which was then the heart of government and commercial activities. Prisoners were tried at the Forum Romanum and cast into this dark and ominous prison prior to their execution (Grant 1970). In the United Kingdom, the Tower of London was used to imprison royalties such as Queen Anne Boleyn, Lady Jane Grey and noblemen such as Sir Thomas More during the 16th century. More recently, it was used to incarcerate prisoners and spies of enemy states during the First and Second World Wars (Impey & Parnell 2000). Another prison in London, the Newgate, was used to incarcerate criminals and vagrants for over eight hundred years since the 12th century while some of the most hard-core convicted criminals were deported and imprisoned at the Port Arthur prison at Tasmania, Australia in the 19th century (Robin 2009). (Trecho)