Prisons as places of detention are very ancientinstitutions. As soon as men had learned theway to build, in stone, as in Egypt, or withbricks, as in Mesopotamia, when kings hadmany-towered fortresses, and the great baronscastles on the crags, there would be cells anddungeons in the citadels.[1] But prisons as placesfor the reception of “ordinary” (as distinct fromstate or political) criminals for definite termsonly evolved in England many centuries afterwards[2];whilst imprisonment as a punishment initself,[3] to be endured under rules made expresslypunitive and distressful, may be described asessentially modern, and reached its worst phasein the nineteenth century.[4]
The Teutonic Tribes of the bays and forestswere fierce and free. They exemplified, in fact,the theory of Nietzsche, that liberty cannot begranted but
