ABSTRACT
This chapter shows that imprisonment continues to take the place of physical forms of punishment and the death penalty until, by the end of the eighteenth century. The house of correction grew out of a social situation in which the conditions of the labor market were favorable to the lower classes. The chapter describes that no new policy in dealing with prisoners had been developed after the degeneration of the houses of correction. The population of England increased by one million in the first half of the eighteenth century, and by three million in the second half. The population of France was 19 million in 1707, 24 in 1770, and 26 in 1789. What the ruling classes had been seeking for over a century was now an accomplished fact—relative overpopulation. The organization of industry was revolutionized by the new condition of the labor market. The ruling classes were tempted to return to the premercantilist methods of treating criminals.
