ABSTRACT

The nineteenth century saw the widespread use of solitary confinement in Europe. In order to understand solitary confinement history, the chapter examines its use in the United States, where the peculiar conditions of the labor market constituted one reason for a relatively rapid change in penal policy. To understand solitary confinement development, the chapter examines not only the psychological aspects, but also the state of the American labor market in the north. In the early nineteenth century there was a greater demand for workers in the United States than at any time during the mercantilist period in Europe. What European society with its industrial reserve army needed was a punishment which would strike fear even into the hearts of the starving. The idea of possible intimidation was only one of the reasons for the introduction of solitary confinement. Solitary confinement was obviously advantageous to prison governors and officials in maintaining proper discipline.