The mad, the bad and the pauper : help and control in early modern control in carceral institutions

Abstract

This essay looks at institutions of confinement in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including asylums, workhouses, and hospitals. Most of the illustrations are taken from research done on relevant documents of the time as well as criticism of these institutions both in the nineteenth century, when there was widespread reform in carceral institutions and by modern authors who have studied this period. When analyzing the development of punishment and confinement, one can infer four theoretical perspectives (Scicluna 2004). Durkheim contends that confinement exists to unite society (Walker 1991). Spierenburg (1984), on the other hand, writes that it is the changes in society that bring about change in confinement, moving from the more brutal to a gentler form of punishment. Foucault (1977) believes that confinement serves as a means to control the population, while Marxist theorists like Rusche and Kirchheimer (1939) see confinement as serving to control conflict in society.