Prisons were not
too rare in ancient times yet to the extent they were it was
because only select classes could be imprisoned . As democracy spread
the franchise of imprisonment increased too replacing former forced
labor, serfdom, slavery and death as punishments for the masses from
above. A modern understanding of what prisons are may distort the
view of history though. One recalls the Apostle Paul's time in prison
as well as John the Baptist. Prisons occupy a niche however for
political systems that must treat a select class of subjects or
citizens with some human rights, and not just send them into slavery
or the slave galleys, salt mine until death or wherever the
authorities sent them.
The Romans developed prisons
and a famous one was the Mamertine Prison created by Ancus Marius in
640 a.d., and was in a sewer and dungeons beneath Rome.In the Middle Ages numerous prisons existed where hostages and subjects were kept by the ruling class for various reasons. Famous prisons in England included the dungeons of Pontefraact Castle mentioned by Shakespeare in Richard III and Caernarfon Castle's dungeons established in the 13th century. Switzerland had the notorius Chillon Castle dungeon and of course during the 16th and 17th centuries the Bastille Prison in Paris that had been converted from a fort.
Some local gaols or jails kept prisoners for a very long time. The author John Bunyan was kept in the local Bedford town gaol for a dozen years for preaching without a license. Butyrka prison in Moscow is referenced as existing in the 1600s and probably was used to incarcerate individuals from social classes that could not be sent to forced labor camps or converted into serfs. Chateau d'If in France held religious and political prisoners from 1634 to apprx. 1899. One shouldn't overlook the Tower of London or lesser known places of captivity such as Warwick Castle.
