... modernity, a product of the industrial age. Since the abolition of the death penalty in 1965 imprisonment has been the most serious penalty the courts can impose in Britain. The punishment of imprisonment for sentenced prisoners might be both loss of liberty and harsh living conditions in the name of 'less eligibility' or deterrence (Morgan, R 1997). Prior to the nineteenth century punishment for criminals was very different. The focus of punishment in these historic times was the body. Punishments were physical in nature with execution and torture being combined with public humiliation. Within just a few decades the brutal torture and public humiliations stopped. The body was no longer the major target for penal repression. Punishment ceased to be centred on torture as a technique of pain; it assumed as its principle object loss of wealth or rights. While this type of punishment apparently now focuses on the soul rather ...

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