Each culture is introduced by a brief overview of its social and legal history, a description and analysis of ideas and practices related to crime and punishment, and specific uses of prisons. Uses of prison imagery in religious, philosophical, and literary works produced by each culture are noted, with prisons and imprisonment considered to be part of the imagination and penal practices of past cultures. The author deals with prisons in the context of a broader spectrum of physical punishment modes, including confinement, and focuses on the history of corrections before the large-scale period of prison building and imprisonment that began in 17th century Europe. References and photographs