The original compters, also known as counters, were meant for temporary confinement of freemen and women who broke city laws. By 1393 regulations were drawn to make the compters prisons for punishment of misdemeanors. In 1431, after Newgate was expanded, it was decreed that poor prisoners who were sent to the compter for more than 1 day and 1 night should be committed to Newgate. By 1412 the compters began to have fixed locations. City codes were established to regulate building conditions, keepers' behavior, and fees. Prisoners in the compter paid fees for everything, including basic necessities such as feed and bedding, as well as admission and exit fees, even if the exit was in a coffin. There were three grades of lodging in the compter: the Master's Side, Knights Ward, and Two Penny Ward. Each of these three grades of lodging had conditions and levels of services commensurate with the inmate's ability to pay the keepers. The Master's Side was the most luxurious lodging, with each inmate having his own cell, complete with straw and a set of cheap sheets and a candle end for light. The food on the Master's Side included meat, a claret of wine, and tobacco. The other two lodging statuses had harsher conditions, and an inmate's retention of a specific lodging status depended on his/her ability to pay the fixed prices. If an inmate ran out of money or came in with none, he/she was thrust into the "Hole," without heat, food, or bedding. According to the testimony of one of the keepers at one compter, the Hole "was not twenty feet square and yet forty or more prisoners regularly slept there; nor was it possible to provide separate sleeping quarters for men and women." It was just as easy to die of exposure in the Hole as it was to die of starvation. 24 notes and 17 references