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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Storm Raven" data-source="post: 881201" data-attributes="member: 307">Here is another reason: in midaevil (and ancient, and renaissance) societies, prison wasn't somewhere that was used for punishment. It was where people were housed who were waiting for punishment.We think of prison as a place where you put criminals for several years so that they are punished for their cirmes. However, traditionally, prison was just a convenient place to house someone while they were waiting for their actual punishment was being prepared (usually torture or death, mostly death). It was just a place to keep people from running away.To someone living in 1500 (for example, or 1300, or 1700), the idea that puttuing someone in prison for 20 years would be considered appropriate punishment would have been almost ludicrous. People were put in prison for a week while the boiling oil was shipped in in order to fry them up.Justice "on the fly", if performed by those with reasonable authority (which was often constituted of locally appointed authority, such as soldiers hired by a town or village to hunt down troublesome bandits) was considered to be a normal part of everyday life.</blockquote>