142
Thomas, J., concurring in judgment
inmates, or prison resources, that cannot be replaced by "ready alternatives," and that leave inmates with alternative means of accomplishing what the restrictions prohibit, are presumptively included within a sentence of imprisonment. Moreover, the history of incarceration as punishment supports the view that the sentences imposed on respondents terminated any rights of intimate association. From the time prisons began to be used as places where criminals served out their sentences, they were administered much in the way Michigan administers them today.
Incarceration in the 18th century in both England and the Colonies was virtually nonexistent as a form of punishment. L. Friedman, Crime and Punishment in American History 48 (1993) (hereinafter Friedman) ("From our standpoint, what is most obviously missing, as a punishment [in the colonial system of corrections], is imprisonment"). Colonial jails had a very limited function of housing debtors and holding prisoners who were awaiting trial. See id., at 49. These institutions were generally characterized by "[d]isorder and neglect." McGowen, The Well-Ordered Prison: England, 1780-1865, in The Oxford History of the Prison: The Practice of Punishment in Western Society 79 (N. Morris & D. Roth-man eds. 1995) (hereinafter McGowen). It is not therefore surprising that these jails were quite permeable. A debtor could come and go as he pleased, as long as he remained within a certain area (" 'prison bounds' ") and returned to jail to sleep. Friedman 49. Moreover, a prisoner with connections could get food and clothing from the outside, id., at 50; see also W. Lewis, From Newgate to Dannemora: The Rise of the Penitentiary in New York, 1796-1848, p. 49 (1965) (hereinafter Lewis) ("Many visitors brought the felons such items of contraband as rum, tools, money, and unauthorized messages"). In sum, "[t]here was little evidence of authority," McGowen 79, uniformity, and discipline.
Prison as it is known today and its part in the penitentiary system were "basically a nineteenth-century invention."
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