1. Before the Penitentiary. Transportation as penalty. Who were the convicts? The punishments of transportation. Transportation or the prison? -- 2. The Carceral System. The patterns of punishment. 'Reform through suffering'. The architecture of punishment -- 3. The Criminal. Criminology: from crime to criminal. The individualisation of punishment. Women in prison. The juvenile and the reformatory. The psychology of the criminal -- 4. Punishing the Body. Corporal punishment and changing sensibilities. Execution -- 5. The Politics of Punishment. Resistance from below. Changing the system? Conclusion: The Possibilities of Change