Penitentiary

5 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Penitentiary \Pen`i*ten"tia*ry\
     (p[e^]n`[i^]*t[e^]n"sh[.a]*r[y^]), a. [Cf. F.
     p['e]nitentiaire.]
     1. Relating to penance, or to the rules and measures of
        penance. "A penitentiary tax." --Abp. Bramhall.
        [1913 Webster]


  
     2. Expressive of penitence; as, a penitentiary letter.
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     3. Used for punishment, discipline, and reformation.
        "Penitentiary houses." --Blackstone.
        [1913 Webster]

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Penitentiary \Pen`i*ten"tia*ry\, n.; pl. {Penitentiaries}. [Cf.
     F. p['e]nitencier. See {Penitent}.]
     1. One who prescribes the rules and measures of penance.
        [Obs.] --Bacon.
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     2. One who does penance. [Obs.] --Hammond.
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     3. A small building in a monastery where penitents confessed.
        --Shpiley.
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     4. That part of a church to which penitents were admitted.
        --Shipley.
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     5. (R. C. Ch.)
        (a) An office of the papal court which examines cases of
            conscience, confession, absolution from vows, etc.,
            and delivers decisions, dispensations, etc. Its chief
            is a cardinal, called the Grand Penitentiary,
            appointed by the pope.
        (b) An officer in some dioceses since A. D. 1215, vested
            with power from the bishop to absolve in cases
            reserved to him.
            [1913 Webster]
  
     6. A house of correction, in which offenders are confined for
        punishment, discipline, and reformation, and in which they
        are generally compelled to labor; a prison; a jail.
        Colloquially often shortened to {pen}.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  penitentiary
       adj : used for punishment or reform of criminals or wrongdoers;
             "penitentiary institutions"
       n : a correctional institution for those convicted of major
           crimes [syn: {pen}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  99 Moby Thesaurus words for "penitentiary":
     Grand Penitentiary, Holy Father, POW camp, abuna, antipope,
     archbishop, archdeacon, archpriest, bail, bastille, bishop,
     bishop coadjutor, black hole, borstal, borstal institution,
     bridewell, brig, can, canon, cardinal, cardinal bishop,
     cardinal deacon, cardinal priest, cassock, cell, chaplain,
     coadjutor, concentration camp, condemned cell, confessor, cooler,
     coop, curate, cure, dean, death cell, death house, death row,
     detention camp, diocesan, ecclesiarch, exarch, father,
     father confessor, father in Christ, federal prison,
     forced-labor camp, gallach, gaol, guardhouse, hierarch,
     high priest, hoosegow, house of correction, house of detention,
     industrial school, internment camp, jail, jailhouse, keep,
     labor camp, lockup, maximum-security prison, metropolitan,
     minimum-security prison, oubliette, padre, papa, parish priest,
     patriarch, pen, penal colony, penal institution, penal settlement,
     pontiff, pope, prebendary, prelate, presbyter, priest, primate,
     prison, prison camp, prisonhouse, rector, reform school,
     reformatory, rural dean, spiritual director, spiritual father,
     sponging house, state prison, stockade, subdean, suffragan,
     the hole, tollbooth, training school, vicar
  
  

From Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856) [bouvier]:

  PENITENTIARY. A prison for the punishment of convicts. 
       2. There are two systems of penitentiaries in the United States, each 
  of which is claimed to be the best by its partisans: the Pennsylvania system 
  and the New York system. By the former, convicts are lodged in separate, 
  well lighted, and well ventilated cells, where they are required to work, 
  during stated hours. During the whole time of their confinement, they are 
  never permitted to see or speak with each other. Their usual employments are 
  shoemaking, weaving, winding yarn, picking wool, and such like business. The 
  only punishments to which convicts are subject, are the privation of food 
  for short periods, and confinement without labor in dark, but well aired 
  cells; this discipline has been found sufficient to keep perfect order; the 
  whip and all other corporal punishments are prohibited. The advantages of 
  the plan are numerous. Men cannot long remain in solitude without labor 
  convicts, when deprived of it, ask it as a favor, and in order to retain it, 
  use, generally, their best exertions to do their work well; being entirely 
  secluded, they are of course unknown to their fellow prisoners, and can form 
  no combination to escape while in prison, or associations to prey upon 
  society when they are out; being treated with kindness, and afforded books 
  for their instruction and amusement, they become satisfied that society does 
  not make war upon them, and, more disposed to return to it, which they are 
  not prevented from doing by the exposure of their fellow prisoners, when in 
  a strange place; the labor of the convicts tends greatly to defray the 
  expenses of the prison. The disadvantages which were anticipated have been 
  found, to be groundless.; Among these were, that the prisoners would be 
  unhealthy; experience has proved the contrary; that they would become 
  insane, this has also been found to be otherwise; that solitude is 
  incompatible with the performance of business; that obedience to the 
  discipline of the prison could not be enforced. These and all other 
  objections to this system are, by its friends, believed to be without force. 
       3. The New York system, adopted at Auburn, which was probably copied 
  from the penitentiary at Ghent, in the Netherlands, called La Maison de 
  Force, is founded on the system of isolation and separation, as well as that 
  of Pennsylvania, but with this difference, that in the former the prisoners 
  are confined to their separate cells during the night only; during the 
  working hours in the day time they labor together in work shops appropriated 
  to their use. They cat their meals together, but in such a manner as not to 
  be able to speak with each other. Silence is also imposed upon them at their 
  labor. They perform the labor of carpenters, blacksmiths, weavers, 
  shoemakers, tailors, coopers, gardeners, wood sawyers, &c. The discipline of 
  the prison is enforced by stripes, inflicted by the assistant keepers, on 
  the backs of the prisoners, though this punishment is rarely exercised. The 
  advantages of this plan are, that the convicts are in solitary confinement 
  during the night; that their labor, by being joint, is more productive; 
  that, inasmuch as a clergyman is employed to preach to the prisoners, the 
  system affords an, opportunity for mental and moral improvements. Among the 
  objections made to it are, that the prisoners have opportunities of 
  communicating with each other, and of forming plans of escape, and when they 
  are out of prison, of associating together in consequence of their previous 
  acquaintance, to the detriment of those who wish to return to virtue, and to 
  the danger of the public; that the discipline is degrading, and that it 
  engenders bitter resentment in the mind of the convict. Vide, generally, on 
  the subject of penitentiaries, Report of the Commissioners (Messrs. King, 
  Shaler, and Wharton,) on the Penal Code of Pennsylvania; De Beaumont and De 
  Toqueville, on the Penitentiary System of the United States; Mease on the 
  Penitentiary System of Pennsylvania; Carey on ditto; Reports of the Boston 
  Prison Discipline Society; Livingston's excellent Introductory Report to the 
  Code of Reform and Prison Discipline, prepared for the state of Louisiana; 
  Encycl. Americ. art. Prison Discipline; De. I'Etat Actuel des Prisons en 
  France, par L. M. More au Christophe; Dalloz, Dict. mot Peine, Sec. 1, n. 3, 
  and Supplem. mots Prisons et Bagnes.