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A prison reformer of the seventeenth century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 May 2025
In the literature of historical penology, the student now and then runs across the name of Jean Mabillon, Benedictine of the Congregation of Saint Maur, but if he should wish for some information about him and his contribution to the development of penal treatment or to the history of prison reform, he will search in vain. His curiosity may be pardoned considering the liberal claims made by writers who, impelled by a spirit of patriotism or of religious zeal instead of by a desire for accuracy, have made Mabillon the architect of the famous San Michele reformatory in Rome, the inspirer of William Penn, and the father of the penitentiary system as we have known it applied in the United States and elsewhere for the last century and a half. To what extent can these claims be justified ? What is Mabillon’s place in the history of penology ? In this essay an attempt will be made to answer these questions in so far as hitherto available material permits it.
Reprinted from the Journal of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology, vol. XVII, n° 4, February 1927.
Assistant Professor of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania.