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From dank medieval dungeons to inaccessible towers to electronically surveilled cell blocks, Norman Johnston, AM'51, provides a glimpse into the physical structures of containment in Forms of Constraint: A History of Prison Architecture (University of Illinois Press). In his analysis of the favored styles of penitentiary buildings during the past 4,000 years, Johnston reflects on prison design and its practical and aesthetical functions.

Johnston outlines the layouts of various prisons and analyzes their success according to several factors-segregation by gender or by severity of crime, inmates' hygiene, remedial activities, and surveillance of both prisoners and guards. He discusses influential prison designers including William Blackburn, the late-18th century architect who was the first specialist in prison design, and famed utilitarians Jeremy and Samuel Bentham, who envisioned (but never built) the "Panopticon," a structure where a single guard could surveil all inmates at once. Also included are nation-by-nation descriptions of penal approach, including how location influences a prison's design and a chronological breakdown of correctional facilities by country. -- A.S.