Editing Imprisonment (section)

==History==

=== Africa ===
Before colonisation, imprisonment was used in sub-Saharan Africa for pre-trial detention, to secure compensation and as a last resort but not generally as punishment, except in the Songhai Empire (1464–1591) and in connection with the slave trade.<ref name=":0">{{Cite journal|last=Sarkin|first=Jeremy|date=December 2008|title=Prisons in Africa: An Evaluation from a Human Rights Perspective|url=https://sur.conectas.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/sur9-eng-jeremy-sarkin.pdf|journal=International Journal on Human Rights|volume=5|page=24}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Isaac Weldesellasie|first=Kebreab|title=The International Criminal Court and Africa|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=2017|isbn=9780198810568|editor-last=Chernor Jalloh|editor-first=Charles|pages=253–254|editor-last2=Bantekas|editor-first2=Ilias}}</ref> In the colonial period, imprisonment provided a source of labor and a means of suppression.<ref name=":0" /> The use of imprisonment has continued to the present day.<ref name=":1" />

=== Australia ===
Incarceration in what became known as [[Australia]] was introduced through [[colonization]]. As noted by scholar Thalia Anthony, the Australian [[Settler colonialism|settler colonial]] state has engaged in carceral tactics of containment and segregation against [[Aboriginal Australians]] since colonizers first arrived, "whether that be for [[Christianization|Christian]], [[Civilizing mission|civilizing]], protectionist, welfare, or penal purposes." When [[settler]]s arrived, they invented courts and passed laws without consent of Indigenous peoples that stated that they had [[jurisdiction]] over them and their lands. When Indigenous peoples challenged these laws, they were imprisoned.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Anthony|first=Thalia|title=Questioning Indigenous-Settler Relations: Interdisciplinary Perspectives|publisher=Springer Singapore|year=2019|isbn=9789811392054|editor-last=Nakata|editor-first=Sana|pages=33–40|chapter=Settler-Colonial Governability: The Carceral Webs Woven by Law and Politics}}</ref>

===England and Wales===
In English law, imprisonment is the restraint of a person's [[liberty]].<ref>[[Archbold Criminal Pleading, Evidence and Practice]]. 1999. Chapter 5. Section II. "Sentences of Imprisonment".</ref> The 17th century book [[Termes de la Ley]] contains the following definition:
{{Blockquote|Imprisonment is no other thing than the restraint of a man's liberty, whether it be in the open field, or in the stocks, or in the cage in the streets or in a man's own house, as well as in the common gaols; and in all the places the party so restrained is said to be a prisoner so long as he hath not his liberty freely to go at all times to all places whither he will without [[bail]] or [[mainprise]] or otherwise.<ref>[[John Rastell]]. [[Termes de la Ley]]. 1636. Page 202. [https://archive.org/details/lestermesdelale00unkngoog/page/n439 <!-- pg=202 --> Digital copy] from [[Google Books]].</ref>}}
Imprisonment without lawful cause is a [[tort]] called [[false imprisonment]].<ref>Clerk and Lindsell on Torts. [[Sweet and Maxwell]]. Sixteenth Edition. 1989. Paragraph 17-15 at page 972.</ref>
In England and Wales, a much larger proportion of the black population is imprisoned than of the white.<ref>{{cite book | last1 = Flynn | first1 = Nick | title = Introduction to Prisons and Imprisonment | url = https://books.google.com/books?id=cxnbCgAAQBAJ | series = Introductory Series | year = 1998 | location = Winchester | publisher = Waterside Press | publication-date = 1998 | page = 79 | isbn = 9781872870373 | access-date = 19 August 2019 | quote = Black people are eight times more likely to be in prison than whites. Home Office figures show that the incarceration rate for black people is 1,162 per 100,000, compared to 146 per 100,000 for whites. }}</ref>