The end of the semester is hitting me hard, and then I’ll undertake a 10-state road trip with my older daughter. And these are big Western states. So my regular posts here will be on hiatus until July. In the meantime, I thought I’d share some photos of historical criminal justice practices. I’ll be posting those on Wednesdays until July.

We’ll begin today with some photos of old jails, which were often built into city walls. That made sense, since the walls were already fortified and guarded. Jails were intended to hold prisoners for only short lengths of time, usually while they were waiting for their trials. This remains one of the primary purposes of American jails (as opposed to prisons, which hold convicted felons).

This jail is in a tower atop the city wall in Ulm, Germany.

 One of those flags is flying over a cell in the castle wall in Lisbon, Portugal.

 This cell was in the old city wall in Sarajevo, Bosnia & Herzegovina.

 And this one (which contains my daughter in the photo) is in beautiful Dubrovnik, Croatia.

 Finally, another German cell, in Rothenburg.