Penitentiary

^ A prison or place of punishment; ^ any place designed for the confinement of convicts; a State's prison. By statute 19 Geo. Ill (1779). all offenders liable to transportation maybe confined at hard labor in certain " penitentiary houses," to be created by virtue of that act.^ Sir William Blackstone, co-operating with John Howard, was infiuential in procuring the passage of that act, — legislation which led the way to more just and rational views of prison discipline. ^ See Infamy; Labor, 1, Hard; Prison.