concerning crimes and punishments

in a labor-scarce economy
for violations upon the lives, liberties or property, of others
in response to public outrage at the spectacle of convicts laboring on roads
solitary confinement, common silence, and hard labor.
operated profitably

penitentiary at sunrise
(in 1804 the baltimore penitentiary was erected on madison street for confinement and labor as an alternative to public and degrading punishment)