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Conditions of Prisons in the First

Century
Paul in Roman Custody.

Conditions of life in prison

Summary:
Prison in the days of Paul, were not as we may know in a country like
Australia, with our human rights mentality so deeply embedded in our
heads. Prisons in the days of Paul were not pleasant or healthy. In the mind
of the people, prison was equal to death, despair, sickness of mind and
body, and humiliation. This short article looks at four features of prison:
physical constraints, chains, hygiene, and distress and mortality. An
example of Paul’s experience in prison would be at the end of this article.
We will take as an example the passage of Acts 16:16-38.

1. The physical constraints in imprisonment.

a) Overcrowding and lack of basic necessities.

There are no indications left for us to study about the amount of
prisoners that a prison could hold or what constituted overcrowding.
However, there are some things that we do know, for example, certain
events such as war, civil disturbance, enforcement of condemnatory edicts,
etc., could pack prisons beyond capacity. The consequences of these is
unbearable heat and dehydration of prisoners. Plus, the need of security
resulted in inadequate ventilation (no windows), and the lack of air arrived
sometimes to serious dangerous levels.
We can be quite sure that comfort for sleep, were nonexistent.
Prisoners, had the floor to make themselves comfortable, or if they were
lucky, a rough sleeping pallet near the floor. The only mention of
bedclothes, is that sometimes prisoners or their helpers (families) would
bring something. Prisoners outer cloak was essential clothing under normal
circumstances. They wore it over their back during the day and at night it
became a part of one’s bedding, keeping out the cold of the night.

b) Darkness and Light

Prisons generally were devoid of light. Apparently even in the free
prison at Rome (for upper class prisoners), was a place of darkness. In the
more secure cells there was no natural light at all. During the night, there
was absolute darkness, and after nightfall in some places light was not
permitted. The darkest places were normally the more secure, but they
were also the unhealthiest. But far worse was the psychological impact of
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total darkness on the prisoners.

2.- Chains
The principal objective of chains is to restrict mobility and prevent
escape. The manner in which prisoners wore chains was varied: they could
be fettered by one or both legs; wearing manacles on one or both wrists;
chained from the neck; they could be chained in pairs; sometimes at night
all prisoners could be chained together, etc.
The chains were made of rough iron, that would eventually rust with
the perspiration of the prisoners, causing untold pain, saying nothing of the
weight of the chains, normally around 7 kg. The chains weight would be
debilitating and the potential for the chain to render the limbs useless was
increased when the prisoner was deprived of sufficient nourishment.
Finally, chains were noisy, and the creaking of chains caused scant
sleep of prisoners.

3.- Diet and Hygiene

a.) Food and Drink
Neglect and abuse was known in the matter of diet and hygiene.
Securing adequate nourishment fell on the shoulders of the prisoners
(family and friends); poor prisoners often were neglected and suffer great
misery. To depend on the ration of the prison was actually to put their life
at risk, because its lack of variety, quantity and quality. In fact the food of
prisoners was about half the amount of food given to slaves. The food
barely sustained life, and they could be turned easily into a weapon of
punishment, torture or even execution when withheld by guards. The only
generosity in official provision for many was the last meal before execution.
Lastly, for a Jew, prison signifies a place of profound uncleanness,
especially a gentile prison. The matters of Jewish commensality and food
purity regulations, was impossible to follow, unless outside benefactors
really helped.

b.) Clothing and Personal Toilette

Prisoners were often unclean and lacking in good hygiene. Elsewhere
is written about the stench that emanated from prisons, and officers were
complete oblivious of the hygiene of the prisoners. Baths could be provided
(even once a day), but that was only to very high standards prisoners
(princes and the like), the same is the case of haircuts. Poorer prisoners had
to endure without baths.
Barbers knives were a danger to security; therefore prisoners had to
put up with long unkempt and matted hair, and full o lice. The clothes worn
in the filth of the prison, on bodies that were seldom washed or bathed,

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became absolutely soiled and deteriorated rapidly as it was used as work

clothes and night wear.
With little space, especially when prisons were overcrowded, prisoners
had to do “everything” in the same place. Moreover, the dead (those who
died of lack of air, or illness, or changes of temperature) were piled in a
corner to be taken away latter.

4.- Stress, Distress and Mortality

a.) General Debility and sickness
Prisons were associated with death, and this was further solidify by
the constant physical and psychological distress brought by life in custody.
Prisons were not healthy places. The prisoners were normally weak, this
brought about by the scarcity of good nourishment, lack of hygiene,
confinement, darkness, torture. And being weak, they caught sickness
easier than in normal circumstances.

b.) Suicide
Many of the deaths in prisons, we can be sure, were due to the prison
conditions. Many times death was an escape sought by the prisoners.
Romans often chose death to prison for the simple reason that if they were
sent to prison, they would be stripped of their properties and that would
leave their families with nothing. This was actually contemplated in the
Roman law.
But generally suicide was a response to the misery of the life in prison,
especially if the prospects of release were remote. However, once in
custody, suicide was not easy. Guards were always on the alert for prisoners
trying it. This only intensified the suffering of the prisoners, who in turn
refuse to take food, but even then, they would be force fed.
It is easy to see that once the sentence had finished, the prisoners
emerged from confinement broken in body and spirit.

4.- Paul’s experience of prison in Acts

Paul at Philippi:
The experience of Paul at Philippi was certainly the worse (Acts 16:16-
40). After being beaten, Paul and Silas were thrown in the inner cell. Most
probably, his whole stay in there was in total darkness. The other prisoners
were probably in the same cell. It makes sense because it would be more
secure and it explains as well how the prisoners were listening to Paul and
Silas, and later Paul says “we are all here”.
This account tells us something about the clothing in prison. Paul and
Silas were striped to be then flogged. The despoiling would have been with

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little care for the clothes they were wearing. They would have been torn
and offer little protection to their wounds and bodies from the filth of the
prison.
Paul and Silas suffered enough of the beating that their cleansing was
effected before any practical action was undertaken. And there are many
passages in we can see that Paul was suffering: the Lord said to him
“courage” (Acts 27:3), Paul’s reaction when he first sees the brothers in
Rome, he was encouraged and thanked God (Acts 28:15).
The experience in the Philippian jail concords with what has been said,
Paul and Silas had probably nothing to eat or drink since the trial earlier
that day. The fact that Luke wrote that the first thing that the gaoler did
after his conversion, was to bring them food, attests this.

In Jerusalem:
In Jerusalem, Paul’s clothes would have been ruined completely by the
mob, and in prison the clothes might have suffered further deterioration,
plus, there too he was stripped to receive another flogging, only he stopped
them before it could happen, by saying that he was a roman citizen.
The prison experience of Paul in Jerusalem was probably not all that
bad (remember the distress of Claudius Lysias at having abused a Roman
possessing citizenship superior to his own). The first five days of that
imprisonment, was less accommodating, since Felix had send him to a
normal type custody.
About new clothing and baths, we can assume that they were not
often facilitated to a prisoner like Paul.
Other examples:
In the Caesarean custody, was more relaxed. He was confined in a
dignify manner, reasonable requests were attended to, except that of
visitors. Later it was better, with the personal care of a centurion, and he
was not isolated from visitors.
Passengers in transit, aboard ships, was harsh. They were normally
tied to the crossbeams of the ship below deck, in darkness, suffocating
heat, and little if any food. Paul’s custody aboard the ship was clearly not
worse than that of his custodian (reasonably good). He was clearly kept
above deck. Paul’s ability to hear the conversations (Acts 27:10f.,21-26,30-
36) is an indication that he may have been chained to the centurion
himself. Paul’s transit, apart from the need of basic security and the
shipwreck, was not harsh.
Two other examples of clothes used as bedding are the passage when
the angel said to Peter to put on his cloak after breaking his chains (Acts
12:8), so presumably he was using them as bedding or sleep covering, and
when Paul asks Timothy to bring him his coat left at Troas (2 Tim, 4:13). The

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urgent request for Timothy to come to Paul (2 Tim 1:4;4:9,21) finds

confirmation on the failure of practical assistance in the local context (2 Tim
1:8, 15; 4:9-12,14-16) as well as the approach of winter (2Tim 4:21).

The lack of footnotes of this documents it is due to the fact that this are the
notes I took during a course I did on the Acts of the Apostles.
They are mainly taken form a book called Acts of the Apostles in its context.
Once I find the exact reference I will add it.
Peace!