Cagliari’s prisons in the liberal age: between administration and revolts

Roberto Ibba

2026-01-01

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Abstract

Research into the history of the prison population in Italy, and more specifi cally in Sardinia, has always been made diffi cult by the lack of information in prison archives. Historians have mostly looked at institutional issues, prison models, con- struction typologies and legal and philosophical aspects concerning the concept of punishment and its expiation. Th is essay aims to investigate the prison population in Cagliari in liberal Italy, looking at the diff erent institutions in the city through documents preserved mainly in the Central State Archive and the State Archive of Cagliari. Th e documents show the complicated history pf prisons in Sardinia, char- acterized by the presence of agricultural penal colonies that served both punitive and productive functions within the penal system.