The first prisons are vicious, turbulent, disorderly places. Most cities fashion them out of buildings originally intended for other purposes. Sanitation is dreadful. Inmates are crowded together in common rooms instead of separated from one another. Food and other amenities have to be paid for. Violence and exploitationóby both jailers and stronger inmatesóare rampant.

Jail fever becomes a common term for typhus, which thrives in this environment. It rapidly spreads from prisons to the surrounding cities and plays a significant role in keeping the population from booming.

The Triumph of Death Geoffroy Tory, 1527