Prisoners are still isolated within prisons, but the exact use of solitary confinement is not known. In the stripped isolation cells, time has stood still. Today, control takes place with new and extended techniques. During the decades, control, security and isolation have essentially not changed. These are reflected in the architecture of prisons from the 1850s through today. In the following decades, attempts to rehabilitate prisoners took various forms, influenced by changes in society on ideas about how to reform people. Legislators and prison policy authorities saw imprisonment not just as an intended evil, but also as a means to reduce crime. The idea was to achieve two contradicting aims: to punish and to improve and rehabilitate prisoners. The ideas have been described as a merge between a modern form of Christianity, instrumental rationality and individuality. A new prison model was imported from Pennsylvania, USA, including both the prison design and the ideas. Previous punishment included forced labour or corporal punishments, such as flogging, maiming or the death sentence. Before, people were locked up mainly for other reasons, like awaiting their punishment. Since the 1850s, Norway has used prisons for punishment.
