Introduction - Ultimate sanctions: life sentences, death sentences and solitary confinement

The verb "to punish" means to cause an offender to suffer for an offence - in particular the Italian word for punishment is "pena", that clearly translate this dual meaning. So that the concept of punishment encompasses not only the penalty inflicted by a tribunal for breanching law and social rules, but also a condition of physical, moral, material and psychological deprivation. This complex relationship is analized by the auther in the light of Hebrew tradition and Chistianity, with a special consideration to the attention that Pope Frances has given to not human condition of detention in our prisons today.