Imprisonment is one of the main ways in which social control can be achieved; the Sage Dictionary of Criminology defines social control as a concept used to describe all the ways in which compliance can be achieved. Over time, confinement and his ideas about social control have varied. Imprisonment was not always used as punishment, nor was it always thought of by the prisoners themselves. However when looking at imprisonment it is important to consider the new sentence. It is therefore necessary to clarify what the new penalty is. The new punishment is said to be not about punishing individuals or rehabilitating them, but about identifying and managing unruly groups in society. It is concerned with management processes, not individual behavior or community organization. All in all, his goal is to make crime tolerable, not eliminate it entirely. (Feeley, M and Simon, J). Therefore the New Penology is not about the reform of individuals but about the control of populations as a whole, focusing incarceration on particular offenders defined as "persistent" or "high rate". In light of this, we need to address the history of imprisonment, its purposes and indeed the question of whether or not it functions as a form of social control, as well as examine the critics of the new punishment. a series of purposes, the first of which is punishment, which brings with it the idea of ​​retribution and revenge. The second purpose is incapacitation, which concerns the protection of society and the length of time the individual must serve in prison. Deterrence is the third aim; attempts to prevent the individual from committing any future crime and in some way acts as a deterrent... middle of paper......logy. Devon: Willan Publishing, pp 684-713. Sampson, R, and Laub, J. (1933), 'Individual factors in crime', in Newburn, T. Criminology. Devon: Willan Publishing, pp. 843. Shichor, D. (1997) 'Three Strikes as Public Policy: The Convergence of New Punishment and the McDonaldization of Punishment', Crime Delinquency, (43), pp. 470-492. Spelman, W. (2000) “What recent studies tell us (and don't tell us) about imprisonment and crime.” In Michael, T. Crime and Justice: A Review of the Research. (3). Chicargo: University of Chicargo Press.Wilson, D. (2006) 'Social Control', The Sage Dictionary of Criminology: 391-392. London: Sage Publications. Woolfe, H., & Tumim, S. (1991). 'Official objectives of imprisonment', in Cavadino, M. and Dignan, J. The penal system: an introduction. London: Sage Publications.Zedner, L (2004). Criminal justice. New York, United States: University of Oxford.