It is easy to forget that social institutions are not immune to massive change. at the start of the nineteenth century, houses of confinement winked out of existence in europe. houses of confinement were designed to be places that would not only receive but also imprison the poor. evaluated by their functional value, the establishment of the houses of confinement may be considered as a failure. in several hundred years what institutions that at present seem to be permanent fixtures in society will share a similar fate?