I can heartily recommend 'Discipline and Punish' by Michael Foucault if you want to answer this question. Its not the easiest of reads but its very rewarding, it charts the shift from physical punishments and public shaming to the modern idea of detention and denial of rights.

It is important to remember that punishment is frequently a response to the social conditions of the time. Confinement for an extended period of time on a mass scale really began in the United States.

In early Greece and Rome punishment that was dished out by the State was typically banishment and also fines. Harsh physical punishment was typically reserved for slaves. In the middle ages fines were used for the wealthy, but the poor obviously could not pay fines, so the only way they could be punished was through harsh physical punishments. In addition, a lot of crimes were seen more as private matters and blood feuds between families would develop.

The way people were punished really shifted around the 1600s. With mass migration and urbanization it was decided rather than harsh physical punishments people could be utilized for forced labor. In addition, people were also shipped off to the colonies and after a period of forced labor they were then let go. Furthermore, it is estimated around 135,000 people were also shipped off to Australia and New Zealand. Just because you were shipped off that wasn't getting off easy. As you can imagine it was quite the trial and tribulation on the ships to the new destination and many people died.

After the Revolutionary war and with the industrial revolution things began to shift again. We had a proliferation of criminals and we did not need them for forced labor anymore. For a small period of time people were incarcerated in harbors on ships and you are probably aware of the harsh treatment they received. In addition, harsh physical punishments were used again, such as public hangings, floggings, brandings, nailing a persons ear to a post, etc. But religious scholars and philosophers really began to call for a change. Rather than abusing people we decided that maybe for some reason criminals were different from the rest of us and maybe we could try and make them act more like "us."

In order to do this we put them in penitentiaries (from the word penance) in order to instill in them a more protestant ethic. These institutions still had harsh physical punishments in them. With the 8th Amendment prohibition on cruel and unusual punishment and more calls from religious and law scholars we slowly shifted away from the harsh physical punishments to as Foucault argues more mental punishments. Some prisons made the inmates be quite 24/7 for example in order for them to contemplate God. This idea of mass incarceration was really new in the world and people from other countries such as France and Italy came to the United States to see what exactly we were doing. This is the era that we get different types of penal systems such as the "Elmira System" and the "Pennsylvania System." You can Google and read about those.