Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible (1898)
PRIS'ON. As, according to the Mosaic Law, trial followed immediately after apprehension, and imprisonment was not used as a punishment, we hear very little of prisons among the Hebrews until the times of the kings. During An Ancient Inner Prison. the passage through the wilderness two persons were put "in ward," Lev 24:12; Num 15:34, and from Gen 37:24 and Jer 38:6-11 it appears that the dry well or pit was used as a place of confinement or detention. Under the kings the prison formed a part of the palace, 1 Kgs 22:26; 2 Chr 16:10; Jer 32:2, and the same was the case under the Herods.
Luke 3:20; Acts 12:4. The Romans used the tower of Antonia, in Jerusalem, and the praetorium, in Caesarea, as prisons. Acts 23:10, Ex 28:35. Also the sacerdotal authorities had a prison in Jerusalem. Acts 5:18-23; Isa 8:3; Acts 26:10.