What then came into being, in punishment, was a complex, reversible structure, a sort of oscillating sentence: if a criminal showed no obvious signs of madness, he went from the insane to the common prisoners; but if, in the cells, he showed himself to be reasonable, gave no sign that he was violent, and if his good behaviour seemed to be a step towards a pardon for his crime, then he was placed among the insane, whose regime was less harsh.