Greetings!
Historically, the development of prison systems was rather haphazard and scattered, somewhat depending on the relative sophistication of the particular society, the articulation of laws and rights, as well as the overall population, and the economic development and opportunities between the wealthy, educated elite, and the unwashed masses.
Still, whatever model or form your systems of Criminal Justice develop along, the development of prisons presents some very interesting possibilities. Highlights such as The White Tower in London, the "Man in the Iron Mask" and prisons situated on jungle-shrouded islands surrounded by marshes filled with hungry alligators and snakes are just a few possibilities. Prisons that have been overtaken by foreign invaders, and repurposed and used for something else, such as a very dangerous dungeon, filled with monsters or fierce guards, protecting some treasure, valuable political prisoners, or some terrifying monster are all great opportunities for adventure and drama.
There is always an aspect of court drama as well, with opposing Barristers arguing their cases back and forth before the eyes of a cynical judge, or unknown juries of citizens.
How much detail and scope do you develop your courts, and Law Enforcement organizations?
These sorts of details also lead into further developing powerful criminal organizations, besides the ubiquitous "Thieves' Guild." How do you develop your criminal factions and organizations? Necromancer cults, slave rings, Thieves' Guilds, professional, organized crime families and organizations, and of course, blood-thirsty evil cults kidnapping people to be experimented on, or tortured and sacrificed to some dark God.
Much of this stuff can require an extraordinary level of detail and work--especially on the part of the DM, though I think such efforts are worthwhile, as they provide a lot of the "machinery" that forms not only the foundations of a society, but also providing shape and form to the threats that endanger civilization from within.
Semper Fidelis,
SHARK
Dark Albion has a large chapter on medieval law and justice; and Lion & Dragon complements this with a whole mechanic for handling medieval trials!
One aspect of early medieval justice systems (thinking especially about viking age Scandinavia here) is that there is often a lack of an enforcing body. Thus enforcing the rulings often falls onto the parties themselves. A man might be judged an outlaw, but all that means is you won't face punishment if you go after him. If someone owes you a fine, well, you'd best hope they give it freely, or there's enough people on your side to make them think twice about going against the ruling. This also explains why the PCs are involved a lot of the time. If there is no official body to enforce the laws and decisions, then you go to friends and family. And the PCs are probably going to be some of the bes allies to have in such cases.
While codified laws date back to Hammurabi, if you have a feudal or semifeudal system you can also expect 'two-tiered' justice systems as well (one for commoners and one for nobles).
If your campaign/game world also includes more than a smattering of magic, expect that to play a part in the system as well.
Quote from: Ghostmaker;1135062While codified laws date back to Hammurabi, if you have a feudal or semifeudal system you can also expect 'two-tiered' justice systems as well (one for commoners and one for nobles).
If your campaign/game world also includes more than a smattering of magic, expect that to play a part in the system as well.
The two tiered system is very much a thing in my games......well, three or four tiered really.
Commoners tend to be subject so simple and immediate punishments, time in the stocks, flogging, outlawry, bits cut off, things like that. Don't even think of getting a trial, there won't be one. The clergy have their own courts with penalties taking the form of acts of pennance, as do the guilds in the cities. The nobility do have trials, in theory judged arbritrarily by the monarch but in practice the officials advise the monarch how to rule. That's just the human run bits of things.
Dwarves have the closest thing we would recognise to a justice system with rules, due process, and trials by a jury of ones peers. Dwarven lawyers are also a thing, they like to quote endless precedents for days at a time forcing the opposition to use their CON to make law checks rather than INT.
Working out exactly who has what jurisdiction can be challenging too.
Speaking of my own setting, The Free Cities don't have much in the way of prisons. Each ward has its sheriff* who appoints deputies and they have a jail where those apprehended are held for trial.
Trials are conducted by the ward's Justice within a day or two with the Sheriff and the defendant presenting evidence and the Justice rendering a verdict.
For non-capital crimes this is some form of restitution (magical healing means even crippling injuries can be undone for the right price) with forfeiture of property and liens on future earnings being employed if necessary.
If a guilty verdict is reached in a capital crime (there is "raise dead" but it requires the soul to be willing and few souls desire to leave the afterlife) are sent to the Warden (the highest official of the ward, elected by the ward's populace) for review and final sentence**, typically death by hanging if guilt is all but certain or a writ of outlawry/branding and exile into the monster-haunted wilds beyond the Free Cities if there is some doubt about their guilt (it's virtually a death sentence, but the blood of a potential innocent will not technically be on the Warden's hands and, if they're truly innocent, perhaps their god will intervene).
This legal system is actually a variant of the justice system of the nearby barbarian tribes where crimes were brought forth in tribal meetings and the Chief and/or Elders judged guilt and punishment (the sentence for property crimes being "give him his axe/horse back" and for capital crimes, branding and exile from the safety of the tribe) that the First Warden (who set this whole system up just over a dozen years back when he liberated it from a tyrannical purity spiraling zealot) used as his model (He'd lived among the barbarians for nearly a decade after being exiled himself and had even married into one of the tribes).
By contrast, the kingdom of Ironhold uses a standard medieval manorial code of justice with the feudal lords holding absolute power over their vassals.
The Bloodspear Empire*** (the orcs whose leader claims descent from the last Emperor of the continent-spanning pre-Cataclysm Praetorian Empire) claim to abide by the Praetorian legal code (basically the pre-Christian Roman legal code), but they've been in a four-way civil war for nearly two decades so in practice the law is whatever each of the warlords and their generals says it is.
The Kingdom of El-Phara**** (the theocratic elven kingdom) is a caste-based society where the nobility and priesthood are one and the same. Their population is also entirely static in number (there are a finite number of elven souls to go around) and reincarnates so the punishments for even minor offenses are often execution by anyone of higher station (what's a couple decade time-out to an immortal?). It is not unheard of for an elven lord to resolve a dispute between their peasants by simply executing both parties and ordering the rest to work harder until they're reborn in life that is less annoying to their lord (there's a reason most PC elves belong to the Dark caste; those who have abandoned their proper place in the elven caste hierarchy).
So that's a rundown of the five main legal systems (Free Cities, Barbarian, Ironhold, Bloodspear Empire and El-Phara) in my setting.
* If I wanted to be proper about it I'd call them a reeve, but sheriff as understood in American culture is a better fit for what they actually do and one of my world-building rules is to always use common vernacular for the "common" tongue... ex. greatsword instead of claymore.
** The theory behind passing it up to the Warden is that only an official elected by the citizens should have the power to order the death of a citizen.
*** The Bloodspear is actually a place and a thing, a miles high tower said to be as old as the world. It sits in a lake of lava whose light give the whole place a reddish hue that can be seen from leagues away (basically it's the epic tier dungeon of the setting). The founder of the Empire braved its depths and returned with a mighty artifact he called the Bloodspear (occasionally the Spear of Destiny) that allowed him to unite the orc warbands under a singular banner and nearly conquered the entire region until the Bloodspear was lost and he fell in battle. It is said that the Bloodspear returned to its tower to await another worthy of claiming it (and each of the Emperor's four heirs have mounted expeditions to try, but none have succeeded).
**** In universe "Elf" is a colloquial shortening of "El-Pharan" (as in "person from El-Phara"). In elven El means "the people" (their endonym/what they call themselves) and Phara is "city" so its actually calling them People of The People's City. Ironically, the shortening to Elf is less annoying to the El, who just presume humans have an incurable lisp.