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The common punishments meted out by the Jewish court are malkot (lashes) and occasionally mitat beit din (capital punishment) for severe crimes. Incarceration in prison, the most common form of punishment today, was unknown to the Sages. Nevertheless, there was a type of prison known as a kippa (vaulted chamber) that the Mishnayot on our daf discuss.
The Mishna teaches that if someone murdered his fellow and there were no witnesses (as the Gemara explains, there were witnesses but their testimony was rejected for technical reasons), the court will place the accused in a kippa and feed him bread and water. Similarly, the Mishna teaches, someone who repeatedly commits crimes and is punished is also placed in a kippa where he is fed barley until his stomach bursts.
The Gemara explains that we are talking about someone who repeatedly committed crimes for which the punishment is karet – a death sentence left for God.