Prison economics favored the congregate system of prison discipline relative to the separate system. As technological change shifted jobs away from handcrafts and towards a more capital-intensive division of labor in manufacturing, congregate labor became more economical than labor in separate cells. Congregate eating and exercising for prisoners was also more economical and administratively simpler. In addition, the congregate system made it simpler to have prisoners work in prison operations such as preparing food, washing clothes, and building maintenance and construction.

In the U.S. by 1860, every state that had adopted the separate (Pennsylvanian) system, other than Pennsylvania, had shifted to the congregate system.^ Many prisons in Europe, however, retained the separate system into the twentieth century.^ This may reflect less political pressure to reduce fiscal cost and greater professional solidarity in upholding the existing, separate-system administration.