Life in Prisons:Never cleaned – Infested with lice and

other parasites.102 ounces of bread per week. Limited

water.Many cells were water logged.

No sewers. Little sanitation.All prisoners were kept together regardless

of their crime, sex or age.Prisoners had to pay a release fee to the

gaoler.

By the end of this lesson you will be able to...

• Explain the problems with Eighteenth Century prisons.

• Describe how prisons changed during the Nineteenth Century.

• Analyse the impact of prison reform.

Produced a book ‘The State of Prisons in England and Wales’ about conditions in

prisons, in 1777.Findings:

Disease commonNot enough people employed to look after

prisonersJailers earn no wage so make money from charging prisoners for food and bedding

Many prisoners learn more about crime from other prisoners

Many prisoners found innocent cannot afford the jailers fees . . . So stay inside!

Recommendations:

More space

Better food

Paid Gaolers

Regular visits by churchmen

Separation of prisoners according to gender and crime

Visited Newgate Prison in 1813.

She was so shocked by what she saw that she devoted her life

to improving prison

conditions!

Encouraged prisoners to clean cells

Found Prisoners work knitting socks

Prob. Most famous for helping women prisoners to read and write

Began a school for prisoner’s children and held Bible readings.

Gaoler’s had to be paidPrisoners were divided into categories

Women prisoners had to be looked after by female warders

Reform through education, religion and work was adopted.

Magistrates to visitDoctors and Churchmen to visit regularly

Teachers to be employed

ATTEMPTS MUST BE MADE TO REFORM PRISONERS!

1820 - Flogging of women ended1835 - Prison inspectors appointed

1839 - General rules for prisons provided by Govt.

1842 - Pentonville Prison built – A model prison that kept prisoners in permanent

isolation1852 - Transportation of women ended

1864 - Penal Servitude Act – Hard conditions incl. Whippings and electric

shocks for prisoners not working properly1878 - Govt. took control of all prisons.

18th century prisons were horrible places that were never cleaned out, were infested with lice and other parasites; there was a spread of deadly diseases. Prisoners were given 102 ounces of bread a week. Many had no water, but some were limited to 3 pints per day. Many of the cells were water logged. There were no sewers and sanitation was not properly attended to. There was no ventilation; this was to avoid window tax. The conditions were just as bad for women.

Britain’s prison system was out of date both in the buildings and the way they were run. Prisons were cruel and unfair. People’s lives were being wasted, when they should try to change their ways. Jails were inefficient- over half of the prisoners were either debtors or had served their sentence but could not afford to pay the gaoler the release fee

John HowardJohn Howard was High Sheriff of Bedfordshire. He was to inspect the county’s gaols. He was shocked by what he saw. He was scrupulously careful in his work, measuring each cell, weighing prisoner’s food, noting numbers and types of prisoners and recording deaths from disease.His report came out in 1777.

Advantages:Alternative to the death sentenceRehabilitation

Even more unpleasant were the hulks, which took overflow from prisons. They were first used in 1776 and were disused war ships. Each hulk was crammed with up to 400-chained convicts. Naval arsenals or dockyards moored them.

Who wanted things to change?

Recommendations: More space, Better food, Paid Gaolers, Regular visits by churchmen, Separation of prisoners according to gender and crime

Sir George (Onesiphorus) PaulSir George Paul was High Sheriff of Gloucester. Howard’s report on Gloucester Gaol was damning. Paul realised he would have to build a new one.The new prison had to be secure. The wall was 5.4 metres high with spikes on top. It had to be healthy.Prisoners were separated into those awaiting trial and those convicted, with male and female sections for each. There was a paid Governor, a chaplain and a surgeon, who visited the sick each day and inspected every prisoner once a week. Prisoners were to be reformed through work, education and religion. If they could not read they were taught and given religious books. They were not allowed to keep pets or play games. They were well fed and not kept in irons.

Elizabeth Fry (1780 – 1845)Elizabeth Fry was the daughter of well-off Quakers. Her religious beliefs led her to visit the women’s section of Newgate. She was amazed by what she saw 300 women were crammed into three rooms some were freezing and there were many children. She returned the next day with baby clothes and clean straw bedding. After they’d been handed out she began to pray and many women around her joined in. In 1816 they started a school for the prison Children. Elizabeth Fry formed a group of women to visit the prisoners daily. A matron was appointed to run the “women’s section”, women were supplied with materials to work at sewing or knitting. This had made Newgate an orderly, sober place.

Elizabeth Fry influence, in her own lifetime.Peel’s Gaols Act of 1823 took up many of her ideas; gaolers had to be paid; prisoners were to be separated into categories and women had to have female gaolers and warders. However, Elizabeth was disappointed at how weak the Act was.Opposition in EnglandThe work Elizabeth gave her women was intended to give them a sense of dignity and perhaps an honest skill, not to break their spirits. She spoke out against the cruelty of the separate system.Her long-term influenceSeparate women’s prisons with a female staff Volunteer prison visitorsA belief that prison is a place from which human beings can emerge better people than before they went in.

The Separate SystemIn this system prisoners spent nearly all their time in solitary confinement. The Chapel was specially designed, so that prisoners could see the chaplain but not each other.Prisoners’ uniform included a facemask and a cap with a large low peak so that prisoners could not recognise or communicate with each other if they met. At exercise time each prisoner held onto a knot on a rope, the knots were at 4.5m intervals, so that prisoners were too far apart to talk.It was real mental torture, in its first eight years, 22 prisoners at Pentonville went mad, 26 had serious nervous breakdown and three committed suicide.

Hard LabourHard Labour was intended to be hard, and deliberately pointless.The treadmill – sometimes the treadmill was harnessed to a mill, but often it just drove weighted air-vanes. Prisoners did ten minutes on and five minutes off for several hours.Oakum -picking – this involved separating out the fibres from old, tarred ship’s ropes so that it could be re-used.The crank – this was usually in a prisoners’ cell. It was a weighted crack-handle that had a counter on it so that the warder could see how many revolutions the prisoner had made. In some prisons you had to do 1,800 to “earn” your breakfast, 4,500 for dinner, and so on.Short-drill- Heavy cannon balls were passed from one to another down a long line of prisoners.Hard FareThe food was deliberately monotonous- breakfast was oatmeal gruel and bread; dinner was soup and bread on Mondays and Thursdays, meat on Tuesdays and Saturdays and break and potatoes on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays. Supper was the same as breakfast.Hard BoardHard beds replaced hammocks.

The Silent SystemPrisoners were still confined to their cells for most of their first nine months. Prisoners who committed an offence could be put on a diet of bread and water, or chained up, or whipped. But the main elements of the regime were “Hard labour, Hard fare and a Hard board”.

Sir Robert Peel’s Gaols Act 1823Gaoler’s had to be paid. Prisoners had to be divided into their categories and women prisoners had to be looked after by women warders. Paul’s ideas on reform through education, religion and work were adopted. So were his rules for governor, surgeon and Chaplain.

New PrisonsMillbank Prison was opened in 1816. This was the largest prison in Europe. Between 1842 and 1877, 90 new prisons were built in Britain. They were well built with large cells (14 x 11), each with its own washbasin, toilet and hammock for sleeping.

Main Factors for Change

Rising CrimeFear of rising crime led to a demand for more effective punishment

The Work of ReformersIndividuals such as John Howard and Elizabeth Fry influenced government thinking about how prisons should be run. Reformers believed that prisoners could be reformed through hard work and religious instruction

People Doubter the Effectiveness of Existing PunishmentsThe Bloody Code had not reduced crime. Many sentenced to death were given other punishments and so the law appeared ridiculous.Public executions did not terrify people into keeping the law.Prisons needed reforming to stop hem becoming ‘schools of crime’.

Rising CrimeGovernments were becoming more involved in every aspect of society in order to improve conditions. Higher taxes were raised to pay for improvements.

What were prisons like in the 18th century? Who were the reformers, and what did they want?

What was the Gaols Act? How did it change prisons?

What was the Separate System?

What were the good things about this system?

What were the bad things about this system?

What was the Silent System?

What were the good things about this system?

What were the bad things about this system?

Why did the reform of prisons happen at this time?

Think about the punishments that were already being used. How were the new prisons similar and different

to these punishments?

Question: Which of the prison reformers do you think was the most important? Explain your answer in detail.

Question: Which of the prison reformers do you think was the most important? Explain

your answer in detail.How to structure your answer:

Introduction Description of what prisons were like during the Eighteenth century.

Paragraph 2 The role of John Howard – What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 3 The role of Elizabeth Fry – What she did and why that was important.

Paragraph 4 The role of Sir George Paul - What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 5 The role of Sir Robert Peel - What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 6 Directly compare the important of the reformers – Think short-term importance and long term.

Conclusion Who you think was the most important and why.

Question: Which of the prison reformers do you think was the most important? Explain

your answer in detail.How to structure your answer:

Introduction Description of what prisons were like during the Eighteenth century.

Paragraph 2 The role of John Howard – What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 3 The role of Elizabeth Fry – What she did and why that was important.

Paragraph 4 The role of Sir George Paul - What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 5 The role of Sir Robert Peel - What he did and why that was important.

Paragraph 6 Directly compare the important of the reformers – Think short-term importance and long term.

Conclusion Who you think was the most important and why.