EDEXCEL GCSE HISTORY · PAPER 1 · CRIME & PUNISHMENT
Prisons and Prison Reform
c1700-c1900 · Chapter 3: Crime and punishment in Britain, c1700-c1900, c1700-c1900 · Lesson 3 of 4
Learning Objectives
1. Describe conditions in eighteenth-century prisons.
2. Explain the work of John Howard, Elizabeth Fry and Robert Peel in reforming prisons.
3. Explain how the separate system worked at Pentonville, and assess whether it succeeded.
Setting the Scene
In the 1700s prisons were mainly used to hold people awaiting trial, and debtors. They were run for profit by gaolers, who charged prisoners for food and bedding. As the Bloody Code and transportation declined, prison became the main punishment for serious crime, and reformers pushed for prisons that would change criminals rather than simply hold them.
1777 - John Howard publishes The State of the Prisons. | 1813 - Elizabeth Fry first visits the women's section of Newgate Prison. | 1823 - Robert Peel's Gaols Act reforms prisons. | 1842 - Pentonville Prison opens, using the separate system. | 1865 - Prison Act introduces harsher conditions: "hard labour, hard fare, hard board". | 1877 - The government takes control of all prisons.
Prisons Before Reform
Eighteenth-century gaols were dirty, crowded and corrupt.
▸ Profit. Gaolers were not paid a wage; they charged prisoners fees for food, bedding and even for being released.
▸ Mixing. Men, women, children, debtors and murderers were often kept together.
▸ Disease. Gaol fever (typhus) spread quickly in filthy, crowded conditions.
▸ Schools of crime. First-time offenders learned from hardened criminals.
The Reformers
Three people who changed how prisons were run.
|
John Howard A sheriff in Bedfordshire who inspected prisons across Britain and Europe and published The State of the Prisons in 1777. |
Elizabeth Fry A Quaker who from 1813 worked with women prisoners at Newgate, teaching them reading, sewing and the Bible. |
|
Robert Peel As Home Secretary he passed the Gaols Act of 1823, putting some of the reformers' ideas into law. |
Howard's ideas Gaolers should be paid a wage, prisons inspected, and prisoners kept clean and healthy. |
|
Fry's ideas Women warders for women prisoners, education, useful work and religious teaching. |
Peel's Gaols Act Paid gaolers, regular visits by chaplains, women warders, and education for prisoners. |
The Separate and Silent Systems
Two competing ideas for how to reform prisoners.
▸ Separate system. Prisoners were kept in their own cells almost all the time, so they could reflect on their crimes and could not be corrupted by others.
▸ Silent system. Prisoners worked together but were forbidden to speak, and were punished if they did.
▸ Hard labour. Prisoners did pointless, exhausting work such as the treadwheel, the crank or picking oakum.
▸ The aim. To make prison hard enough to deter, while giving prisoners the chance to reform.
Pentonville Prison
|
Pentonville opened in London in 1842 as a model of the separate system. Each of its 520 prisoners had his own cell, where he ate, slept and worked alone. Life at Pentonville ▸ Cells. Each prisoner had a cell with a toilet, a hammock and work such as weaving or shoemaking. ▸ Masks. Prisoners wore masks or peaked caps outside their cells so they could not recognise each other. ▸ Chapel. Prisoners sat in separate cubicles in chapel. ▸ Effects. Long isolation caused mental illness and suicides. |
The chapel at Pentonville: separate even in church. |
Henry Mayhew and John Binny, The Criminal Prisons of London (1862); public domain copies on Wikimedia Commons.
Did Pentonville Succeed?
|
SUCCESSES |
FAILURES |
|
▸ Cleaner and healthier than eighteenth-century gaols. ▸ Kept first-time offenders away from hardened criminals. ▸ Gave prisoners work, religious teaching and time to reflect. ▸ Became a model for dozens of new prisons. |
▸ Isolation caused mental illness and suicides. ▸ It did not clearly reduce reoffending. ▸ It was expensive to build and run. ▸ The separate system was gradually abandoned later in the century. |
Key Terms
|
Gaoler The person who ran a prison. |
Gaols Act Peel's 1823 law reforming how prisons were run. |
|
Separate system Keeping prisoners alone in their cells to reflect and reform. |
Silent system Prisoners worked together but were not allowed to speak. |
|
Hard labour Exhausting, often pointless work such as the treadwheel or the crank. |
Treadwheel A large wheel prisoners had to walk on for hours. |
|
Pentonville The model prison opened in London in 1842. |
|
Summary
✓ Eighteenth-century gaols were dirty, mixed and run for profit.
✓ John Howard and Elizabeth Fry campaigned for cleaner, fairer prisons.
✓ Peel's Gaols Act of 1823 put reform into law.
✓ Pentonville (1842) used the separate system - with mixed results.
|
EXAM FOCUS Explain why there were changes to prisons in the period c1700-c1900. (12 marks) Link the changes to causes - reformers, the decline of the Bloody Code and transportation, new ideas about reform. |