ABSTRACT
The first sign of the awakening was Sir Samuel Romilly’s eloquent appeal to the House of Commons, early in 1810, for a reform of the whole criminal law, including the administration of the prisons. Successive Committees of Parliament revealed the unmistakable connection between the rapid increase of crime, the overcrowding of the gaols and the upgrowth of a whole population of juvenile and professional criminals. The “Act for consolidating and amending the laws relating to the building and regulating of certain gaols and houses of correction in England and Wales” represented a great advance in prison administration. Meanwhile a little Bill was got through, giving the Justices in Quarter Sessions more complete authority to appoint salaried chaplains to their gaols and Houses of Correction. Any magistrate was empowered to order parish relief for any poor debtor in a municipal or franchise gaol.
