ABSTRACT
Between and within English counties, almost all of which maintained a number of prisons, a good deal of variation in reformatory progress and practice could be seen. In most there was a growing tendency for active chaplains to seek to engage prisoners on an individual basis, increasingly separate cellular architecture, new prison schools and schoolmasters. Even Millbank — by 1850 used as a depot for transportees who were subsequently selected for allocation within the system according to perceived likelihood of reformation, age and physical condition — retained a good deal of its earlier reformatory practice. One aspect of local reformatory practice which must finally be considered was that concerning the application of spiritual reformist approaches to the many prisoners who were not members of the established church, and indeed the presence of Catholics in particular was a most controversial aspect of reformation in British prisons.
