ABSTRACT
Throughout the eighteenth century, prison conditions continued to be appalling. It was commonplace for there to be no segregation of men, women or children, no classifying of offenders (even between tried and untried), the sale of alcohol, and extortion by prison staff, among other things. These sorts of conditions were described most graphically by John Howard (examples of whose writings on the state of prisons can be found in most texts covering the history of prisons). Howard made a detailed survey of the state of prisons in the 1770s and argued that prisons should operate as secure but healthy and efficient institutions. His inspections and writings did have an impact. The 1779 Penitentiary Act, for instance, promoted the view that prison should have both a punitive and a reformative purpose – the very name ‘penitentiary’ implies prisoners being sorry or repentant for their behaviour, and thinking about it while doing some penance. More specifically, prisoners were to be put to hard work, with any profits earned from this work being used to improve prisons (with the notion of paying staff introduced). It was believed that the stress on hard physical work would be morally and physically helpful for offenders. Also, there was a move to start classifying prisoners into different categories. In highlighting the importance of the 1779 Act, Wilson (2002) commented that
[It] synthesised everything that was believed at that time about what should be done with prisoners, in that they were to be subjected to solitary confinement, have regular religious instruction, be required to work – but not for profit, would have to wear a uniform, and be subjected to a coarse diet.
