ABSTRACT
The Prisons Act of 1877 effected a revolution almost unique in the history of English Local Government. A great administrative service, extending throughout the whole country, which had been for centuries within the sphere of Local Government, was transferred en bloc to a department of the National Government. By the Act of 1877 the ownership of all the local prisons was vested in the Secretary of State, and their general superintendence was committed—as that of the national convict prisons had been by the Act of 1850—to a body of Commissioners, not exceeding five in number, to be appointed by the Home Secretary, to assist him in the work; to act under his instructions and to be responsible to him for the whole administration. The first object of the Commissioners seems to have been administrative efficiency and economy, and of this the first condition, as they conceived it, was uniformity.
