ABSTRACT
The twelve years 1823–1835, witnessed a steady, but uneven, application of Robert Peel’s great measure to the 130 prisons which came within its scope. The direct administration of the gaols and Houses of Correction by the Justices themselves became general; and this direct administration, as was inevitable, brought the country gentlemen face to face with all the difficulties of the problem. One of the first phases of the controversy concerned the treatment of persons awaiting trial. It was an old commonplace of the criminal law that such prisoners, until conviction, were deemed to be innocent; and, as a matter of fact, something like one-third of them were eventually acquitted or discharged. Passing from untried prisoners to the convicts, in no department of prison administration did the rival ends of sparing expense, reforming the prisoners and deterring from crime, come more sharply into conflict than in that of prison employment.
