ABSTRACT
The Acts of 1865 and 1877 had secured uniformity, discipline and economy but had taken no interest in the individual prisoner – “his chances of reform, or his prospects on discharge, provided that the prescribed rules were obeyed and followed with unvarying fidelity.” These rules could only be altered by statute, “whereas the essential of a good penal system is that it should be in accord with the public sentiment, and with changes in the criminal law, and so variable and elastic.” The Daily Chronicle continued to be Liberalism’s most influential voice, and Massingham still regarded the state of the prisons as a major social and political issue. His campaign on the 1898 Prisons Bill was extensive and as hotly conducted as that which had presaged the Gladstone Committee. It was with a first leader that Massingham commenced his campaign, on the day of the Bill’s second reading.
