ABSTRACT
When fee-taking was prohibited by Bennet's Act in 1815 magistrates were empowered to compensate gaolers and turnkeys with a remuneration charged upon the rates; by the early 1820s the changes seem generally to have been made. Regulation of trading (as distinct from fees and gratuities) had been left to the local authorities, but in nearly all the large prisons trading with criminal prisoners was already forbidden. In 1823 Peel's Gaol Act gave this prohibition the force of law.
