1700-1900 ✉️

• what were the key trends of punishments 1700-1900?

  -increasing use of death penalty 1700-1800

  -decreasing use 1810-1900
• how did the death penalty change?

  -1688 50 crimes

  -1765 160 crimes

  -1810 222 crimes

  -hanging no longer effective deterrent as it led to more crime of pick pocketing and prostitution

  -humanitarian approach developing

  -rehabilitation more popular

  -last public execution 1868
• transportation 1700-1900:

  -160,000 transported to Australia

  -popular with authorities as it was an alternative to building new prisons

  -public complained it was inhumane

  -some said too expensive

  -more prisons being built

  -ended in 1868
• prison reform 1700-1900:

  -before used as holding spaces

  -decline of Bloody Code and transportation led to more prison use

  -1815 gaolers paid out of local taxes (professionalism)

  -1823 prisoners divided into categories

  -1865 prison act said all prisons to follow national rules

  -reformers argued for it to be less harsh

  -John Howard wrote "state of prisons in England and Wales" in 1777

  -Elizabeth Fry set up association for reformation of female prisoners in 1817
• what was the separate system like in pentonville prison?


  -pentonville was the prototype of the separate system

  -prisoners kept apart as much as possible

  -stayed in separate cells for 23 hours a day

  -gave a prisoners a chance to self reflect and focus on religion

  -deter people from committing crimes because of bad punishment

  -ensured retribution
• what was the building of pentonville prison like?

  -five wings and base for staff

  -each wing had dozens of individual cells

  -prison could accommodate 520 prisoners

  -cells had a floor of 4m by 2m

  -a small window with thick glass and iron bars

  -up to date technology of a mechanical ventilation system and piped water to each cell
• what living conditions in pentonville prison?

  -thick walls to stop communication

  -prisoners worked alone doing tasks like oakum picking (unravelling and cleaning rope)

  -aloud out for exercise or chapel but had to wear face masks and sat in individual cubicles in chapel

  -high rates of depression, psychosis and suicide
• increasingly harsh punishments in prison:

  -in the second half of 19th century, despite the work of reformers, the regime in prisons became harsher

  -1865 prisons act enforced a strict uniformed regime in all prisons

  -assistant director of prisons, Edmund Du Cane, declared "hard labour, hard fare, hard board"

  -physically demanding work for up to 12 hours a day

  -boring bland diet

  -wooden board beds