The legacy of the Victorian prison treadmill

In this video, Professor Rosalind Crone visits Beaumaris Goal in Anglesey, north Wales, the site of one of the only remaining penal treadmills in Britain.

The penal treadmill was not something you’d find in a gym like its modern namesake, it was a machine used to punish prisoners and some would argue it was an instrument of torture. What can it teach us about the idea of punishment vs rehabilitation in prisons today?

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More on the invention and adoption of the penal treadmill

Cubbitt took inspiration from an old technology – the treadwheel – a type of machine driven by human or animal power which had been used for centuries to drive cranes and mills. These machines were like giant hamster wheels, as two or three men walked on the inside of the wheel in order to turn it and generate power.

Cubbitt elongated the old treadwheel, enabling more people to tread at the same time.  

And he inverted it. The prisoners would tread on the outside of the wheel, which was made possible by the installation of wooden steps. This improved surveillance and security, and it also turned treading from a walking into a climbing motion, increasing the difficulty of the task.

Finally, Cubbitt covered the steps at the top of the wheel, to keep the prisoners at the level of the axel, in order to generate maximum power.

Cubbitt argued that this power could be used for all sorts of applications – such as grinding grain, or driving textile looms – and he hoped outside contractors would rent the treadmill and prisoners. The prisoners’ labour would produce something, and productivity was key to cultivating a good work ethic.

At the same time, the prisoners needed no training to climb the wheel; it was hard work to climb, and so a form of ‘hard labour’; and it was a uniform punishment, as each prisoner had to climb the same number of steps. 

By 1819, treadmill prototypes had been built at Bury St Edmunds Gaol in Suffolk and Brixton House of Correction in London. 

In the early 1820s, the Society for the Improvement of Prison Discipline – Britain’s leading penal reform movement – officially endorsed the new machine, and began to promote its adoption in prisons across the country. 

By 1824, there were treadmills in at least 54 prisons in Britain – including 3 in Wales. Even more were appearing in Ireland, North America and Australia. 

Initial feedback was good. A Home Office inquiry concluded that the treadmill brought health benefits to prisoners. Reports from Ipswich claimed that prisoners willingly queued to get a turn on the wheel. The women at Northallerton Prison claimed that climbing the treadmill was less arduous than the prison laundry. 

However, counter evidence soon emerged of the harm inflicted by the treadmill. Some men developed hernias, lung damage and rheumatism. Lactating women lost their milk supply.  There were accidents too. Badly constructed treadmills collapsed, causing serious injuries and loss of life. A false step while climbing could result in a mangled limb, or even death. 

Plans to use this labour for economic gain also came to nothing. By the 1830s, the majority of treadmills in Britain no longer ground grain or drove looms – some never had.  Advances in industrial technology meant that this type of human labour wasn’t needed, or where it was it unfairly competed with the labour performed outside the prison.  

At best, the power produced by the treadmill was used to pump water around the prison; at worst it was entirely wasted. Any rehabilitative function of the treadmill had been lost.  

Professor Rosalind Crone is Head of History at The Open University. 

Discover more about her work.

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