4 The rise of imprisonment

From about 1760, efforts were made across the British Isles to reform prisons. The most famous reformer was John Howard. In 1773 Howard was appointed High Sheriff of Bedfordshire which gave him control over the county gaol. He was appalled by the conditions he found there. His demands for reform led him to travel the length and breadth of the United Kingdom creating a catalogue of prisons, with details of the conditions he found in each. His catalogue, published as The State of the Prisons in 1777, became a model for the next generation of penal reformers and, later, for prison inspection.

Figure 6 John Howard visiting an English prison. Originally drawn in the late 1700s by Francis Wheatley. Note the squalor of the prison, the lack of separation between men and women, and the presence of children, imprisoned with their mothers.

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This black and white illustration depicts a well-dressed man standing to the right of centre, in a dark, stone-flagged interior. He gestures to the left, where a group of men, women and children cluster around a sack-covered figure reclining on a stone bench. They gaze towards the visitor in apparent despair.

Figure 6 John Howard visiting an English prison. Originally drawn in the late 1700s by Francis Wheatley. Note the squalor of the prison, ...

Howard’s work was extremely influential and informed a raft of legislation which encouraged local authorities to reform their prisons. Between 1780 and 1799, around 60 prisons were built or substantially rebuilt in England and Wales. When Howard visited Ireland, he noted some attempts were already being made at prison reform. In 1786, Ireland witnessed the appointment of the first government-salaried prison inspector in the Western world. Jeremiah Fitzpatrick was an energetic man and has often been called ‘the second Howard’. Through his efforts, many Irish prisons were built or reformed (Butler, 2016, p. 727).

As well as efforts to reform prisons, the use of imprisonment as a punishment underwent a significant transformation. In the 1700s, sentences of imprisonment were used relatively infrequently and typically only for very minor offences. In law, most crimes were punishable by whipping, branding or death by hanging. Although many crimes were officially punishable by death, the death penalty was used sparingly. It was meant to provide an example to deter others. Many of those sentenced to death were pardoned or had their sentences commuted to transportation, a form of exile, first to America and later to Australia.

At the end of the 1700s, more people accused of crime were being brought before the courts, and more of those who were accused were being convicted. This suggested to contemporaries that crime was increasing, though it is hard to tell from the available evidence whether this was true. The threat of execution, it seemed, was not deterring crime. This was compounded by the fact that, because it was not desirable to hang large numbers of people, the chance of being executed if capitally convicted was decreasing. By 1815, 90% of those condemned to death were either pardoned or transported (Gatrell, 1994, p. 21).

This led to calls for the reform of punishment and especially the greater use of sentences of imprisonment which were considered both proportionate (matching the gravity of the offence) and certain (prisoners would go to prison, rather than being pardoned). In 1816, the first penitentiary run by central government was opened at Millbank, London. This prison was for men and women, convicted of crimes punishable by death or transportation, who were selected to serve long sentences of imprisonment instead.