8 Utilitarianism

An alternative solution to society’s ills was offered by Utilitarians. Their goal was the arrangement of society to achieve the ‘greatest happiness of the greatest number’. Social harmony, they argued, could be achieved through legislation which channelled the people’s impulses in ways that best served society. Literacy offered a means of self-improvement and, therefore, a solution to poverty.

Utilitarians also became active in penal reform. Jeremy Bentham (1748–1832) provided early leadership through his involvement in the quest to establish a national penitentiary (what became Millbank Penitentiary). His design for what he termed the ‘Panopticon’ assumed that humans wanted to maximise their pleasure and minimise their pain.

If prisoners believed that they were constantly under surveillance they would be motivated to regulate their own behaviour. He rejected hard labour, arguing that more interesting employment would lead the idle to love work. In his opinion, literacy made people more useful and productive.

Figure 10 (a) and (b) Jedburgh Prison, in Scotland, was built in 1823. Each individual prisoner was in a single cell which was designed to be visible by a single guard concealed in the central tower. This was to be an economic and utilitarian solution to prison design. The design took direct inspiration from Bentham’s proposal. There was also separation of prisoners by class with three accommodation blocks for male or female criminals, male debtors and young prisoners. The aim was to improve the physical and moral health of the prisoners. The jail is now a museum.

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(a) This colour photograph of a walled prison complex is taken from above. It depicts a central, rounded structure, with blocks extending from it on three sides. (b) In the centre of this ground plan is a tower in the middle of a semi-circular building. Three further accommodation blocks surround this structure: one on each side and one below it. Individual cells are marked in each block – all of them visible from a central point.

Figure 10 (a) and (b) Jedburgh Prison, in Scotland, was built in 1823. Each individual prisoner was in a single cell which was designed ...

While approaching the problem from different perspectives, both Fry (or the Evangelicals) and Bentham (or the Utilitarians) supported the classification of prisoners, the use of productive labour in prisons, and the provision of both religious and scholarly education. Both saw people as capable of bettering themselves, and of improving their behaviour by controlling their desires.