Everything You Wanted To Know About British Prisons | HistoryExtra Podcast - HistoryExtra
"‘What was the transition from dungeons to prisons for incarceration triggered by?’...
‘This is a really interesting question, actually, because it assumes that there there was or is a kind of distinction between dungeons and prisons. Dungeons could be regarded as a type of prison, couldn't they? Historically, have been used for the incarceration of criminals or enemies. Many prisons before the modern period in Britain, were arguably dungeon like, and some continued to be dungeon like or even, they were even recognizable dungeons in the early 19th century. So yeah, now, when we think about dungeons, we I think we often think about cells at the bottom of castles. Do you think that's fair? Or, or kind of cells underground with very little light, and few with any furnishings and prisoners chained to the walls?...
That's not so far from the truth for many medieval and early modern prisons. I think it's fair to say that conditions in prisons before the modern period really differed quite substantially, both between different institutions, but also within individual institutions. So it's worth pointing out that just about everything had to be paid for by prisoners in jails, including their their bedding, their food, fuel for heating, that kind of thing. Prisoners basically had to bear the cost of their confinement. And they might not even be released until they they had paid fees that were demanded by the jailer. So in in some institutions, wealthy prisoners through this this kind of system could make themselves quite comfortable. And they could pay for for luxuries, so their own private quarters and even bring in their servants. But poorer prisoners are kind of herded into these these common wards or rooms. And the conditions could be quite foul, even even deadly, actually, for some who couldn't afford food, and who became ill. And they might contract jail fever, often a form of typhus, and the lucky ones among them were supported by charities. That’s what I mean by like, dungeon like conditions, right. As for the idea of this transition from dungeon to prison, or we might say, from dungeon to a kind of well ordered, healthy institution, I think we can date this to the second half of the 18th century. And the philanthropic activities of a range of prison reformers at that time...
This kind of idea of, of transition from from prisoners connected to this, this this idea of this, this transition from prisoners’ holding pen for those who are awaiting punishment or waiting conviction to prison as a place where sentences of imprisonment were served. So prison as punishment. And this began in about the mid 16th century with the establishment of the houses of correctional brightwells that that I mentioned before, but then really took off in the late 18th century, and especially in the early 19th century, when sentences of imprisonment began to replace bodily punishments and over time transportation as well...
Apart from the provision of buildings, and perhaps some structural maintenance, jails, were basically expected to be self supporting. So officials, jailers and other staff that they might employ, they had to obtain their incomes from the jail, not from the authority. So hence, there was in each institution a kind of system of fees in order to gain that income that were levied on prisoners. So there was a fee for entrance into the prison, and a fee for discharge that you had to pay if you wanted to leave if, even if you had been acquitted, or found that there was no crime to answer. And also, you could pay fees to the jailer to ease the conditions of your imprisonment. So for food, for beddings, a blanket or a bed. For fuel for heating, and you can even pay to have your irons removed. If they're uncomfortable, and you could afford it... So, running the prison could be quite profitable. And the post of jailer in some places actually sold to the highest bidder, people wanted these, these jobs. In some other places, it was actually inherited and passed from, from father to son.
This this kind of system started to break down, you could argue in the late 16th century, with the rise of the Bridewell or house of correction, because keepers of these houses of correction were paid a salary from local rates or local taxes as, as people might know them. So magistrates were also responsible for for oversight of these prisons as well these houses of correction, but the labor of the prisoners was still used to finance that that institution, and some prisoners in houses of correction was still charged fees as well. Now in the last third of, last third of the 18th century, and this is a result of the efforts of John Howard who we've just spoken about. There was legislation passed that aim to reduce fees that were charged to prisoners. So for example, those prisoners who were acquitted who were found not guilty, were told they didn't have to pay a discharge fee to jailers anymore. And there was also legislation that that allowed local authorities to pay their jailers from local taxes. In 1815, as late as 1815, we might say, finally, we see a jail fees abolition act that was passed by, by Parliament, and this abolished all fees and gratuities and said that could be charged from prisoners...
John Howard, the penal reformer, when he was visiting prisons in the 1770s, he found that debtors comprised more than half of the prison population at that time... only about a quarter of that population. were convicted felons, or or criminals. And in late 18th century and early 19th century, there was a great increase in in prison debtors, in the numbers of people who were going into prison because they were in debt. So debtors were held in jails. So county jails, town jails, and usually, they were kept apart from felons and criminals, who were awaiting trial or criminals who have been convicted, though this wasn't always possible in the smaller jails. Until 1869, they could not be subjected to the same regime as criminals. Okay, so they were allowed a whole range of privileges. Visitors, their own food and clothing. And they could continue to work at their own trade or profession, if that, if it would, if the circumstances of confinement allowed it within the prison. They were also exempt from lots of the prison rules. And sometimes they were even employed as officers in the prison. So what we say, in positions of trust.
Some jails had better conditions for debtors than others. So some debtors would try to get arrested, in the vicinity of a good jail, so they would be confined there, and some would pay to be relocated to a better prison as well. There were also debtors' prisons. These were mainly found in London, there's some others in large towns in the provinces as well… At a few select prisons, the debtors who could find two propertied persons to stand security for their good behavior, were allowed to pay for the privilege of even residing in private accommodation outside the jail. So within its immediate kind of vicinity. And this was quite an attractive option, as you might imagine, and it was also quite necessary, especially in the London debtors’ prisons, which became really overcrowded by the late 18th century.
There were also other day rules, which permitted some prisoners to leave the prison, to do business with their creditors and to work, again within a defined area. They just had to return to the prison by 9pm at night. And that is prisons or jails that held large number of debtors were also quite porous in other ways too. There's this constant flow of goods and persons in and out of the debtors’ side of the prison… at Ilchester, for example, in the early 19th century, the jail there, the local tradesmen actually held a daily market inside the jail, to sell items to to the debtors there to keep them happy’"
