The history of punishment in England
Capital Punishment in England
The Wheel, Breaking Wheel or Catherine Wheel, Hanging, The Gibbet, Pressing or Crushing, Burning, Execution by Fire, Boiled to Death, Decapitation, The Sword or the Axe, Quartering, Disembowelment, Hung, Drawn and Quartered
Penal Reformers
The Hanging Tree of Tyburn - has been immortalised in the imagination of the public as the place of horror and death.
The Bloody Code and the Black Act, over 200 crimes with capital punishment eg stealing sheep, pick pocketing, writing a threatening letter, being caught with a blackened face
Lesser physical and humiliating punishments
Brank
Pillory
Ducking stool
Stocks, Skimmington Ride, and the Whipping Post
Two Types of Prisons
Gaols, punitive and held those awaiting trial as well as debtors and some felons
House of Correction, reformative, held social outcasts (vagrants, prostitutes and petter criminals sentenced to short periods of imprisonment), sought to reform principally through enforced labour
Italys Hospice of St Michael (established 1704)
Belgiums Maison De Force at Ghent (established in 1771)
French Hopitaux Genereux
Dutch Raphaus
Bridewell Palace circa 1553
Jeremy Bentham, a highly influential utilitarian philosopher - Focus on deterrence and reform
Charles-Louis de Socondat, Baron de La Brede et de Montesquieu, argue for the propotionaity of punishment 1748 - Famous for his theory on the separation of powers
Benjamin Rush, signatory to the American Declaration of Independence - deemed public punishments as counterproductive, opposed the death penalty. Rush estb first state penitentiary the Walnut Prison in 1790
Cesare Beccaria 1764 - Clarity in Law, Due Process, certainty and regularity of punishment, no room for pardons, reductions in sentences or early release from punishment
John Howard - the Sheriff of Bedfordshire - The State of Prisons
Important Prison Reform Societies
London society for the improvement of Prison Discipline and for the Reformation of Juvenile Offenders (founded in 1813 referred to as SIPD) Philadelphia society for alleviating the miseries of Public Prisons (established 1787 and later called the Pennsylvania Prison society
Juvenile Offenders and Reforms
The Factory Acts removed children from some work places, and introduced protections in others; the education act 1870 made elementary schooling compulsory.
The Children's Charter of 1889, criminalised cruelty to children and enabled the state to intervene in family life.
1860's the state was prepared to intervene directly with the lives of children
1908 - a child under seven was not held liable for his actions.
in 1880, there were 6500 children under 16 in adult prisons, of whom 900 were under 12
Penitentiary Act 1778;
Solitary confinement at night
Rigorous supervision
Non communication (silence), no indulgences, no distractions and no entertainment
Strict discipline , compulsory religious instruction
An ordered environment, cleanliness
A basic adequate diet
Hard, monotonous and servile labour that profited the institution
Graduated severity of treatment in response to behaviour