Prison history

Criminal punishment has undergone many changes throughout Prison history. Early on in Prison history, jails existed in the form of institutions where criminals were held before public sanctions of humiliation and shame such as the stocks, whipping and the ducking stool were carried out. At this stage of Prison history, such criminal institutions were rarely used as punishment in their own right. However, During the 17th Century, there began a prototype for the first 'houses of correction', intended to enforce hard labour during incarceration in an attempt to reform inmates who mainly consisted of vagrants and petty offenders. This development changed the course of Prison history dramatically, placing more of an emphasis on reform rather than punishment alone.

During the 18th Century, there began a growing resistance to the death sentence for all but the most heinous of crimes. Often jurors themselves would oppose the sentencing of an offender of a crime that would lead to the death sentence. Hard labour within correctional institutes became the suitable sanction for petty offenders. In England during the early 18th Century, those convicts having committed more serious offences were shipped to former British colonies like Australia and America. This practice was stopped towards the end of the 18th Century in favour of the correctional houses and jail ships. Inmates were sent out off the ships in chains for a day of hard labour, being bought back to the ships at night. Conditions on these massive barges were appalling, which eventually led to the end of this practice.

John Howard, an English penal reformer condemned the English penitentiary system in 1777 as barbaric and inhumane, calling for proper diet, outside inspection and other basic rights for the inmates. By 1799, the British Penitentiary Act enforced gaols to be constructed as one cell for each inmate, with continuous labour, enforced silence and the separation of men, women and young offenders. By the time of the Penitentiary Act of 1898, hard labour had been abolished and replaced with productive labour enabling inmates to earn their livelihood on release.