English Local Prisons, 1860-1900: Next Only to Death

Front Cover
Routledge, Oct 24, 2018 - History - 834 pages
The local prisons of the latter half of the nineteenth century refined systems of punishment so harsh that one judge considered the maximum penalty of two years local imprisonment to be the most severe punishment known to English law: "next only to death". This work examines how private perceptions and concerns became public policy. It also traces the move in English government from the rural and aristocratic to the urban and more democratic. It follows the rise of the powerful elite of the higher civil service, describes some of the forces that attempted to oppose it, and provides a window through which to view the process of state formation.

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Contents

EARL OF CARNARVON
21
A PROPHET IN HIS OWN COUNTY
64
CARNARVON AND NATIONAL PENAL POLICY
97
THE SOCIAL AND PENAL IDEAS OF SIR EDMUND
149
THE FLAWED PROSPECTUS
188
Discipline labour and instruction
235
Health dietary and discharge arrangements
282
Special categories
335
THE JUSTICES REACT TO NATIONALIZATION
432
THE COMMITTEES ATTEMPT TO ORGANIZE
481
TRIUMPH OF THE CLERKS
509
THE CALL FOR A PRISON INQUIRY
549
PERSONALITIES AND PREOCCUPATIONS
585
COMPOUNDING ERRORS
615
AFTERMATH
649
THE FINAL ACT
697

NEW TASKS
392

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About the author (2018)

Sean McConville

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