Anglo-Saxon Punishments

In Anglo-Saxon times punishment had two main aims: making people afraid to
commit a similar crime; and making criminals suffer for the wrong they had
done. There was no desire to reform criminals and punishments were intended
to fit the crime. This included hanging people for committing murder, burning
people for committing arson and cutting out their tongue for making a false
accusation.
The most common punishment was a fine called a ‘wergild’. This translates as
‘man price’. This fine would be paid directly to the victim’s family, and the fine
would be decided by your crime and your social status.

Crimes against the Murder, Assault, public Wergild, maiming,

person disorder stocks/pillory
Crimes against property Theft, counterfeiting Fines, maiming, hand
coins, arson chopped off, hanging
Crimes against authority Treason, betraying your Hanging
lord

Punishment in the later Middle Ages (c.1200-1497)

 Punishments remained largely the same as they had in Norman times.
The focus was still on fines, with the use of corporal punishment done in
public to humiliate, offer retribution, and deter as well as some use of
execution for more serious crimes.
 A new punishment introduced in the later Middle Ages was that of being
‘hanged, drawn, and quartered’. This involved a person being semi-
strangled, revived, having their stomach cut open and their internal
organs removed. After their death their four quarters would be sent to
different areas of the country to be displayed as a deterrent for others
considering acts of treason.
Punishment 1500-1700
Change The use of imprisonment as a punishment; transportation;
increased focus on capital punishment in the seventeenth
century. Some focus on reforming criminals but very small.
Continuity Fines; corporal punishment; use of capital punishment for
serious crimes. Focus of punishment is deterrence and
retribution

Imprisonment
Houses of correction
In 1553 King Edward VI gave the royal palace of Bridewell to the city of London
to house the homeless children, sturdy beggars, disorderly women, and the
sick who could do light work. This was the first, minor step towards the use of
rehabilitation/reformation of criminals. In the house of correction the inmates
performed tasks such as silk winding, making caps and other menial tasks to
get them used to working. Unfortunately, after Edward’s death Mary and then
Elizabeth were not interested in reform and instead simply locked vagrant and
other criminals in there.
Bridewells
In 1571 Norwich then, Ipswich set up their own Bridewells where they would
provide work for their inmates to do. The inmates worked from 5 am until 8
pm in the summer and 6 am until 7 pm in the winter. Anyone who refused to
work was flogged. As of 1576 inmates were flogged on arrival and forced to
wear manacles during their time in the Bridewell.

The Bloody Code

It was known as the 'Bloody Code' because of the huge numbers of crimes for
which the death penalty could be imposed. In the years after 1660 the number
of offences carrying the death penalty increased enormously, from about 50,
to 160 by 1750 and to 288 by 1815. These executions would be carried out at
public gallows in places like Tyburn in London. Many people would turn up to
watch and it was hoped that it would deter them from committing crimes.
Examples of capital offences
Murder, treason, arson, or piracy Stealing anything worth 25p or more
Cutting down trees in certain areas. Shooting a rabbit
Stealing a fish from a river. Wearing a disguise
Being out at night with a blackened An unmarried mother concealing a
face stillborn child.
Developed because:
 1. Land owning classes feared for their property.
2. Perceived increase in crime in newspapers.
3. Development of new crimes such as smuggling and highway robbery.
4. Once they’re dead they don’t tend to reoffend!
How effective was it?
As many of the crimes holding the death penalty by the 1700s and 1800s were
crimes of necessity crime rose rather than fell. The Bloody Code was
ineffective.
Transportation

By the 18th Century savage punishments were rarely used. Despite the
BLOODY CODE judges were reluctant to see criminals hanged. They needed
another severe punishment more serious than a whipping. For two centuries
from 1654 to 1857 this was provided by ‘transporting’ convicts to the colonies
for periods of 7 or 14 years or life. Between 1717 and 1776 30,000 convicts
were transported to Virginia, Maryland or the Caribbean. When America
became independent in 1776 they refused convicts who were transported
after 1788 to Australia instead.
These people who were transported would be taken in chains, by boat, to
America where they would be forced to do manual labour, building or doing
farm work. Once their period of punishment was over they would be set free.
As these convicts were poor, many could not afford the fare to return to
England and so they started a new life in America.

Why was this punishment used?

 There was no effective prison system in England, and many judged did not
feel comfortable giving out capital punishment for minor crimes.
 As Britain tried to set up a colony in America it needed people and it
needed a settlement building. These convicts were ideal for that purpose.
 Some people were beginning to consider the idea of reforming criminals
through hard labour.

Transportation
As of 1788 convicts were transported to Australia instead of America, over the
next 65 years 150,000 people were sent to Australia, only 1 in 8 of them were
women. They were sent for trivial offences e.g. stealing goods value 1 shilling
or stealing fish from somebody’s pond. Many of those transported were really
political prisoners such as Luddites, ‘Captain Swing’ rioters, ‘Rebecca’ rioters or
‘Chartists’. The Tolpuddle Martyrs were transported in 1834 for trying to form
a trade union. Those awaiting transportation were put in HULKS or disused
warships. The journey was 6 months and many died on the way. When in
Australia some were kept in barracks and worked the land. A lot made a new
life after their sentence. Transportation from Britain and Ireland officially
ended in 1868 although it had become uncommon several years earlier.
Transportation - Success or failure?
1. By the 1830s, transportation was costing £0.5 million per year. Prisons
were more widely used than they had been in the 1780s and were
cheaper to run.
2. Transportation was a successful punishment. Courts were quite
prepared to use this form of punishment.
3. Transportation was ‘no more than a summer’s holiday to a happier and
better climate’, said Lord Ellenborough in 1810.
4. Crime had not fallen in Britain since transportation to Australia began. It
had increased, probably quite considerably.
5. Transportation had been very successful in reforming convicts. Many
took the opportunity to live peacefully and find work in Australia. Only a
minority of convicts transported to Australia came back to England when
their sentence was served.
6. In 1851 gold was discovered in Australia. A gold rush began with
thousands of people in Britain trying to find the money to buy a ticket to
Australia.
7. Transportation was now seen as more of an opportunity than a
punishment by many people in Britain. Wages were higher than in
Britain once prisoners had won their ticket of leave.
8. Australia was by now clearly established as part of the British Empire.
No other country was likely to try to claim control of Australia.
9. The settlers in Australia had set up societies to protest against the
‘dumping’ of convicts in their country. They wanted to end the idea that
everyone in Australia had been transported as a criminal.

Decline of the Bloody Code

The work of Samuel Romily
As solicitor-general Romilly advocated reform of the criminal law, especially in
the areas of corporal punishment and capital punishment. He also criticised
the policy of flogging in the military. Romilly also opposed transporting
criminals to penal colonies or confining them in prison ships or common gaols.
He led the campaign to restrict the death penalty. In 1808 he obtained the
repeal of the law which had made pick pocketing a capital offence. However,
most of his colleagues did not share his liberal views and was unsuccessful in
persuading them to pass very much legislation. For example, Romilly twice
introduced bills to abolish capital punishment for theft to the value of at least
40s from a house or ship on a river, and on each occasion they were lost or
defeated. Similar attempts to reduce the punishment for shoplifting goods of a
minimum value of 5s. Also ended in failure.
Peel’s reform of the Bloody Code
The Criminal/Bloody Code was not working because it was seen as too harsh
and juries were failing to convict people. Sir Robert Peel listened to reformers
like Sir Samuel Romilly and reduced the number of capital offences
considerably, to ensure that serious offences were effectively dealt with. Pick
pocketing was removed as a capital offence, together with almost 100 other
offences, like damaging Westminster Bridge. By 1861 there were only five
capital crimes: Murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and
piracy with violence. By 1866 the government rules that public executions
should no longer take place. Convicts were now executed in private in prison.

Prison reform in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries

In the early 1700s, a visit to a prison would have been a harrowing experience.
Due to the lack of proper water supply or sewage systems, visitors used
handkerchiefs soaked in vinegar so that they couldn’t smell the prisoners.
About a quarter of prisoners died each year from disease and typhus (a virus
spread by mites, lice and fleas) was so common it was nicknamed “jail fever”. A
survey showed that of the 4000 people in prison in the whole country, over
60% were there because they owed money, and because they couldn’t get out
until they had paid their debts. Many stayed there until they died. Like debtors,
many in the prisons were not there as a punishment. Instead, they were kept
there until their punishment was carried out. There were different sorts of jails
too – towns and counties ran some, while private individuals managed others,
sometimes with no rules.
During the 18th century, most people accepted that prisons were awful places.
They believed that a person in prison was most likely a bad person, so why
should they be treated well? But some people disagreed.

John Howard
As High Sheriff of Bedfordshire in 1733 he had to inspect the county’s gaols
and was shocked by what he saw. He made it his life’s work to report on every
prison in England, Wales and Europe. He made tours of prisons across Britain
and abroad and was so shocked by what he saw that he published his findings
in a book called the “State of prisons in England and Wales in 1777”. He
measured everything — the size of cells, the weight of food, the numbers and
types of prisoners and recorded deaths from disease. He recommended more
space, better food, paid gaolers, separation of types and genders of prisoners.
He also gave evidence to Parliament. John Howard’s book showed how
dangerous prisons were. They were often schools for crime, turning young
prisoners into hardened criminals.

How important was the work of John Howard?

John Howard’s work was important because he wanted to address the problems that
he encountered in prisons and to show that they could reform as well as punish
offenders. He wanted prisons to be healthy places, where the genders were
separated and where gaolers were trained to help prisoners to reform themselves.
His work inspired others, like G O Paul and William Blackburn, to improve the prison
system.
Elizabeth Fry
Elizabeth Fry was a Quaker (type of Christian) who can from a rich family. In 1813 a
visiting fellow-Quaker showed her the conditions in which women prisoners were
kept in Newgate prison. Newgate was a prison which held both men and women
awaiting trial, sentencing, execution, and transportation. Elizabeth found women
and children living and dying in conditions of horror, filth, and cruelty. She resolved
to do something about it.
Firstly, she visited the prisons and encouraged other middle class women to do so,
overcoming official opposition and setting up education classes for women. She was
ahead of her time in the way she treated the prisoners as human beings. Elizabeth
did not impose discipline on them but instead proposed rules and invited the
prisoners to vote on them, and she put an educated prisoner in charge. Fry
encouraged prisoners to keep their cells clean and found them work knitting
stockings for 2p a week. She also helped prisoners to read and write, began a school
for prisoner’s children and held Bible readings.
Fry set up the ‘Association for the Improvement of the Females’ at Newgate prison.
The focus of this group was to reform female prisoners through religious instruction
and preparing skills to help them gain legal employment when they left prison.
In 1835, she testified before the House of Commons Parliamentary committee,
established to investigate "The State of Gaols in England and Wales." Elizabeth also
spoke before a House of Lords Select Committee in the same year.
How important was the work of Elizabeth Fry?
Fry’s work was important because she was the first prison reformer to focus her
efforts on the plight of family and female prisoners. Fry’s campaigning especially in
Parliament encouraged the ‘Gaol’s Act (1823)’.

The Gaols Act, 1823

• Sir Robert Peel (Home Secretary) got this act through Parliament.
• Introduced regular visits by prison chaplains
• The payment of gaolers (jailers)
• women warders were put in charge of women prisoners
• Prisoners could no longer be put in heavy irons.
• HOWEVER, THIS RULES NOT ENFORCED UNTIL THE INTRODUCTION OF PRISON
INSPECTORS UNDER THE 1853 PRISON ACT.

Separate and Silent

Many people still believed that criminals deserved harsh punishments. They thought
that prisons should be as unpleasant as possible to act as a deterrent.
Also, two new ideas came from the USA – the ‘separate system’ and the ‘silent
system’.
Prison reformers in the early C19th had come up with a number of new ideas. One of
these ideas, suggested by Sir G.O.Paul, was the separation of prisoners, in order to
try to reform them by separating them from bad influences. The 1839 Prisons Act
decided to apply the Separate System. Prisoners were to be separated and isolated,
throughout the whole of their sentence. Even when exercising, prisoners were kept
apart, with hoods over their heads; at religious worship, they were separated in
wooden cubicles. Pentonville was set up in 1842 as a model prison, to apply this
method. However, many prisoners became insane through the Separate System and
reform failed so that a cheaper method was introduced – the Silent System – which
had been tried at Auburn Prison in New York. The idea was to let prisoners work
together, but in silence. A range of pointless tasks was done – shot drill, the
treadwheel, the crank and oakum picking. Statistics gradually showed that the Silent
System also failed to reform prisoners and there seemed to be no alternative but to
deter people by harsh methods
The separate system
This was based on the belief that ‘bad’ people could be given ‘good’ influences and
would then change their behaviour. However, prisoners had to be kept in solitary
confinement. Prisoners wore a mask and cap to prevent them from recognising or
speaking to one another. For exercise, prisoners were kept 4.5 metres apart by a
large rope with knots.
There was no education or work. This had a terrible effect on the prisoners. The
separate system was tried at Pentonville and, in the first eight years, 22 prisoners
went mad and 26 had nervous breakdowns.
The silent system
This was cheaper than the separate system and was introduced as part of the Prisons
Act of 1865. Again, it was based on almost complete solitary confinement, but only
for the first nine months. There was no communication with other prisoners. Any
breach of the rules was punished by a diet of bread and water, chaining up or even
whipping. The system was based on ‘hard labour, hard fare and a hard board’.

 Hard labour. Work that was hard and pointless, including walking on a treadmill,
oakum picking (separating old fibres from rope) and shot drill, where heavy
cannonballs were passed from prisoner to prisoner.
 Hard fare. Prison food was deliberately boring. Breakfast and supper were
oatmeal gruel and bread. Lunch was soup and bread.
 Hard board. Hammocks were replaced by hard beds.

Robert Peel
Robert Peel became Home Secretary in 1822 and went on to serve as Prime
Minister on two separate occasions. (1834-35 and 1841-46) Peel was a strong
politician as he was well informed, kept abreast of new ideas, was a skilled
orator, and was excellent at ensuring that he persuaded other Members of
Parliament to pass key bills through parliament.
Changes to capital punishment
Peel believed in reforming criminals and preventing crimes. The
Criminal/Bloody Code was not working because it was seen as too harsh and
juries were failing to convict people. Sir Robert Peel listened to reformers like
Sir Samuel Romilly and reduced the number of capital offences considerably,
to ensure that serious offences were effectively dealt with. Pickpocketing was
removed as a capital offence, together with almost 100 other offences, like
damaging Westminster Bridge. By 1861 there were only five capital crimes:
Murder, treason, espionage, arson in royal dockyards, and piracy with violence.
By 1866 the government rules that public executions should no longer take
place. Convicts were now executed in private in prison.

Changes to prisons
Peel had sympathy with the likes of Elizabeth Fry and was keen to reform
prisons. He was responsible for the 1823 Gaols Act which did much to improve
conditions in prisons.
 Punishments after 1900
Abolition of the death penalty
Why was capital punishment abolished?
• Focus of punishment was now on reforming criminals.
• Several high profile cases including that of Derek Bentley highlighted the
flaws in the use of capital punishment.
• After all the death and suffering of WWII many people had seen enough
death.
• Prisons were improving.
Controversial executions
Derek William Bentley (30 June 1933 – 28 January 1953) was an English man
who was hanged for the murder of a policeman, which was committed in the
course of a burglary attempt. The murder was said at the time to have been
committed by a friend and accomplice of Bentley's, Christopher Craig, then
aged 16, but whether he had fired the fatal shot was later called into question.
Bentley was convicted as a party to murder, by the English law principle of
common purpose, "joint enterprise". The jury at the trial found Bentley guilty
based on the prosecution's interpretation of the ambiguous phrase "Let him
have it" (Bentley's alleged instruction to Craig), after the judge, Lord Chief
Justice Goddard, had described Bentley as "mentally aiding the murder of
Police Constable Sidney Miles".
This case led to a huge public outcry as not only had Bentley not committed
murder, but he had the mental age of an eight year old child.
Timothy John Evans (20 November 1924 – 9 March 1950) was a Welshman
falsely accused of murdering his wife and infant daughter at their residence at
10 Rillington Place in Notting Hill, London. In January 1950, Evans was tried and
convicted of the murder of his daughter and was sentenced to death and
hanged. During his trial, Evans accused his downstairs neighbour, John Christie,
of committing the murders.
Three years after Evans's execution, Christie was found to be a serial killer who
had murdered six other women in the same house, including his own wife.
Before his own execution, Christie confessed to murdering Mrs. Evans. An
official inquiry concluded in 1966 that Christie had also murdered Evans's
daughter, and Evans was granted a posthumous pardon.
The case generated much controversy at the time with many members of the
public calling for an end to the use of the death penalty.
Ruth Ellis (9 October 1926 – 13 July 1955) was the last woman to be executed
in the United Kingdom, after being convicted of the murder of her lover, David
Blakely.
From a humble background, Ellis was drawn into the world of London nightclub
hostessing, which led to a chaotic life of brief relationships, some of them with
upper-class night clubbers and celebrities. Two of these were Blakely, a racing
driver already engaged to another woman, and Desmond Cussen, a retail
company director. The triangular situation provoked fierce jealousy on all sides
and drunken rows between Ruth Ellis and Blakely in which he beat her up. She
was often seen badly bruised and in March 1955, according to her, she had a
miscarriage after he punched her in the stomach.
On Easter Sunday 1955, Ellis shot Blakely dead outside The Magdala public
house in Hampstead, and immediately gave herself up to the police. At her
trial, she took full responsibility for the murder; and her courtesy and
composure, both in court and in the cells, was noted in the press. She was
hanged at HM Prison Holloway.

How was capital punishment abolished?

• Under the terms of the Murder (Abolition of Death Penalty) Act 1965
hanging was suspended for an experimental period of five years.
• After there was seen to be no major change in the murder rate the Murder
Act was adopted permanently in 1969. The abolition of the death sentence
everywhere under British rule marks the end of a long road of reform since
the early 19th century, when Britain’s “Bloody Code” imposed the death
penalty for 200 offences.
How can the abolition of the death penalty be seen as a turning point?
• Focus of punishment was now on reforming criminals.
• Led to further focus on use of prisons.
• Led to the creation of new punishments such as community service,
suspended sentences and tagging to take the strain off overcrowded
prisons.
 Borstals
The first institution was established at Borstal Prison in a village called Borstal,
near Rochester, Kent, England in 1902. The system was developed on a national
basis and formalised in the Prevention of Crime Act 1908. Borstals were
created to separate young offenders from more experienced criminals. The
focus of these institutions was designed to be "educational rather than
punitive", but it was highly regulated, with a focus on routine, discipline and
authority.
Despite their purpose there were accusations of abuse and some said that
"more often than not they were breeding grounds for bullies and
psychopaths." The use of whipping (birching) was used but only male inmates
over 18 might be so punished. This power was very rarely used – there were
only 7 birching cases in Borstals in the 10 years to 1936. This birching power
was available only in England and Wales (not in Scottish Borstals). The Criminal
Justice Act 1982 abolished the Borstal system in the UK, introducing Youth
Custody Centers instead.

Young offender Institutes

Young Offender Institutions (YOIs) are prisons for 15-21 year olds. Focus on
reform through education but poor staffing ratios mean that this education is
often limited. Young offender wings also exist within adult prisons. Prisoners
serving sentences at young offenders’ institutions are expected to take part in
at least 25 hours of education per week, which is aimed at helping them to
improve their behaviour, to develop practical skills for use in the outside world
and to prepare them for lawful employment following their release. There are
also opportunities for prisoners to undertake work in Community Service.
Lack of resources and intimidating atmospheres are said to hamper
rehabilitation work. Indeed, some critics argue that the effect of incarceration
has the opposite intended effect: with little to occupy them and in the
company of other offenders, detainees may be put on the road to a life of
crime.
Closed Prisons
This is the traditional style of prison where the prisoner is under pretty strict
guard throughout their time in prison. Many prisoners get the chance to work
while carrying out their sentence, for example making clothes and furniture or
electrical engineering. This is done in prison workshops and is normally paid
work. Prisoners can also work around the prison itself – for example in kitchens
and laundries. Courses are normally available to help prisoners get new skills,
such as learning to read and write, use computers and do basic maths. Most
prisoners get an Individual Learning Plan listing courses and training. All
prisoners have certain rights, which include protection from bullying, the right
to food and water, to be able to contact a solicitor and healthcare.
Prisoners who follow rules can earn privileges. This is called the ‘Incentives and
Earned Privileges Scheme’. A prisoner may be able to:
 get more visits from family or friends

 be allowed to spend more money each week

 Privileges are different in each prison - staff can explain to the prisoner
how the scheme works.

Each prison has its own rules about what a prisoner can keep in their cell. They
may be able to keep things such as: newspapers; books and magazines; a
stereo, or something to play music on; and earphones; writing and drawing
materials.
If a prisoner is found guilty of breaking prison rules, they can be kept in their
cell for up to 21 days (adults) or ten days (young offenders) given up to 42 extra
days in prison on top of their original sentence.
Open Prisons
In 1934 the first open prison was started. In an open prison the rules were
more relaxed. Open prisons hold a mixture of prisoners serving a few weeks or
months and long-termers on anything from four years to life. Focus on
gradually introducing long-term prisoners into the outside world again. Offer a
measure of freedom and personal responsibility that is denied in closed
prisons.
Prisoners, many of them white-collar criminals doing time for fraud and
deception, can spend most of the day roaming the facility. Activities include
academic classes, business studies or technical training, as well as work in the
community. But they are expected to show up for daily roll calls.

Problems in modern prisons

• Overcrowding became a serious problem in the 1980s, Leeds prison was
designed to hold 624 prisoners. In 1981 it housed 1200. It had sixteen baths
and three showers and the water supply was so variable that only four
baths could be used at once.

• In some prisons overcrowding combined with a shortage of staff meant that

prisoners had to spend 23 hours a day in their cells, and reform and
education programmes were cut.

• 40% of all prisoners in Britain were serving long sentences for violent crime.

• The Government decided to build more prisons, including for the first time
since the 19th century, prison ships. These private prisons were run by
security companies who were paid by the Government per prisoner. They
housed mainly low-risk offenders and they operated under a strict set of
rules.

How effective are prisons?

Focus on removing criminal from society and attempting to reform them, with
limited success. More than one in four criminals reoffended within a year,
according to the most recent Ministry of Justice (MoJ) figures, committing
500,000 offences between them.
Alternative punishments
Suspended sentences
Offered as an alternative to prison since 1967. The offender avoids prison
providing they do not commit another offence during the suspension period.
However, if the offender commits another crime during this period they must
serve both the sentence for the new crime and the original crime. The purpose
of suspended sentences is to allow offenders a ‘second chance’ to reform.
Probation
Probation service began in 1907. Similar to a suspended sentence as the
offender avoids prison time but must follow a strict set of rules including
regular contact with a probation officer. As of 1982 those on probation had to
attend activities at day centres to help reform them.
Parole
Parole Board created in 1967. This allows prisoners who qualify out of prison
before the end of their sentence. The prisoner must apply for this six months in
advance and a parole hearing is held where reports are given of the offender’s
behaviour and attitude in prison. Once released they must report to a
probation officer or they will be recalled to prison. The purpose of this
punishment is to offer criminals a second chance and to relieve the burden on
overcrowded prisons.
Community service
This gives a criminal the chance to repay society for their crimes (restitution). It
was introduced in 1972 and the offender is ordered to complete a set amount
of hours of unpaid work in the community. Since 2003 this has become known
as community pay back and the offenders tend to wear bright orange jackets
with ‘community payback’ written on them as they work.
Electronic tagging
This was initially trialled between 1995 and 1997 as an alternative to prison. A
small GPS tracker is fastened around the wrist or the ankle of the offender so
that police know their whereabouts at all times. In 2005 only two hundred
offenders were tagged as an alternative to prison. It is most commonly used as
part of early release initiatives, which has proved successful as only 2% of
those released on the tag in 2005 reoffended.