18th century prison conditions

During the eighteenth century the only duties the government had to fulfil, was to defend the kingdom and to administer the monarch’s court. Significant domestic issues such as health care, transport, education, and the running of prisons were matters left to private enterprises. Governors often referred to as “keepers” or “gaolers” bought the right to run a prison by paying a large amount of money to the government.6 To recover those investments gaolers imposed exactions and fees from the prisoners for nearly everything belonging to the everyday life in prison. The requested goods had been basic consumer commodities like food, bedding, and clothes or more exclusive services like beer, salubrious accommodations or prostitutes. It is said that some of the wealthiest prisoners were accommodated in the keeper’s own houses.

Corruption. Any time spent in prison was paid by the prisoners, bedding and clothing had to be purchased from the keepers. Prisoners, even those who were imprisoned as debtors, had to pay fees for admission and departure. The so called “garnish” entrance fee had to be paid at the prisoner’s arrival. Those who were not able to pay it had to surrender their clothes. Thus the profession of a keeper was really lucrative. Even blackmailing by the keepers was very common. For example did the gaolers receive gifts or bribes from the prisoners to spare them exceedingly torturous ways of death. The tradition of prisoner’s self-management led to corruption among the inmates as well. Debtor’s prison: In addition to male and female felons, who were generally kept in irons, there were male and female debtors. Both sections were divided into master areas, for prisoners who were able to pay for their accommodation, and a common side, for poor inmates, which were appropriate paradigms for the unhealthy, dismal conditions described above. - Imprisonments ran from private cells with cleaning women and visiting prostitutes to lying on the floor with no cover and barely any clothes. To sum it up, the conditions of imprisonment were highly depend on the financial situation of the prisoner. Due to this poor conditions only a quarter of the prisoners survived until their execution day, because of the unhygienic environment, which caused infectious diseases like typhus. This so called “gaol fever” spread throughout the prison by lice or flees. There is much said to be for the fact that diseases killed far more people than executions, which were extraordinarily popular throughout the eighteenth century.- Processions: After a prisoner was found guilty at the Session Houses of the Old Bailey the journey from Newgate to the gallows of Tyburn began. Followed by the bells of St. Selpulchre church8 the so called processions customarily started out on Mondays where many people had time to watch. Placed in a horse cart, with tied hands and sometimes even seated on their own coffins, condemned prisoners were commonly dressed in their best clothes in order to die like gentlemen; this circumstance shows the crucial influence of fashion and consumerism in the eighteenth century. Clothes was not only a good of need, it was a good of fashion and a tool for self-expression. - Most of the condemned prisoners had prepared gallow speeches before they took their last journey. Because of the immense crowds watching, the two mile long ride to Tyburn took up to three hours. Along the route many people were trying to catch a glimpse of the condemned, girls were blowing kisses, people were throwing food, excrements, cheering, and jeering. However, nobody was allowed to be too close to the carts in order to prevent attempts to rescue prisoners. A last DrinkWhile they were carried, prisoners had the chance to stop by and have some bottles of beer. The procession stopped at numerous taverns on the route through Tyburn Road9, a very lively road in the eighteenth century, full of salesmen, shoppers and passengers. At their final stops prisoners were drinking a lot of alcohol, mainly brandy and beer; some were even joking. “I’ll pay you a pint on my way back!” was a popular gag. Some prisoners were even too drunk to reach Tyburn awake.

Starting prison reform. Having visited several hundred prisons across England, Scotland, Wales and wider Europe, John Howard published the first edition of The State of the Prisons in 1777. It included very detailed accounts of the prisons he had visited, including plans and maps, together with detailed instructions on the necessary improvements, especially regarding hygiene and cleanliness, the lack of which was causing many deaths. It is this work that has been credited as establishing the practice of single-celling in the United Kingdom and, by extension, in the United States. The following account, of the Bridewell at Abingdon, Oxfordshire, is typical:

Two dirty day-rooms; and three offensive night-rooms: That for men eight feet square: one of the women's, nine by eight; the other four and a half feet square: the straw, worn to dust, swarmed with vermin: no court: no water accessible to prisoners. The petty offenders were in irons: at my last visit, eight were women.