J.M. Moore

A parade by young inmates at Feltham Borstal, Middlesex, 1911. PA Photos/TopFoto.

England’s Prison Population Problems

In the early 20th century the prison population in England and Wales was in sharp decline, despite a rise in crime.

‘A View of Sydney on Norfolk Island, 1792’. Mitchell Library, State Library of New South Wales. Public Domain.

Rum and Reform: The Party on Norfolk Island

As convicts celebrated Queen Victoria’s birthday on remote Norfolk Island, debates raged over the purpose of punishment and the merits of Alexander Maconochie’s project of moral reform.

Convicts wearing ‘mask hats’ exercising at Pentonville Prison. Engraving by Swain after Bennett, c.1870.

Behind Victorian Bars

Turning chaotic havens of sloth and debauchery into systemised institutions of pain and terror, Victorian Britain’s ‘model’ prisons were anything but.