Section C: punishment in the 18th and 19th centuries 

Changing attitudes to the death penalty 

1. By 1688 the number of crimes that carried the death penalty had increased to 50; by 1765 it was 160; by 1810, it was 222 (remember this was called the ‘Bloody Code’).  

2. However, attitudes were starting to change. Hanging was no longer seen as an effective deterrent; rehabilitation became a more popular approach; and more alternative punishments were available.  

3. The death penalty began to be used less; 1814 saw the last execution for cutting down an orchard, and 1822 the last hanging for shoplifting.  

4. The 1823 Judgement of Death Act gave judges the power to reduce the death penalty to transportation.  

5. The 1832 Punishment of Death Act reduced the number of capital crimes to 60. 

The end of public executions 

1. Traditionally executions had been public to act as a deterrent.  

2. However, increasingly executions carried a carnival atmosphere, with some employers allowing workers time off to attend.  

3. The authorities became concerned that the crowds were often drunk and disorderly, and that the large crowds created opportunity for further crime like pickpocketing and prostitution.  

4. Some reformers also argued that those condemned to death should be allowed more dignity. This was part of a school of thought called humanitarianism.  

5. Public executions were stopped in 1868. 

Transportation to Australia 

1. After 1783, as a result of the American War of Independence, Britain lost its American colonies and prisoners could no longer be transported there.  

2. Instead, convicts were transported to Australia, which had been claimed as part of the British Empire in 1770.  

3. About 160,000 people were transported to Australia, of whom about a sixth were women.  

4. Transportation was popular with the authorities because it was an alternative to building new prisons and it would help populate the new colony of Australia.  

5. Convicts would be held in prisons or in hulks before transportation. Hulks were disused ships used as floating prisons just offshore.  

6. During the journey to Australia, convicts were kept below deck in dirty, cramped condition. The journey could take three months.  

7. When their seven-year sentence had been served, most convicts could not afford to return home, so remained in Australia.  

8. Transportation started to become unpopular in Australia because people there believed ex-convicts were responsible for high crime levels, and free settlers argued that convict workers took work away from them.  

9. Some people in Britain started to campaign against it because they said it was inhumane. Some people said that it was too expensive, and, as Australia became more desirable once gold was discovered there, it became less of a deterrent.  

10. New ideas about prisons led to more being built in Britain, meaning there was less need for transportation.  

11. Transportation to Australia ended in 1868.  

Prison reform 

1. Before the 18^th century, prisons were mainly used for holding a suspect in the run up to their trial.  

2. The decline of the Bloody Code, and concern about transportation, meant use of prisons as punishment grew.  

3. Prisons were believed to both act as a deterrent. 

4. Prisons were believed to make society safer by removing criminals.  

5. It was widely believed that prisons should involve hard work so criminals could pay society back for their crimes. A common form of hard labour was the treadwheel, where the prisoners walked up a wheel for repeated stints of ten minutes at a time, for eight hours a day.  

6. There were a number of key government interventions to reorganise the prison system in this period:  

1. In 1815 it said goalers had to be paid out of local taxes (so they didn’t need to depend on bribes) 

2. In 1823 prisoners were divided into categories (eg violent / non violent, male / female) 

3. In 1835 the Goal Act introduced inspection of prisons 

4. In 1865 the Prison Act said all prisons had to follow national rules 

7. A number of prison reformers argued that prisons should be less harsh and allow scope for rehabilitation. 

8. One such campaigner was John Howard, who did the following: 

1. He became outraged by conditions in Bedfordshire county goal, and in 1774 he began campaigning to parliament.  

2. In 1777 he wrote The State of Prisons in England and Wales, where he argued for prison reform.  

3. He recommended decent water and food, Christian teaching, private cells and a wage for prison work.  

9. Another campaigner was Elizabeth Fry: 

1.  She visited Newgate prison in 1813 and was shocked by the conditions.  

2. She started teaching sewing and Bible Studies to prisoners to encourage rehabilitation.  

3. She helped ensure that female warders were employed to work with female prisoners, provided prisoners with furniture and clothing, and writes letters campaigning for wider prison reform.  

4. In 1817, Fry helped set up the Association for the Reformation of Female Prisoners at Newgate to campaign for better conditions.