Abstract
The new penal philosophies of the early nineteenth century focused on the prison cell as a space of transformation: a site in which the individual offender would, in theory, reflect upon and repent their sins and alter their future behaviour. Whilst some of these experiments were short lived, the use of the cell as a pivotal part of the disciplinary regime of the modern prison persisted. This chapter will examine the history of the prison cell as a site of transformation, isolation, conflict and punishment from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth century. It will draw upon extensive historical research, using case studies from local prisons where short sentences predominated, and from the longer-term system of penal servitude.
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Notes
- 1.
Bill Sykes was a notorious habitual criminal in the popular novel Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens serialised in 1837–1839.
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Johnston, H. (2020). ‘The Solitude of the Cell’: Cellular Confinement in the Emergence of the Modern Prison, 1850–1930. In: Turner, J., Knight, V. (eds) The Prison Cell. Palgrave Studies in Prisons and Penology. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-39911-5_2
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