Most
early jail cells were a horrifying experience.
For
one thing, those incarcerated faced grossly inadequate sanitation in dark,
squalid lockups, often relying on a slop bucket that ideally might be emptied once
a day. Not surprisingly, disease and the spread of vermin were all too often
the result of such conditions. But then poor sanitation was a widespread
problem in general in past centuries. Besides, human confinement, and the
treatment received while there, was seen as a form of degradation, no matter the
nature of the crime. During those times anything terrible suffered by an inmate
was deemed an appropriate deterrent to criminal behavior. That included unrelenting,
agonizing brutality meted out in any number of cruel ways, with devices
designed to inflict unimaginable suffering.
Says
Daily.jstor.org about the inhumanity of the justice system of 17th
and early 18th century colonial America:
“When
the time for punishment arrived, it took the form of physical abuse or societal
shaming. The stocks, whipping, pillory, and the ducking stool were common State
responses used for lessor offenses.
“If
someone was found guilty of thievery a letter ‘T’ would be branded on their
hand after completing their corporal punishment. Human character at that time
was perceived as permanent and immutable; a brand ensured the public would
always see this person for what they were, a thief. Public hanging was the
preferred punishment for a broad range of more serious offenses.”
Jail
rations were typically inadequate and often putrid. With perhaps few exceptions
(in some countries prisoners were required to pay if they wanted to eat at all),
the accepted rule was that those in prison were not worthy of any form of decency
or compassion, and in some jails, because of limited space, prisoners were not even
segregated. Men and women were thrown into the same cell.
And
whereas the wealthy often received more lenient consideration at the hands of a
prejudicial system, such as release upon payment of fines, the poor usually endured
much greater hardship. Because some facilities were inadequately constructed
and escape possible, prisoners were commonly kept in irons for the entire
duration of their stay. In most cases it could be years.
In
the United Kingdom during the 18th century, death was the punishment
for more than 200 offences. As an alternative to hanging serious offenders, by
Act of Parliament in 1718, prisoners were transported by ship to Great
Britain’s colonies to serve their sentence on distant shores doing hard labour.
Debtors
were also considered to be criminals with legal action brought against them by
creditors, and jailed accordingly. Primarily during the 18th and 19th
centuries, debtors could easily make up the lion’s share of the prison
population. These were people, including tradespeople, who had simply fallen on
hard times, and release was incumbent upon the payment of any outstanding debt
against them. However, eventual overcrowding of prisons was actually in their
favour, as (UK) Parliament would have to occasionally intervene and discharge
many of these debtors on certain conditions.
A
lack of prison space was an ongoing challenge for authorities, and in addition
to small village lockups, castle cellars, underground dungeons and rusted cages,
decommissioned war ships, moored at London area docks, were also pressed into
service.
Says
Parliament,uk about the incarceration of prisoners on those ships: “What began
as a temporary measure became a permanent arrangement as prisoners were put to
hard labour on the docks and dredging the Thames.”
In
early Canada and the United States, debtors were also jailed locally awaiting due
process, and to address overcrowding in general, Canada’s first large prison began
receiving prisoners in June of 1835 at Kingston in Upper Canada (now Ontario).
According to Thecanadianencyclopedia.ca: “Kingston penitentiary, opened with
great hopes of solving the problem of crime and criminals, was plagued by
dissension, corruption and inhumanity from the beginning.
“The
first major investigation, the Brown Report (1849), is full of cases like that
of Peter Charboneau, an 11-year-old child committed to Kingston prison for 7
years in 1845. While in prison he was lashed 57 times in 8½ months
for offences in the jail, including staring, winking and laughing….”
Jail reforms were slow
to come, but over time several individuals and organizations dedicated
themselves to addressing systemic issues.
It was the harsh
prison conditions witnessed by Elizabeth (Gurney) Fry in the UK’s “filthy and
disease-ridden” Newgate Prison that spurred her into action. She was outraged
that upwards of 300 women, along with their children, were packed into an
inhumanely small space. It was her activism that first saw male and female prisoners
properly segregated, also providing education for incarcerated women and
children as well as many other important reforms.
John Howard was also
an 18th century social reformer, and he dedicated his life to not
only improving prison conditions per se, but for better treatment of the prisoners
themselves. In Canada, Agnes Campbell Macphail was the first female Member of
Parliament in Canadian history, and also a fearless advocate for much-needed penal
reform in Canada. In the US, Thomas Mott Osborne, a former prison warden, took
up the fight for correctional improvements in his country, as did the
like-minded countryman, Austin MacCormick.
There were certainly
exceptions, where the gaol (early English spelling) keeper and his family lived
in an apartment that was part of the overall structure, and regular meals were provided
to prisoners.
Although
the incarceration experience today is vastly different from what it once was for
most in less enlightened times, and this too varies by country, public laws
must still be upheld and justice served. As indicated in statista.com, topping
the list of countries with the largest number of prisoners per 100,000 of the
national population as of February 2025, is El Salvador, the smallest country
in Central America. Last on that list is Belize, also located in Central
America. The United States comes in at number five.
And
while every country in the world has their own prison system to hold
lawbreakers accountable, Vatican City “… the world’s smallest fully independent
nation-state” according to Britannica.com, does not have a prison system as we
know it.
(ewtnvatican.com) “Firstly,
while the Vatican City State operates with its own judicial system and penal
code, it lacks a traditional prison. It possesses facilities for temporary
detention post-arrest, but these do not constitute a formal jail. Should
sentences become enforceable, the convicted individuals would serve their time
in Italy, as per the Lateran Pacts agreement. Secondly, the Vatican legislation
stipulates that if sentences do not exceed a certain threshold, they may be
suspended. Essentially, imprisonment only occurs if additional crimes are
committed within Vatican jurisdiction.”
Unfortunately, for any number
of reasons, countless innocent people have been wrongfully convicted and put to
death, others incarcerated for extended periods of time. This is the fate that
has befallen many (especially before fingerprinting and DNA analysis), the
longest in the US being, according to theguardian.com, Glynn Simmons. He spent more
than forty-eight years in prison before being exonerated for a murder he did
not commit.
And being framed for a crime,
including murder, is not just the unsettling stuff of entertainment industry
imaginations. It’s very real, says mirandarightslawfirm.com: “‘Framing’ is a
frightening reality for many criminal defendants. Yes, you could be framed for
a crime, and it happens more frequently than we would like to admit….”
In
When Shadows Stir, Book Two of The Kavenaghs (1870-1879) a harsh 19th
century jail awaits for just such a situation….
https://www.bookswelove.com/monroe-eden/
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