Punishment

Question 1

Describe the use of torture, corporal and capital punishment

Answer 1

• Torture was used to get information out of people. They used things like the rack and the thumbscrews
• Corporal punishment was designed to humiliate. S+P was used for gamblers and drunkards. Flogging for vagrants since 1530. Ducking for anti social women.
• Capital punishment used as a deterrent and retribution. Meant to frighten the masses but people saw it as entertainment. Rich were beheaded, normal people hanged

Question 2

Describe Queen Mary and Queen Elizabeth’s use of capital punishment

Answer 2

• Queen Mary burned heretics who were against Roman Catholicism. She burned 300 people at the stake which became known as the Marian Persecutions
• Queen Elizabeth didn’t punish for heresy. Treason became the main crime (250 people). Beheaded Mary Queen of Scots and John Penry who was a puritan was hung drawn and quartered.

Question 3

Describe the use of imprisonment in the 1500s

Answer 3

• Bridewell or ‘houses of correction’ created in 1553
• They were a punishment for vagrants or ‘idle’ people
• A place to learn the value of hard work
• Bad food
• Adults whipped 12 times on entry, children 6
• Some inmates chained up

Question 4

How did punishment change in the 1700s?

Answer 4

• Corporal punishment used less except for flogging

* Bloody code established in 1723 by the end of the century death crimes over 200

Question 5

Why was transportation considered?

Answer 5

✓ Get rid of the problem
✓ Helps establish abroad
✓ Open up trade with the Far East

Question 6

Describe the development of transportation?

Answer 6

• Started in 1717
• By 1776, 30,000 were sent to the US before they gained independence
• Started sending to Australia in 1788
• By 1857, 162K sent to Australia
• Hulks anchored in the Thames
• Overcrowded and unsanitary that 25% died
• Convicts cleaned the outside, guns and did dredging

Question 7

Describe the trip to Autralia

Answer 7

• Took 6 months to complete
• Unsanitary so 4/10 people died
• Once there you’d live in barracks and work labour jobs
• You had a ticket of leave for being good
• Some would commit crimes on purpose to go to Australia

Question 8

Describe the changes in public execution in the 19th century

Answer 8

• 1823 Robert Peel removed the capital punishment from 180+ crimes
• This carried on to reduce until by the 40s, there were 10 hangings all for murder
• 1868 end to public executions

Question 9

Describe the problems of prisons until the 1800s

Answer 9

• Prisons private owned to make money
• Prisons mixed so children learned crime
• People would bribe gaolers
• Unsanitary; typhus or ‘prison fever’ killed 1000 per year

Question 10

Describe the prison reformers

Answer 10

• John Howard: Reviewed state of prisons in 1777 book. Drew attention but little done
• Elizabeth Fry: Visited Newgate Prison and was appalled. 300 women on the floor. 1817 started campaigned for women’s rights. Gave kids clothes and bedding. Education for kids and knitting for women. Bare bible bashing. Little effect outside Newgate.
• G.O Paul: High Sheriff of Gloucestershire. Made his prisons clean, separate and secure. Provided education, work opportunities and religious guidance. Little took notice. Only changes in Gloucestershire

Question 11

How did prisons change in the 1800s?

Answer 11

• In 1823 the Gaol Act was passed. Safe, sanitary, regular visits by prison chaplains, seperate and woman warders.
• Only covered 130 prisons. Few inspectors. JPs meant to visit but didn’t.
• 1878 prisons under government control not private

Question 12

Describe how silent prisons worked

Answer 12

• Hard labour: treadwheel, picking oakum, the crank
• Hard fare: monotonous schedule and same food
• Hard board: wooden beds
• Reoffending was high

Question 13

Describe how seperate prisons worked

Answer 13

• Pentonville in 1842. 54 others in 6 years
• 13x7’ cells
• Forbidden to talk
• Work caps called ‘peaks’
• Numbers not names
• 5 yard distance during exerice
• Cubicles during worship
• Many went mad some tried suicide and was expensive

Question 14

How did attitude towards punishment change in the 1900s?

Answer 14

• People stopped believing humans born evil
• Capital didn’t deter people
• People believed people fell into crime due to situational circumstances
• 1902 end to crank and treadwheel
• 1922 solitary confinement ended
• Capital Punishment abolished in 1965

Question 15

Describe the changes made to imprisonment in the 20th century

Answer 15

• 1908 first Borstal in Kent for Prevention of Crime Act. 6-24 month sentence. BUT reoffending high, too much power to the staff and too harsh cos corporal
• 1948 Youth Detention Centres. 4 month sentence for a SHORT SHARP SHOCK. Reoffending still high
• Now we have YOI and secure homes. You can fine, give a rehabilitation order, and suspended sentences

Question 16

What are the alternate forms of punishment?

Answer 16

• Suspended sentences: no reooffend no prison
• Parole: let out early if you follow rules. Depends on staff report and crime
• Probation: No jail but supervised by officer
• Electronic tagging: no prison but curfew. fit back into society
• Community service

Question 17

Describe the state of UK prisons today?

Answer 17

• Worst in Western Europe
• Overcrowding 2/3 instead of 1
• Not enough resources to deal with each prisoner
• Mental health isnt dealt with properly
• Not enough money to fund