NCJ Number
130284
Journal
American Jails Volume: 5 Issue: 2 Dated: (May/June 1991) Pages: 72-74,76-77
Date Published
1991
Length
5 pages
Annotation
Four old English institutions are described: Horsemonger Lane Gaol (1791-1878); Ludgate Gaol (1378-?); Millbank Penitentiary, England's first national penitentiary; and London's Famous Newgate Gaol (1188-1902).
Abstract
The descriptions include information on the structure and security of the facilities and on the inmate population. The Horsemonger Lane Gaol was intended to be a model prison. This 3-story brick facility housed both men and women offenders -- debtors and criminals -- in separate areas. Ludgate Gaol detained privileged men and women on the basis that this population should be separated from the ordinary debtors and criminals confined to the Newgate Gaol. Originally conceived as a model structure, Millbank Penitentiary was based on the ideas of Jeremy Bentham, a law reformer, architect, and gaol innovator. Prisoners were to be kept silent and separate and occupied cells around the circumference of the building. Officers were to be located in the center to allow continual surveillance. Neither the government nor the prisoners liked the first national penitentiary, and it was converted to an ordinary prison in 1843. Newgate, the gaol for London's worst criminals, held a variety of prisoners from presentence to those waiting execution. There seems to have been little segregation of prisoners in this dark and dismal gaol which was situated underground and which was pulled down in 1770-1778, rebuilt in 1780-83, and finally demolished in 1902.