NCJ Number
187558
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 40 Issue: 1 Dated: February 2001 Pages: 14-25
Date Published
February 2001
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article discusses suffering among some British inmates prior to and after their release from prison between 1835 and 1860, with particular attention to the impact of Christian theology on the concept of suffering and penitence for prisoners in this Victorian age.
Abstract
The concept of suffering was central in the thought of penologists during this period for two reasons. First, it was believed that all sin attracts the affliction of God, so the physical, mental, and spiritual affliction of the prisons was God's will for the sinners housed in them. Second, it was also held that the penitent Christian who had renounced sin must endure affliction, as Christ had done, if he/she was to share in Christ's glory. This theological rationale for the suffering of prisoners led to an indifference to and even a promulgation of the suffering of prisoners and their families. The disclosures of prisoners who wrote of their experiences during this period and the writings of observers with sensitivity to inmate suffering provide a picture of a legion of rootless, destitute people, most between 11 and 35 years old, enduring an existence of short-term employment, desertion by parents and partners, residence in workhouses and common lodging houses, and, for local prisoners, repetitive short prison sentences. Although the theological basis for the punitive and redemptive suffering of prisoners and ex-prisoners may have receded in modern penology, the concept of punishment and suffering as a necessary part of the consequences of law-breaking and rehabilitation may persist in penal thinking. 33 notes and 17 references