Abstract
AbstractThis article examines the working lives of female prison officers between 1877 and 1939. It documents a relatively under‐researched, but important, period in the history of women's imprisonment in England. In doing so it aims to uncover the working lives of female officers, the role and daily duties of officers, the development of training schools for female staff and to understand the ambiguous role of officers in the ‘reform’ of prisoners during these decades. The research contextualises the work of the female officer within the changing female prison estate and declining female prison population in this period and examines the ways in which gender and class combined in prison work.
Highlights
This article examines the working lives of female prison officers between 1877 and 1939
In local prisons, where female wings were closed in the early 20th Century, the staff transferred to other prisons or chose to leave the service and women continued to leave upon marriage
This article presents a historical understanding of the role and reveals the tensions between the bureaucratic nature of prison work for female officers in the late-19th and early-20th Centuries and the facilitation of ‘reform’ or ‘rehabilitation’ on the other
Summary
From the mid-19th century, there were two types of prisons in England and Wales: offenders sentenced to a period of imprisonment of up to two years were committed to a local prison; more serious offences warranted a sentence of penal servitude in a convict prison (established after the demise of transportation to Australia). The Rosebery Committee only concerned the convict service, but the De Ramsey Committee included all prison staff and female officers from two local prisons signed petitions in the months preceding the Committee (Thomas 1972) Officers from both prison systems petitioned for increased pay, annual leave, and superannuation, for changes in promotion, and reduced working hours. Staff in local prisons received a pay rise, free quarters and an issue of boots; the rank structure was not changed but two increments were added for assistant warders who had served eleven years, leave was slightly increased and whilst hours of duty were not changed, overtime was introduced (RCP 1878, Appendix 6, p.31). In local prisons, where female wings were closed in the early 20th Century, the staff transferred to other prisons or chose to leave the service and women continued to leave upon marriage. There was a bond of friendship and loyalty which bound them closely together and it was this rather than anything else that made life bearable. (p.33)
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