Abstract
summaryThe relationship between prisons and mental illness has preoccupied prison administrators, physicians, and reformers from the establishment of the modern prison service in the nineteenth century to the current day. Here we take the case of Pentonville Model Prison, established in 1842 with the aim of reforming convicts through religious exhortation, rigorous discipline and training, and the imposition of separate confinement in its most extreme form. Our article demonstrates how following the introduction of separate confinement, the prison chaplains rather than the medical officers took a lead role in managing the minds of convicts. However, instead of reforming and improving prisoners’ minds, Pentonville became associated with high rates of mental disorder, challenging the institution’s regime and reputation. We explore the role of chaplains, doctors, and other prison officers in debating, disputing, and managing cases of mental breakdown and the dismantling of separate confinement in the face of mounting criticism.
Highlights
We explore the role of chaplains, doctors, and other prison officers in debating, disputing, and managing cases of mental breakdown and the dismantling of separate confinement in the face of mounting criticism
In exploring the role of chaplains, doctors, and other prison officers in managing mental disorder and the later dismantling of separate confinement in the face of mounting criticism, this article argues that, during the 1840s, it was prison chaplains, rather than prison doctors, who articulated theories and methods intended to improve the minds of the convicts, based largely on spiritual reform
Ing to Hampton’s praise of Pentonville’s prisoners as healthier than most convicts, Laurie dwelt on his statement that it resulted in “the loss of gregarious habits.”. Laurie interpreted this as “reducing picked, strong, stalwart young men to a state of idiocy.”[104]. A year later in a letter to the Times, Laurie reported how he had been compelled as president of Bethlem to hear the warrants of the secretary of state read for admission “of the victims of the separate system sent from the two Government prisons, Millbank and Pentonville.”
Summary
SUMMARY: The relationship between prisons and mental illness has preoccupied prison administrators, physicians, and reformers from the establishment of the modern prison service in the nineteenth century to the current day. These cases were distressing, difficult to manage, and disturbing to the order of the prison, and threatened to disrupt the “experiment” of separate confinement that had been put in place in Pentonville This intended not merely to punish but, through imposing rigorous management of prisoners’ movements and activities, solitude and silence combined with industrial training, moral education, and religious teaching and exhortation, to reform, improve, and reeducate the convict population. In exploring the role of chaplains, doctors, and other prison officers in managing mental disorder and the later dismantling of separate confinement in the face of mounting criticism, this article argues that, during the 1840s, it was prison chaplains, rather than prison doctors, who articulated theories and methods intended to improve the minds of the convicts, based largely on spiritual reform. The subsequent failure of the Pentonville experiment, and its close association with the mission of the chaplains, opened the door wider to prison medical officers who by the 1850s were keen to extend their expertise in the management of prisoners’ health, including their mental well-being.[6]
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