Abstract
The 19th century witnessed the fruition of fundamental changes in the treatment of social deviance and dependency. A central feature of the new approach was the removal of deviant and socially dependent people from society at large, and their segregation in total institutions, where specific treatments for specific groups could be applied. Legislation by central government was important in promoting the adoption of the ‘total institution’ by local authorities throughout Britain. The Poor Law of 1834 ushered in the regime of the workhouse, imposing an institutional solution to replace a variety of local methods of poor relief. By 1850 a succession of Lunacy Acts and Asylum Acts had compelled local authorities to provide county lunatic asylums for insane paupers, and imposed a legal obligation on Poor Law Guardians to seek out their insane and to see that provision was made for them. In the field of punishment, frequent executions, transportation and the disorder of 18th–century prisons were gradually replaced by the discipline of the penitentiary, through a succession of Prison Acts and a Home Office inspectorate committed to reform. By 1865 solitary confinement had become a compulsory feature of imprisonment.
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