Chronography of Prisons
Page last modified 27 October 2023
Choropleth map of world prison
population 2005
See also Crimes and Punishment
See also Capital Punishment
For changes in
the legal prosecution and punishment of minors, see Morals
Prisons UK
Interactive
map of UK prisons here, hosted by the Centre
for Crime and Justice Studies
https://www.crimeandjustice.org.uk/news/2021-07-22/explore-prisons-your-area-our-new-interactive-map
United Kingdom Prison population
https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/research-briefings/sn04334/
2013, Reading gaol, Berkshire, closed.
2013, Shepton Mallet prison, until now the
oldest working prison in the UK, closed. It had first closed in 1930 but
reopened as a military prison or �glasshouse� in 1939, used by the US Army from
1942. In 1945 it became a UK military prison again. In 1966 it reverted to use
as a civilian prison.
28
September 2006, The UK�s Chief Inspector of Prisons released a damning
report on Pentonville
Prison, describing it as �overrun with cockroaches�.
2005, Weare Prison, a former troop
transport barge ship moored in Portland Harbour, Dorset, closed after failing inspection.
2000, The Maze Prison, Northern Ireland, closed
(see 1971). It had formerly been an RAF base, named after a nearby village. The
Maze housed mainly IRA and other Irish Republican prisoners, who were treated as
political prisoners until 1975 and allowed to wear their own clothes. The
prison was also known locally as the H Blocks, or Long Kesh. From 1975 the Maze
inmates� classification as �political� began to be phased out, which required
them to wear prison uniforms. This gave rise to protests in which the
priusoners refused to wear prison unoiforms, instead modifying blankets and
wearing those instead. They also started the �dirty protest� after allegations
that prison warders were beating them during slopping out. This meant the
prisoners urinated on the floor and smeared faeces on the walls. Two days after
newly-elected Northern Irish MP Bobby Sands died during a protest hunger
strike in 1981, the incoming Northern Irish Secretary James Prior announced that
all paramilitary prisoners would be allowed to wear their own clothes.
15/2/2000, The US prison
population passed the 2 million mark. The USA had 6 to 10 times the incarceration rate of
other developed countries.
1998, Lowdham Grange Prison, Nottinghamshire, opened.
1996, Whatton Prison, Nottinghamshire, opened.
31 March 1996, Crumlin RoaJuly Prison, Belfast, closed.
1995, Wealstun Prison, Wetherby, opened; an amalgamation of Thorp Arch and Rudgate Prisons.
1994, Doncaster Marshgate Prison opened.
1993, The UK�s Prison Service was formed.
1992, Elmley Prison, Sheerness, Kent,
opened.
1992, Kirklevington Prison, Yorkshire,
opened.
1991, Bullingdon Prison, Bicester,
Oxfordshire, opened.
1991, Brinsford Young Offenders Institute,
north of Wolverhampton, opened.
1991,
Belmarsh Prison
in S E London opened.
1 April 1990. The longest
prison riot in British history began at Strangeways Prison, Manchester. It lasted until 25
April, and one remand prisoner died. In 1990 the prison was overcrowded;
designed for 970 inmates, it held 1,647 in 1990.
10/1988, Garth
Prison, Lancashire, opened.
1987,
Full Sutton
Prison,Yorkshire, opened.
1987,
The UK prison population was 56,400. 20% were aged under 21; 22% were on
remand. Prison overcrowding meant some 2,000 prisoners were being held in
police cells. In 1984, 55% of male prisoners and 34% of female porisoners were
reconvicted within 2 years of release.
1987,
Maghaberry
high security prison, Northern Ireland, opened.
1985, Wayland Prison, Thetford, Norfolk, opened.
1985,
Lindholme
prison, Yorkshire, opened on a former MoD site.
1983,
Feltham Prison,
west of London, a youth custody centre, opened. A remand centre was added in
1988.
1982,
Under the Criminal Justice Act 1982,
Borstals were replaced by Youth Custody Centres.
1979,
Hydebank Wood
Young Offenders Institute, Belfast, opened.
1979,
Wymott Prison,
Leyland,Lancashire, opened.
1976,
Featherstone
Prison, Staffordshire, just north of Wolverhampton, opened.
1975,
Cornton Vale
Prison, Stirling opened. It ios cotland�s only all-women prison.
July 1974, Channings
Wood Prison, Newton Abbot, Devon, opened.
1972,
Acklington
Prison, near Morpeth, Northumberland, opened.
1971,
The Maze Prison,
Northern Ireland, opened (see 2000). Originally known as Long Kesh, it was an internment camp
for IRA prisoners.
1971,
Long Lartin
Prison, near Evesham, opened.
1969,
Coldingley
Prison, Surrey, opened.
1967,
Britain began to classify its prisoners.
Category A were serious offenders likely to try to escape, and Category D were
trustworthy prisoners. A rising crime rate in Britain forjm the 1950s had
brought security to the fore, replacing rehabilitation (see 1948).
1 August 1963, The
minimum age for prison in the UK was raised to 17.
1963,
Blundeston
Prison, Suffolk, opened.
1962,
Kirkham Prison,
Lancashire, was opened.
1960,
Ford Open
Prison, Sussex, was opened.
1958,
Wetherby Young
Offenders Institute opened, on the site of a former naval base.
October 1958, Everthorpe
Prison, near Beverley, Yorkshire, opened as a Borstal. It became a
Category C prison in 1991.
1955,
Lancaster Castle
Prison opened.
1954,
Blantyre House,
near Tunbridge Wells, Kent, became a prison. It had previously been a
children�s home.
1950,
Erlestoke Prison,
Wiltshire, opened.
1950,
Standford Hill
Prison, Sheerness, Kent, first opened (reconstructed 1986).
1948, In
British prisons, hard labour and penal servitude
were abolished. The Criminal Justice Act
1948 set a model for all UK prisons.
Theer was a shift towards rehabilitation, but see 1967.
1947, Leyhill,
Gloiucestershire opened as Britain�s first
open prison.
1947, Askham Grange
Prison, Yorkshire, was opened as Britain�s first women�s open
prison.
1946,
Hewell Grange
Prison, Worcestershire, was opened, originally as a Borstal, but
since 1991 a Category D prison.
27 May 1936.
The first open
prison in Britain was opened at New Hall, near
Wakefield, Yorkshire.
1933, New
Hall Prison, Wakefield,opened as a men�s open prison.
25 January 1932, A riot at Dartmoor
Prison; the Governor�s life was saved by a
man, George
Donovan, who had been reprieved from hanging an hour before
execution and was serving life instead. Prisoners were complaining of poor and
inadequate food, damp cells, and the difficulty faced by visitor in reaching
the remote granite prison high on the moors.
1927, Camp
Hill Prison, Newport, Isle of Wight, was opened by Sir Winston Churchill.
1919, Edinburgh
Prison opened.
1916, Ruthin
gaol, Wales, closed.
1908,
In the UK, the Children Act abolished the
practice of sending children aged under 14 to prison.
5 January 1908, Serious prisoner mutiny at Dartmoor Prison; several warders
injured.
16 October 1902. The first Borstal institution opened, at the village of Borstal near Rochester, Kent.
1 April 1902, The treadmill was
abolished in British prisons. It was invented by Sir W Cubitt
around 1818. The UK�s Prison Act 1865
specified that every male prisoner aged over 16 sentenced to hard labour should
spemd at least 3 months of his sentence on �first class labour� � that is, the treadmill, crank,
capstan or stone-breaking. The Prisons
Act 1877 reduced this period to one month. A day of such labour consisted
of two 3-hour sessions, with a 3 minute break between 15 minutes of work.
1901,
The treadmill had almost vanished from British
prisons. This year just 13 prisons retained them, down ftom 39 in 1895.
1900,
The term �labour camp� for a penal
institution where prisoners had to do physical work was first used.
1899,
UK Prison Diet. In the UK, a
departmental Committee recommended different classes of diet to be give to prisoners,
according to length of sentence, age, sex and conduct. Class A diet was provided to prisoners serving not more than 7 days;
it was designed to be wholesome but spartan enough not to be tempting to
�loafers or mendicants�. It consisted of 8oz daily bread for breakfast (6oz for females and juveniles;
i.e� those aged under 16). (Note, 36
oz = approx. 1 kilogram) with 1 pint of gruel (Note 1.75 pints = approx. 1
litre). Juveniles also got 0.5 pints of milk. Dinner was 8 oz bread
daily, and on 3 days of thr week, 8 oz of potatoes (for
vegetables). Supper was breakfast fare, repeated. Note. dinner and supper, not lunch and dinner,
Prisoners serving between 7
and 14 days were given the Class A diet for the first 7 days, then Class B diet
for the second week. Class B was also provided to prisoners on remand and
debtors.
Class B diet comprised, breakfast, daily, same as Class A. Supper, same as
breakfast, except that men got 1 pint of porridge instead of gruel, and
juveniles recived 6 oz of bread and 1 pint of cocoa (no porridge
or gruel). Dinner (midday meal) comprised 6oz bread daily for all, plus 8 oz potatoes daily for all, plus; Sunday, Thursday 4oz
cooked meat (3 oz for females and juveniles); Monday 2 oz fat bacon (1 oz for
females and juveniles) and 10 oz beans 98 oz females and juveniles); Tuesday,
Friday, 1 pint of soup for all; Wednesday, Saturday, 10 oz suet pudding (8 oz
for females and juveniles). Class C diet was a little more generous and was
provided to prisoners sevring longer sentences. There was also a punishment diet, for prisoners
breaching internal jail discipline rules, and not to be give for more than 3
days; this comprised, daily, 16 oz of bread and as much water as the
prisoner wanted.
There was no difference
between the food given to hard labour and non-hard labour prisoners.
In other countries; Sweden was more severe, with just 2 meals a day, at 12 noon and 7pm,
both meals comprising mainly porridge or gruel. In France, inmates were
provided with more cheese and vegetables, with additional such being
purchasable by the prisoners� with their
wages. The USA prison diet was more generous/varied, including fresh fish,
fruit and even coffee.
Source for UK Prison Diet; Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th edn,
1910-11, Vol.8, pp.212-213.
By 1895 British prisons
had 39 treadmills and 29 cranks, a number reduced to 13 and 5 respectively in 1901, just before
abolition.
1896,
In Britain, the 1896 Debtors Act brought
an end to Debtor�s Prisons. Previously many debtors were imprisoned until
their debts were paid and because of interest the debt might actually increase
and they spend many years in there. Conversely, wealthier debtors could arrange
for a range of priveliges to make their sentence les onerous, or even �serve�
their time outside, but nearby, the prison.
1891,
Wormwood Scrubs prison,
London, opened. Construction of the
first nine cells had begun in 1874, and ondce these prisoners had moved in,
they built more cells, facilitating the moving in of more prisoners, who built
more of the prison, and so on until it was completed.
1890,
Nottingham
prison opened, in Perry Road, Nottingham (then known as Bagthorpe
Gaol).
11/1890, Millbank
Prison, London, closed.
1888,
Peterhead
Prison, Scotland, opened.
1887,
Norwich Prison
opened.
1881,
Aberdeen Prison,
opened. It was the site of Scotalnd�s last execution; Henry John
Burnett was hanged in 1963 for the murder of merchant seaman Thomas Guyan.
31 December 1881, Newgate Prison, London, closed.
Originally built above one of the City of London gates, it moved to a new
location (now the Central� Criminal
Court, Old Bailey) in 1770. The building was finally demolished in 1902 to make
way for the Court.
1878,
Britain�s Prison Commission, under Edmund Du Cane
(1830-1903), closed 54 local prisons; more such prisons were phased out in
succeeding years so that by 1894 only 54 local prisons were left operating. The
prison staff were reorganised on military and meritocratic lines, replacing an
earlier system of patronage. A strict rule book was enforced, with severe penalties
for wardens who mistreated prisoners. Prisoners now had to wear uniforms, with
a regime of �hard fare, hard bed, hard abour�. However this strict regime did
not reduce crime or reoffending rates,
1874,
Rochester
Prison, Kent, opened, on a former military site. In 1902 it became a
Borstal and now is used for holding males aged 21 and under.
7 June 1872, Matthew Hill, English prison
reformer, died (born 6 August 1792).
1870,
Hull Prison
opened.
3 November 1870. In Britain, the photographing of every
prisoner was made compulsory. A photograph had been successfully used on a
�wanted� poster in 1861.
25
June 1868, Strangeways
Prison, Manchester, opened. It replaced the New Bailey Prison,
Salford, which closed in 1868.
1865,
Britain�s Prison Act emphasised retribution and deterrence over any
reformist aspects of prison. Prison was made harsher, with separate cells for
inmates. Hard labour was �first class� (treadwheel, crank, stonebreaking) or �second
class� (any other hard physical exterion authorised by the Home Secretary).
Prison Governores were authorised to impose up to three months solitary
confinenment on bread and water. Visiting Justices of the Peace could impose a
month in a �punishment cell� or a flogging. Chains could also be authorised. However
there were grants to aid newly-discharged prisoners, Small local prisons that
could not afford to meet these measures were closed in the following years.
1863, Broadmoor, asylum for the criminally insane, was built.
1857, Britain ceased�
using �hulks�, old ships, as prisons.
1853, Lewes Prison, Sussex, opened.
1852,
Holloway
Prison, London,�
opened. It was mixed-sex until 1903, when it became Britain�s
first women-only prison.
1849,
Winson Green
Prison, Birmingham, opened.
1849,
Construction
work on Wandsworth Prison began. Male prisoners were first admitted in 1851;
female prisoners from 1852.
1848,
Portland Prison,
Dorset, opened. Originally for adults, it became a Borstal in 1921.
1846,
Leeds Prison,
Armley, opened. Executions took place there until 1860.
1845,
Crumlin Road
prison, Belfast, opened.
12 October 1845, Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer,
died.
1844,
Reading Prison,
Berkshire, UK, opened as the County Gaol. From 1845 to 1913 public executions were carried out
there.
1842, Pentonville Prison, north
London, opened (closed
1996).
1842, London�s Fleet Prison, in use
since the Norman Conquest and once used to house prisoners committed there by
the King�s Star Chamber, and later used to hold debtors, closed, it was demolished
two years later.
1842, Marshalsea Prison,
Southwark, London, a debtor�s prison, closed.
1840, Construction of the
original Preston,
Lancashire, prison began. It closed in 1931, was
re-used by the military in 1939, and became a civilian prison again in 1946.
1828, Chelmsford Prison opened.
1823, The UK Jail Act was passed. Part of Robert Peel�s
jail reforms, it provided for regular inspections of prisons by
magistrates, at least three times every three months, jailers received a
regular salary (so they did not extort money from prisoners), women prisoners
were to be guarded by female warders, and all priusoners received some
elementary education and regular visits from doctors and chaplains. However
these reforms only applied to the larger prisons in London and 17 other cities;
smaller provincial prisons and debtors prisons remained as before.
1823 A treadmill was installed at Shepton Mallet prison. It powered a
mill outside the prison walls.
1821, Millbank Prison, London,
opened.
1820,
Brixton
Prison opened, as the Surrey House of Correction.
8 March 1819, Maidstone Prison, Kent, opened. It
began with 141 inmates.
1817,
The Treadmill was first introduced in British
prisons,� by Sir William Cubbitt. It was
first installed in Brixton Prison.
1817,
Elizabeth
Fry, prison reformer,
began her work. She formed the Association
for the Improvement of Female Prisoners at Newgate Jail, London. In the
next 25 years she visited the prisons in the UK and a large number of other
European countites, and planned to go further afield, but began to suffer
failing health.
1815,
The UK Government started paying regular wages to jailers and began inspecting
prison conditions.
24 May 1809, Dartmoor Prison was opened to house French
prisoners of war. From 1850 it was used for British convicts.
21 March 1806, The foundation
stone of Dartmoor Prison in Devon was laid. See 24 May 1809.
1808,
Canterbury
county gaol, Kent, was built, just outside the city limits.
21 March 1806, Construction of Dartmoor
Prison began. It opened in 1809, for PoWs from the Napoleonic Wars.
It became a criminal prison in 1850.
1805,
Parkhurst
Prison, Isle of Wight, first opened as a military hospital. It
became a prison, for females, from 1863 to 1869, and has since then been a male
prison.
1794,
Stafford gaol
was opened.
6 August 1792, Matthew Hill, English prison
reformer, was born (died 7 June 1872).
1791,
In the UK, Jeremy
Bentham designed the �perfect prison� a star shaped �panopticon� in which prisoners never
knew if or when they were being watched from a central point. The idea for the
Panopticon came from the menagerie kept by King Louis XIV of France, which consisted of an
octagonal room (the King�s salon) surrounded by seven cages where the animals
were kept; the eight side was the entrance. Observation was seen by Louis XIV as
a form of power, in the centralised French State, where the nobility were
required to reside at Versailles where the monarch could keep an eye on them (Peter Wollen, �Government by Appearances�, (pp.91-106) in New Left Review, Vol.3,
May/June 2000, p.91.
1790,
The
New Bailey Prison, in Salford, Manchester, opened, It closed in 1868.
20 January 1790, John Howard, prison reformer,
died.
1783,
The North Riding
House of Correction opened, near Northallerton. It is now a Young
Offender Institute.
21 May 1780. Elizabeth Fry, prison reformer, was born in Norwich. She was the daughter of a
Quaker banker, John
Gurney.
2 September 1726, Birth of prison reformer John Howard.
English campaigner for better conditions for prisoners and wages for gaolers.
1780, Armagh
gaol, Northern Ireland,opened (main block); a new front was added in
1819. Public executions were held here until the 1860s; the last execution
within the gaol took place in 1904. The gaol closed in 1986.
1779,
In the UK, the Penitentiary Act
introduced the concept of rehabilitation
to British prisons.
1778,
UK prison reformer John Howard established the principle of
separate confinement for prisoners combined with work.
1777,
John Howard�s
book, The State of the Prisons,
exposed the poor and corruptstate of Britain�s prison system.
1776,
Britain began to use prison ships,
or hulks, to house criminals who
could no longer be transported to America because of the War of Independence.
Many were moored in the Thames Estuary, or off Portsmouth and Plymouth. They
were also used off Gibraltar, Ireland and Bermuda.
1594,
Wakefield House
of Correction opened. The present day Wakefield Prison opened in
1847.
1645,
Tothill House of
Correction was built in Tothill Fields, south of the present day St
James Park, London, to deal with the population of thieves, prostitutes and
�rascals and idle persons�.
1555,
Bridewell
Prison, London,� opened. It
was originally built in 1522 as a palace for King Henry VIII. Other English
towns copied it as an example.
1218, Newgate Prison, London, opened.
1330, Hexham
Old Gaol, Hexham, Northumberland, was built.
1166, In
Britain, the Assize of Clarendon ordered jails to be constructed in all English
counties and boroughs.
Prisons Canada
1972,
Canada
finally ceased sterilising convicts
in prison.
Prisons France
31 July 1974, Prison riots at the French prison
of St Martin de Re, Brittany. Two prisoners were killed and 21 injured.
22 August 1953, The infamous French
prison of Devils Island, depicted in the film Papillon, was closed after a century of
operations.
11 March 1830, Trophime
Lally-Tollendal, French prison reformer, died
(born 5 March 1751).
5 March 1751, Trophime
Lally-Tollendal, French prison reformer, was
born (died 11 March 1830).
Prisons Germany
1937, Nazi Germany
had, by now, forcibly sterilised
some 225,000 convicts in prison. An opinion poll in the US this year showed
two-thirds of respondents supported this idea, and in the UK Churchill also
privately supported the idea.
4
October 1864, Theodor
Fliedner, German prison reformer, died (born 21 January 1800).
18 June 1826,
The Prison Society of Germany (Rheinisch Westfalischer Gefangnisveren)
was formed, to improve conditions for German prisoners. At that time prisoners
in Germany were barely fed, dirty, and in complete idleness; no statistics were
collected on them for the basis of useful legislation. Inspired by Elizabeth Fry,
Theodor
Fleidner began this Society, and in 1833 he opened a refuge
for discharged female convicts.
21 January 1800,
Theodor
Fliedner, German prison reformer, was born (died 4 October 1864).
Prisons Ireland
2000, Midlands Prison, Portlaoise,
Ireland, opened.
1924, Kilmainham Gaol, Dublin, was closed.
Opened in the 1790s, its last inmate was Eamon de Valera.
1850, Mountjoy Prison, Dublin, Ireland, opened.
Prisons Italy
27 July 1973, Prison riots at the Queen of Heaven
Prison, Rome, caused US$ 1.67 million worth of damage.
Prisons Roman Empire
200 AD, The
Palestinian town of Tiberias was the site of one of the oldest prisons outside
the region of Rome.
250 BCE, One
of the first Roman
prisons was erected, at Tullianum.
Prisons USA
US prison
population, 1974, State and Federal, 221,800. 199,000 in 550 State facilities
and 22,800 in 50 Federal facilities. Additionally, 141,000 in 3,921 County and
Municipal jails.
1989,
Pelican Bay
Prison, California, opened as the first US Supermax Prison. By 2005 the US had over
40 Supermax prisons, where inmates had a regime of 23 hours solitary confinement each day. One hour
was allowed each day for yard exercise and cafeteria meals.
1988,
The US prison population was 800,000.
1983,
The US Supreme Court reaffirmed that people cannot be imprisoned for failing to
repay debts.
7 May 1980, Paul Geidel, convicted of 2nd
degree murder, was released from the Fishkill Correctional Facility (prison) in
Beacon, New York, after serving 68 years and 245 days � the longest ever served
by a US inmate.
2/2/1980, A 36-hour prison riot began in New Mexico Penitentiary
due to overcrowding. 33 inmates died and US$ 25 million damage was done.
9 September 1971, The Attica Prison Riots broke out in Buffalo, New York State, USA.
Prisoners demanded better conditions, showers, and access to education, A 4-day
siege began, ending with 42 deaths.
Alcatraz
21 March 1963. Alcatraz, the notorious prison in San Francisco Bay,
was closed. It had been a
maximum-security prison since 1934.
4 May 1946, US prison riot at Alcatraz was quelled with
the help of the US Marines. After 2 days of unrest, 3 convict ringleaders and 2
guards had been killed, and 14 people injured.
11
August 1934, The first batch of prisoners, classified �most
dangerous�, arrived at the new Alcatraz high-security prison in San Francisco
Bay.
12 October 1933, The US Department of Justice
acquired the Army Disciplinary barracks on Alcatraz island, San Francisco bay,
for use as a Federal prison.
1955,
In the US, the closure of mental hospital institutions began. As overall State
care for the mentally ill shrank, prisons took up much of the slack.
1935, Rikers
Island Prison, New York, opened.
1928, Alabama became the last US State to
outlaw �convict leasing�.
1927, The first US Federal
Women�s Prison opened in Alderson, West Virginia.
21 October 1921, Zebulon
Brockway, US prison reformer, died aged 93
1902, (see
also USA) Death of John Peter Atgeld (born 1847), who was a
prison reformer ahead of his time. A German-born lawyer in Chicago, he was
concerned about how the poor found it difficult to access justice. He was elected
Governor of Illinois in 1892 and succeeded in passing laws regulating child
labour and loosening the monopolies enjoyed by railways and tramways companies.
He pardoned three anarchists imprisoned since 1886, and condemned President
Cleveland for sending in troops to disrupt a railway strike. However
he was then vilified by the press as a �Illinois Jacobin� and was defeated when
seeking re-election in 1896.
1901, Parchman Prison, Alabama, opened. With its own
plantaion, it was intended to signal trhe end of convict leasing.
However from 1912 convicts from Parchman were still leased out to work as
servants to the State�s Governors. If they were good workers, they could be
pardoned.
1899,
The US State of Indiana began forcibly
sterilising convicts in prison. By 1941, 36,000 criminals had been sterilised.
1866,
In the USA the practice of �convict leasing�, hiring out usually Black male prisoners
for private work, began.
1838, In the USA, Federal Law abolished debtor�s prisons,
replacing them with bankruptcy law.
1829, In the USA, Eastern State Penitentiary,
Philadelphia opened. It was the first �modern� prison; solitary confinement was used, to give prisoners time for
reflection and �penitence�. By 1890, major concerns were arising about the number of
insane, suicidal, or catatonic prisoners resulting from prolonged solitary confinement.
