"Separation and Silence: Looking Again at the Nineteenth Century Prison"
23 April 2008, 18:00 - 19:00
Event Type: Lecture
Speaker: RICHARD IRELAND, Department of Law, University of Aberystwyth, Wales
Description: Issues in Legal History Prison history has been much discussed in recent years and has attracted both detailed archival study and influential theoretical commentary. This paper argues that there are still important things to be said about the prison and uses the celebrated nineteenth century debate over the competing penal regimes of "silence" and "separation" as a starting point to consider more generally the obstacles which may stand in the way of recovering important elements of the history of punishment in the period up to prison nationalization under the Act of 1877. It draws upon a detailed investigation of the daily operation of one particular gaol and the network of connections in which it was situated. It will also introduce some remarkable though not very eminent Victorians and call for a rather greater appreciation of the experience of the Welsh!
Institute of Advanced Legal Studies
University of London
Charles Clore House
17 Russell Square
London WC1B 5DR
