Berwick was in action from 1734, closed in 1849, and carried on being a police station until 1900. The prison is located in the centre of the town with the cells situated on the first floor, with the ground floor being used as a town hall/court. This prison is a typical prison and was quite advanced for the time as this prison had separate cells for different criminals, which was not often the case.
First of all I will look at the design of the prisons. Berwick as I have said had a segregation system of which separated different types of prisoners and this was quite un-common. The plan drawn at figure one shows all the different cells and areas of the prison, which were used, as a communal area. The first room on the plan consisted on the debtor’s room, which was a place where the debtors could have a chance to pay off their debts that they owe to people. There were two cells for the debtors. There is also the jailors room in this room located in the far corner beside the fireplace. In The next room there was a death/transportation cell, called the secure cell, which was a full security cell with iron bars on the windows, in the floor, in the walls. The room also had a bed and a fireplace of which they would have to buy there own wood. Who ever was placed in this room was severely chained together using ankle chains and wrist chains. This cell was used for people who were either going to be hung or going to be transported to America up until 1775 when the American Revolution took place and then they were transported to Australia.
The next cell along was the women’s cell that was just a bed, which was made out wood with a straw and ticking mattress and this was only used in the women’s rooms and a fireplace with a small shelf. The following two cells were general/short stay cells, which would mainly be used for solider/sailors. As Berwick was a port it had soldiers and sailors occupying the town most of the time so the was a dedicated cell to them and this cell just contained a bed and fireplace. The cell opposite was a drunkard’s cell, which was used to detain drunken people until they were soba. This room contained a sloping bed so that they didn’t choke in their own vomit. The next two cells were just general cells. The far two cells were condemed cells of which were dark and empty with one bed. These cells were for prisoners to reflect and repent before the were to be hung. In the centre of all this is a hook that was used to whip prisoners form which is shown in fig two. There was also a roof of which could have been used for excising of which was probably not used because it would be too much hassle for a jailor and it would also be very unsafe in some jails because with there being so many prisoners to a jail the jailor could often get hurt so he would not take that risk.
The prison is quite secure with large strong doors as shown in fig three. There was a large bolt lock at the top and at the bottom with a peephole to check the prisoners and a middle lock for extra security. The windows had no glass just the metal bars shown in figure four. The layout and overall design of this prison is excellent. This is a very secure prison except for the fact of the overall prisons situation. The prison is in the centre of the town and if a prisoner were to escape they could easily hide in this town, especially as they didn’t even wear uniform.
The next point is about the jailor, who at Berwick actually ran a public house, so this suggests that he will not have spent a lot of time at the prison. There was one jailor, two beadles who were just people that assisted the jailor, and they would work on a weekly shift rota.
The jobs that the beadles would do would consist of cleaning and emptying the toilets/buckets and maybe very occasionally excising the prisoners. The jailor was not paid so he mainly made his money by selling to the prisoners; blankets, food, coal and alcohol to those that could afford it. Prison although it was a punishment was not in some respects compared to what it is now as the rich men and women could buy what they liked off the jailor and their families could bring what they liked in for them too, but there are withdrawal backs from this as the poorer prisoners couldn’t afford anything so they only got what they could afford. The other thing was the debtors that went in there to get out of debt had no money so they could not afford the luxury of food. As the jailor didn’t get paid and it was just a side job whilst he ran his public house he would not have cared and he may have only visited the prison once a day of which we know this because the prison was inspected and the jailor was in trouble for not visiting more than twice a day.
The jailor simply would not have cared about the prisoners because he wasn’t getting paid, so he wouldn’t have bothered excising them and this is a major factor of why prisons are like they are in the 18th century.
Punishments in prisons were quite severe in the 18th century with many people being hung as one of the main punishments. Punishments used at the time consisted of the stocks, which is where your head and hands are placed in a wooden block as demonstrated in figure five. You would be placed in the town centre where people would throw things at you or laugh and humiliate you. Another punishment was whipping where they would chain your hands and hang the chains on a hook 6ft off the floor and then whip you severely (figure two). As the cuts would be so bad they would get a metal plate and fill it up with hot water and place it on each side and this would heat your skin up and stop your internal organs from getting damaged this was called a kidney plate.
Other punishments consisted of; hanging, transportation, branding and chains. Punishments were bad in the 18th century and many for crimes that did not warrant such a punishment.
Conditions overall in the prisons were appalling. The worst thing of all in prisons was that they were all disesase ridden. Diseases such as; prison fever and typhoid for example, which is made worse by vermin that helps, spread the disease. In this horrible environment prisoners had to cook/prepare all their meals, use the toilet and sleep all in the same cell, and often there were 3-4 prisoners to a shared cell. So no wonder cells were disease ridden. Although Berwick had maybe 4-7 prisoners at a time this was uncommon. Cells would usually range from around 18 foot 6 inches square and that’s not taking away the size of each bed.
Although men and women were segregated there cells both opened out into the same area so there was a risk of rape and harassment and there was also no privacy.
Another problem in other prisons was that the segregation was causing real problems, there was none. Here is a quote from a book “The prison chaplain” by Walter Clay 1861 ‘The prison once entered, however, the little culprit finds himself surrounded by those who make him ashamed, not for what he has done, but for the little that he has done. It is an unhappy truth that many young delinquents soon want to excel in crime.’ This quote is from a prison priest who says that children are picked on by the others for the little crime that they have done and that from their experience in prison others have taught the children how to commit even worse crimes. This suggests that the segregation system needed to be brought in as soon as possible before other prisoners influence all children.
Finally prisoners were made to do hard labour, make their own coffins and generally work. Hard labour consisted of breaking up stones to be used for hardcore for the roads. They were also made to make their own coffins before they were hung.
To conclude prisons in the 18th century were appalling, I have discussed several factors that combined together formulate an appalling prison system. The system is greatly affected by the fact that prison officers were not paid, segregation was quite rare and there was a lack of rules in the prisons of which all contributed to an appalling prison service. Also there were no laws at this time to say what had to appen in prisons and how it was to happen. So as there were no laws no one had anything to follow so prisoners could be tret the way seen fit by the jailor.
But the root of the problem lies with what prisons were built for which was to hold/detain prisoners until they had paid their debts, been transported or hung. The purpose of prisons has to change for the other factors to change. Also the government needs to bring out laws to protect and help prisoners. If you change the root you will change the rest and the way forward has to be to detain people until they had served a sentence. Berwick is a prime example and it has helped me see why this prison and others are in such a state. It all boils down to what prisons were built for and that the government at this time did not care.
