ORIGINS OF ENGLISH PRISON REFORM (XVI–XVIII CENTURIES)

Abstract

The article examines the prison system of England in the XVI–XVIII centuries. The author analyzes the memory details of the penitentiary thought of England of that period, namely the views and ideas of the lawyers, public and religious doers on the state of prisons and the ways of reforming the prison system, which became the basis of the English penitentiary model. The latter was formed at the end of the XVIII century.

In particular, the following memory details of the penitentiary thought of England were introduced to the scientific circulation: «Essay Towards the Reformation of Newgate and Other Prisons in and about London» by T. Bray and «Solitude in Imprisonment: With Proper Profitable Labour and a Spare Diet, the Most Humane and Effectual Means of Bringing Malefactors…» by J. Henway.

It was cleared up that, for the first time, the idea of the educational influence, which is combined with the obligatory labour engagement for the purpose of the utilitarian use of the convicts without causing them unnecessary suffering during the imprisonment, was expressed in «Utopia» by T. More in 1516. In the middle of the XVII century the Quakerism’s founder G. Fox formulated the demands to the prison staff and stressed on the harmfulness of the long-term imprisonment. In 1699 J. Bellers, for the first time, justified that the convicts’ labour engagement and the crafts training for the purpose of their further employment should be the basis for the correctional punishment.

The first program of the real penitentiary transformation was introduced in 1702 in the essay of T. Brey about the prison reforms. He revealed systematically all the defects and gaps of the English prisons and proposed the ways of reforming them in the following directions: prison personnel, the regime and conditions of serving the sentences and the regular involvement of the prison priests into the spiritual care of inmates.

In the second half of the XVIII century, with the beginning of the punishment system transformation, the offenders correction became the main purpose of their imprisonment. The attention of the state officials and public figures was drawn to the prison reforms at that time. During 1775–1776 the ideas of the predecessors were generalized and deepened by J. Henway. In his works he introduced the main views on the principles of the organization of the correctional prisons, in particular the solitary confinement and proper living conditions, religious care and redemption, the obligatory labour engagement. J. Henway's ideas about the organization of the correctional prisons formed the basis of the English penitentiary model and the Philadelphia penitentiary system. They were used by the prison reformers, including J. Howard, at the first stage of the prison reform implementation at the end of the XVIII – early XIX century