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Crime and Punishment in Britain, c1000–present

Case studies: Pentonville prison and Robert Peel

  • 3 things to know
  • Paper 1

Overview

Why Pentonville opened in 1842, the separate system and its design, its strengths and weaknesses, then Peel as Home Secretary, the capital offences he removed, the Gaols Act and the 1829 police.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Numbers

When did Pentonville prison open, and what was it built to be?

Key term

Why was Pentonville built?

Key term

What was the separate system?

Questions from this subtopic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    When did Pentonville prison open, and what was it built to be?

    Model answer

    It opened in London in 1842 as the model for a national network of new prisons.

  2. 2

    Why was Pentonville built?

    Model answer

    Transportation was coming to an end and reformers wanted a prison where every inmate could be isolated, controlled and changed.

  3. 3

    What was the separate system?

    Model answer

    Every prisoner lived, worked, slept and prayed alone in his own cell, so that he could not be corrupted by other criminals.

  4. 4

    How was Pentonville designed to make that system work?

    Model answer

    Long wings of identical single cells radiated from one central hall, so a handful of warders could watch every landing at once.

  5. 5

    How were inmates kept apart when they left their cells?

    Model answer

    They wore masks or peaked caps in the corridors, exercised in silence and sat in separate stalls in the chapel.

  6. 6

    What arguments were made in favour of the separate system?

    Model answer

    The cells were clean and healthy compared with the old gaols, prisoners could not teach each other crime, and silence gave time to repent.

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