Uncovering Prison Stories Through Archives
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PRONI EXHIBITION Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives Date of curation: July 2018 Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives through Stories Prison Uncovering Keyhole: the Through THROUGH THE KEYHOLE: UNCOVERING PRISON STORIES THROUGH ARCHIVES 1 2 Prisons have been a part of our local landscape the focus of imprisonment has shifted from for centuries, from the early gaols and severe punishment (everything from hard bridewells, to prison ships and the more recent labour to execution) to a desire not only to ‘H Blocks’ of the twentieth century. Whilst these incarcerate, but to rehabilitate, reform and physical spaces have a story to tell, the history educate. The records and images included of prisons is moreover about people and in this exhibition form part of our wider communities, reflecting wider society over time. community memory and reflect how prison life resonated far beyond the prison walls to This exhibition aims to tell the stories of impact families and communities, political prisoners and prison staff, using the archives and legal representatives, the security that survive in the Public Record Office of forces, human rights organisations, visiting Northern Ireland (PRONI) and the prison committees, staff associations, and pastoral, buildings which remain. It illustrates how medical and educational professionals. 3 4 1. Plan of Crumlin Road Gaol, 1842 (ANT/4/11/19) 2. Crumlin Road Gaol, Belfast, c.1960s (T2125/20/30) 3. Details of prisoner Samuel Brown, 1913 (HMP/2/6/3/1) 4. Document relating to the escape of internees, Ministry of Home Affairs, 1941–1942 (HA/32/1/769) 5. HM Prison Maze: artist’s impression of ‘H’ block building, 1981 (INF/7/A/8/8) 5 www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni /publicrecordofficeni @CommunitiesNI Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives through Stories Prison Uncovering Keyhole: the Through AW 0835 PRONI Prison Records and History Panel Development.indd 1 23/07/2018 10:23 TIMELINE 1719 1877 Parliament orders County Grand Juries Prison Act – introduced to alter the way in to raise £10 a year for jailors and £5 for which prisons were operated. the Keeper of the House of Correction. 1898 1763 The Prison Act – introduced to deal with Parliament enacted that jailors were to changes in the nature of prison labour. submit a table of fees to their Grand Juries. 1921 1764 Following the Government of Ireland Act Publication of Cesare di Beccaria’s An Essay 1920, prisons in the newly established on Crimes and Punishments. He criticised the Northern Ireland became the responsibility death penalty and argued that prevention of of the Ministry of Home Affairs. crime was more important than punishment. 1921–24 1775 Internment – prisoners confined for political Prison Reformer, John Howard visits Ireland. or military reasons. Howard declared that he never saw prisons or abuses worse than those in Ireland. 1923 Standing Orders established a framework for 1784 the administration of prisons in Northern Ireland. Gaol Act – this legislation abolished gaolers’ fees and suggested ways for improving the 1925 sanitary state of prisons and the better A new Statutory Rule, overseen by the Board preservation of the health of the prisoners. of Visitors, codified 300 separate rules relating to prisons in Northern Ireland. 1786 An Act was passed that included a code of 1938–45 prison regulations and a system of inspectors Internment – prisoners confined for political chosen by the local Grand Jury. Inspectors would or military reasons. visit prisons once a week and an Inspector General would visit once every two years. 1953 The Prison Act (Northern Ireland). This was the 1788 main legislation under which prisons in Northern Courthouses and Gaols Act (Ireland). Ireland now function, consolidated approximately 150 years of penal-related legislation. 1791 Prisoners (Rescue) Act – introduced to 1951–56 prevent the horrid Crime of Murder. Internment – prisoners confined for political or military reasons. 1810 Prisons (Ireland) Act – provision for the 1971–75 payment of prison chaplains. Internment – prisoners confined for political or military reasons. 1822 A rigorous system of prison inspection 1972 implemented, following which the Inspector Stormont was suspended in March and Direct General of Prisons reported there were Rule was imposed, at which point the Northern 178 prisons in Ireland. Ireland Office assumed responsibility for prisons. 1826 ‘Special Category Status’ was granted to all Irish Prisons Act – Prisons come under state prisoners convicted of scheduled offences control with setting up of the Prisons Board. in July. 1831 1995 Tumultuous Risings (Ireland) Act – introduced Northern Ireland Prison Service created as an to prevent and punish unrestrained uprisings. Executive Agency of the Northern Ireland Office. 1845–53 1998 Famine period, when the prison population Good Friday Agreement – included a mechanism was particularly high in Ireland. for the accelerated release of prisoners. www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni /publicrecordofficeni @CommunitiesNI Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives through Stories Prison Uncovering Keyhole: the Through AW 0835 PRONI Prison Records and History Panel Development.indd 2 23/07/2018 10:23 EARLY PRISONS Prisons have existed for centuries, however there was no specific system or legislation in Ireland prior to the seventeenth century. By the eighteenth century, the law required that every county had a jail for convicted criminals. Drunkards, rioters, vagrants and petty thieves awaiting trial – including children – were detained in houses of correction (known as bridewells), as where those afflicted by mental illness. Debtors’ prisons, or marshelseas, held persons unable to pay their debts, and the debtors’ families (and sometimes their livestock) could reside 1 with them in these institutions. As building and running prison facilities was a costly affair, it was not uncommon to find a mix of county jail, bridewell and debtors’ prison all housed within the same building. Most jails suffered from severe overcrowding and squalid conditions. Institutions were violent and administrations often corrupt. 2 Starvation was a serious threat for those unable to afford food as there were often 1. Downpatrick Gaol, Co. Down, c.1900 (T3140/2) little or no rations provided. The misery was 2. Quarterly Return of Prisoners for the Antrim bridewell, 1862 (ANT/4/12/3/1) exacerbated by the custom of paying officials before release, largely to supplement their The majority of prisoners in Ireland were meagre wages, leaving many trapped in the incarcerated for minor crimes such as theft, prison system if they couldn’t afford to pay for vagrancy, drunkenness and prostitution – the their exit. Alcoholism was rife as alcohol was latter two being particularly common offences inexpensive and easy to obtain, and often amongst women inmates, who comprised up another means of income for the jailors. to half the prison population by the 1800s. Serious crimes – including murder, In the later part of the eighteenth century, penal manslaughter, treason, stealing livestock, reformers such as Cesare di Beccaria and highway robbery, fraud, forgery, embezzlement, John Howard began to influence government, rape and arson – generally resulted in a death documenting appalling prison conditions. sentence, although most were commuted Howard cited those in Ireland as amongst to a sentence served abroad as indentured the worst. There were various Parliamentary servants. In the seventeenth and eighteenth attempts at penal reform, culminating in a centuries, thousands of convicts from Ireland regulation of prisons Act in 1786, however and Britain were transported, initially to these had limited impact. Prisons finally came North America and occasionally the British under state control in the Irish Prisons Act of Caribbean, and later to Australia. 1826 with the setting up of the Prisons Board. 4 3. Minutes of commissioners for building additions to Belfast prison, 1848–1850 (ANT/4/11/13) 4. Articles of Agreement to build the Antrim bridewell, 1853 (ANT/4/12/2/2) 3 www.nidirect.gov.uk/proni /publicrecordofficeni @CommunitiesNI Through the Keyhole: Uncovering Prison Stories through Archives through Stories Prison Uncovering Keyhole: the Through AW 0835 PRONI Prison Records and History Panel Development.indd 3 23/07/2018 10:23 EARLY PRISONS DOWN Downpatrick Gaol was built in 1796. It comprised 18 individual cells housed in a block to the rear of the building, a central Governor’s residence and two gatehouses, all set within a high perimeter wall. Famous prisoners included Thomas Russell, a founding member of the 1 United Irishmen, who was executed at the front of the gaol on 21 October 1803 for his part in Emmet’s rebellion. In 1831, a new Prison building opened on nearby Windmill Hill. It comprised four wings, with the two rear wings housing male prisoners and the front two wings housing women and debtors. There were 150 cells and 67 other rooms with 2 beds. It closed at the end of the 1800s. ANTRIM Construction began on a county gaol at Carrickfergus in 1778. Enlarged on a number of occasions, by 1815 it consisted 3 of 150 cells, each of which provided two beds, expected to accommodate up to four 1. Façade of Downpatrick prison prisoners. Executions took place at Gallow’s 2. Remains of the hanging gate at Carrickfergus prison Green and later the ‘hanging gate’ until 3. Stocks outside Carrickfergus prison 4. List of prisoners on the Prison Ship Postlethwaite, 1799 (D272/11) 1844. Crumlin Road Gaol became the 5. Correspondence relating to building a bridewell and house of correction at new county prison after opening in 1846. Belfast, 1841 (ANT/4/11/4) 4 TYRONE Omagh Gaol was open from 1804 to 1902. Prisoners of notoriety included Sub-Inspector Thomas Hardy Montgomery of the Royal Irish Constabulary who was hanged in 1873. Montgomery had robbed the bank in Newtownstewart, and murdered cashier William Henry Glass. Originally tasked with investigating his own crimes, Montgomery was subsequently identified as the perpetrator and sentenced to death for the killing of Glass.