RESCH, John Phillips?, 1940- ANGLO-AMERICAN EFFORTS in PRISON REFORM, 1850-1900: the WORK of THOMAS BARWICK LLOYD BAKER
Total Page：16
File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb
This dissertation has been microillmed exactly as received 6«-22,195 RESCH, John Phillips?, 1940- ANGLO-AMERICAN EFFORTS IN PRISON REFORM, 1850-1900: THE WORK OF THOMAS BARWICK LLOYD BAKER. The Ohio State University, Ph.D., 1969 History, modern University Microfilms, Inc., Ann Arbor, Michigan (E) Copyright by John Phillips Resch 1969 ANGLO-AMERICAN EFFORTS IN PRISON REFORM 1850- 1900 * THE WORK OF THOMAS BAHWICK LLOYD BAKER DISSERTATION Presented in Fkrtial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy in the Graduate School of The Ohio State University * John Phillips Resch, B. A. , M.A. ****** The Ohio State University 1969 Approved by Adviser Department of History PREFACE Ihi3 dissertation is not a history of ideas and experiments which composed the prison reform movements in America and Ehgland. Its aim is to narrate and describe the work and ideas of Thomas Barwick Lloyd Baker of Gloucestershire, Ehgland against a background of prison reform efforts and administrative changes beginning with John Howard's report on prison conditions in 1777 and Quaker attempts in Philadelphia before the Revolu tionary War to create a reformatory prison discipline. Baker's role as the founder of the Ehglish system of small, private juvenile reformator ies, his idea for an adult reformatory and the Gloucestershire system of cumulative punishment, coupled with probation and police supervision which he helped to create and popularize, form the bulk of this paper. His Impact was not limited, however, just to his country nor to Ehglish reformers. Through correspondence, published works and personal acquaintances his work and ideas became part of the diffusion of ideas between Ehglish and American reformers. Although the effect of this dif fusion is generally hard to measure, Baker was able to arouse interest in his views among such leading reformers as Frederick Wines and Josephine Shaw Lowell. His greatest success, as well as an outstanding example of the impact of this transplanting of ideas, was the adoption of Baker's views by General Roeliff Rrinkerhoff, an Ohio reformer, and his commit ment to adopt the Gloucestershire system in Ohio. Many people have assisted the research and writing of this dis sertation. Colonel Arthur B. Lloyd-Baker of Ifardwicke Court, a great- ii grandson of Berwick Baker, was generous and kind in opening his family's papers to me and helpful in his advice and comments on the early chap ters. I am indebted to his warm and personal concern for the writer and project which made an interesting topic even more enjoyable. I wish to express my appreciation also to Mrs. Ruth Ballenger of the Hayes Memorial Library, and Andrea Durham, Ebvid Larson and Conrad Welt.zel of the Chio Historical Society for their help in gathering manuscripts and secondary sources for this paper. Mrs. George South, who typed the final copy, added editorial suggestions for the improvement of the paper, finally, I would like to thank the Chio State University for its award of a Univ ersity Fellowship vihich made travel and research for this paper possible. iii VITA June 14, 1940 .... Born - Youngstown, Ohio 1962 ....... B.A., Denison University, Granville, Chio 1962-1963 .......... Western Reserve University law School, Cleveland, Ohio 1963 .............. M. A., The Chio State University, Columbus, Chio. 1965-I9 6 8 .......... Teaching Associate, Department of History, The Chio State University, Columbus, Ohio 1968-1969 .......... Instructor, Department of History, Denison University, Granville, Chio. FIELDS OF STUDY Major Fieldt American History Social History. Professor Robert H. Brenner Intellectual History, Professor Robert H. Brenner Economic History. Professor Mary Young lv I TABLE OF CONTENTS Page PREFACE............................................... ii VITA ................................................. lv Chapter I. INTRODUCTION.......................... 1 II. THE FOUNDING OF THE HARDt/ICKE REFORMATORY .... 14 III. BAKER AND THE SPREAD OF THE REFORMATORY MOVEMENT IN E N G L A N D ................ 41 IV. ADULT REFORMATORIES.................... ?4 V. SENTENCING AND POLICE SUPERVISION....... 101 VI. BAKER AND AMERICAN PENAL R E F O R M E R S ..... 12? VII. BAKER-BRINKERHQFFi PRISON REFORM IN OHIO .... 154 Conclusion BIBLIOGRAPHY......................................... 189 v CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION "Hen who went in healthy, are in a few months changed to emacia ted dejected objects. Some are seen pining under disease . expiring on the floors, in loathsome cells, of pestilential fevers, and the con fluent smallpox. The prisoners have neither tools, nor materials of any kind) but spend their time in sloth, profaneneae and debauchery," i wrote John Howard, the High Sheriff of Bedfordshire, describing Ehglish Jails in 1777* In the eighteenth century Jails served as places of de tention and sources of income for the manager, who through a system of fees, made the "gaol as jolly as possible for those who could pay and as o unpleasant as possible for those who could not or would not pay" Criminals, debtors, and the Insane of all ages and both sexes mingled indiscriminately. Some awaited transportation (deportation) to the colonies, others were detained until corporally punished, while many languished until their debts were paid. Deterrent and reformatory dis cipline was ignored. John Howard, The State of Prisons (Londoni J. H. Dent * Sons, Ltd., 1929), p. 1. 2 Lionel Fox, The Modem Qigllsh Prison (Londont George Rout- ledge & Sons, Ltd., 193*0, P* 3* 1 Without either invective or mawkish phrases, Howard proposed V practical guidelines for improvements. He urged that new Jails, while still serving as places for detention, be made clean and healthful by constructing them on "airy" sites near a stream. To prevent corruption of the weak by hardened criminals, Howard recommended that separate wards be provided to permit division of the inmates by sex, age, and gravity of crime. Within each ward the inmates would be allowed to mix by day, and at nitfit they would be confined in separate cells.^ Those who had committed a crime not punishable by transportation and consid ered reformable were to be sent to a house of correction or bridewell. Although established in the mid-sixteenth century "to reform prisoners, or to make them better as to their morals,' bridewells had been con verted to Jails by the early eighteenth century. Howard, believing that "gentle discipline,” productive labor, rewards for good conduct, and religious guidance would lead to reformation, urged that the bride wells be restored to their original function.** Howard's diligence, his efforts beyond the scope of his offices as magistrate and sheriff in Bedfordshire and particularly his statis tical evidence of prison conditions "instead of sensational denuncia tions of oppression and cruelty, disease and promiscuity" impressed members of fferliament and other interested reformers.^ The American 3Ibid.. pp. 1, 19-31. **Ibld.. pp. WMfl. ^Sidney and Beatrice Webb, fihglish Prisons under Local Govern ment (Hew Yorki Longmans, Green & Co., 1922), p. j & T 3 Revolution, however* rather than his report, was the catalyst for Par liamentary actior * That war had ended the transportation of nearly 1,000 criminals per year and flooded the Jails Intended for brief deten tion with prisoners now sentenced from two to fourteen years' confine ment. Old warships, called “hulks," were quickly employed to house them. The hulks were inhuman deathtraps. John Howard reported that be tween 1776 and 1778 on one ship alone 126 out of 632 prisoners died.^ Although first used as a stopgap measure, hulks continued to be used until 1857. In 1779 without transportation and prisons to confine long-term convicts, Parliament passed an act providing for the erection of a na tional penitentiary. Incorporating many of Howard's views toward Jails, the prison act prescribed that convicts were to be housed in sep arate cells at night and permitted to work together during the day under close supervision. Labor was to be both heavy and profitable with pris oners able to earn some money. Discipline was graded in severity ac cording to the convict's crime and aimed at reforming the prisoner through rewards for good conduct and religious instruction. Unfortu nately, no funds were allocated for construction. Nevertheless, the principles of separation and reformation affirmed by the act influ enced the provisions of later Pariiamentary legislation and encouraged ^Ihe State of Prisons, p. 257- 4 7 some county magistrates to apply them to their local Jails. In 1736 the Gloucestershire Quarter Sessions obtained through the efforts of Sir George Paul a Parliamentary act enabling the county to rebuild the local Jail and house of correction. Many of the recom mendations of the 1779 Prison Act were adopted. Luxuries like the tap room, as well as brutal punishment common in other Jails, were abol ished. Ihe system of fees paid by prisoners to keepers was replaced by salaries paid by the county. There were, nevertheless, significant in novations. The Gloucestershire Jail provided for the separation of prisoners not only at night, as Howard had suggested, but also during the day. Instead of congregate labor as Howard had proposed, Raul and his fellow magistrates prescribed cellular labor. Prisoners were not kept in strict isolation since they were visited regularly by the gov ernor, a chaplain tfho encouraged reformation, and a physician to ensure the prisoners* health. The Gloucestershire example prompted Parliament to pass a second prison act in 1791, which in part reaffirmed the principles of the 1779 act and incorporated the cellular practices in the Gloucestershire a Jail. Although a national penitentiary was again authorised, nothing came of it. The colonisation of Australia after 1787 permitted the 7 'For the best single account see Webb, pp. 38-40. See also Max Grunhut, Penal Reform (Oxfordi The Clarendon Press, 1948), p. 41| R.S.E, Hlnde, The British Penal System. 1773-1950 (London* Gerald Duckworth & Co., 1951)* pp. 33-351 Lionel Pox, The Ehglish Prison and Borstal System (Londoni Routledge St Kagan Paul, 1952), pp.