Educating Criminals in Nineteenth-Century England

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Rates of illiteracy remain stubbornly high among men and women confined in British prisons today. A House of Commons Education and Skills Committee report on Prison Education published in 2005 stated that 50% of male and female prisoners had reading skills, 66% had numeracy skills and 82% had writing skills at or below that expected of an 11 year old, while 52% of male and 71% of female prisoner had no qualifications compared with 15% of the general population. On the basis of this evidence policymakers and penal officials remain convinced of the necessity of programmes within prisons which address the educational deficiencies of prisoners. Less clear, however, is the extent to which such evidence should inform the development of prison education programmes, and how these programmes should relate to the broad and often conflicting aims of imprisonment.Moreover, these problems are by no means new. From the early decades of the nineteenth century, the moment at which the prison became the predominant form of punishment in England, concern was expressed about the educational deficiencies of prisoners, legislation was passed which contained provision for the instruction of prisoners in the literate skills (ie. reading and writing), and statistics were assembled to highlight the illiteracy of prisoners and support the development of educational programmes. The education of prisoners has therefore formed a core element in the evolution of our modern penal system. Yet, to date, there exists no study on the emergence of prisoner education in nineteenth-century England, a significant gap in our knowledge and understanding which this research project intends to fill.Specifically, this project aims to uncover the scale, character and impact of prisoner education between 1823, the passing of the Gaol Act, in which the government first legislated for the instruction of prisoners, and 1895, when the Gladstone Committee was convened to inquire into the provision of education in British prisons. For much of the nineteenth century, the English penal system was both decentralised and incorporated a variety of penal institutions. Thus to ensure that the study is comprehensive, this project will explore educational programmes developed in local prisons, national penitentiaries, public works prisons, hulks and convict ships. To this end, it will combine a range of evidence from 'official' and 'ordinary' sources, much of which remains largely untouched in the archives. For instance, while the reports of prison inspectors, select committee findings and policy documents formulated by the Home Office will be used to compile a broad survey of prisoner education across the period, this will be supplemented by detailed case studies based on the journals and reports of prison governors, chaplains, matrons, schoolmasters, and surgeon-superintendents, all of whom were responsible for the education of prisoners under their supervision at different moments. The quantitative evidence contained in prison registers will be used to chart the acquisition of the skills and the use of those skills (both sanctioned and illegal) by inmates over the course of their imprisonment. Records created by the prisoners themselves, including journals, autobiographies and manuscript letters (i.e. 'ordinary' sources) will be employed in an effort to recover the prisoner's voice.This evidence will be used to address four broad questions: what were the aims of prisoner education in the nineteenth century; what methods were employed to instruct prisoners in the literate skills; how did the practice of reading and writing within the penal environment educate prisoners in the appropriate use of the skills; and how far could prisoners use the skills of reading and writing to reclaim their agency within the coercive penal environment?