Description
Book SynopsisPenal Servitude is the first comprehensive study of the convict prison system that housed all those who were sentenced to penal servitude between 1853 and 1948, detailing the administration and evolution of the system, its creation, the building of the prison estate, and the experiences of prisoners and staff within it.
Trade Review“There is no other comprehensive study of the convict prison system in England and Wales during this period. Helen Johnston, Barry Godfrey, and David Cox have played a leading role in linking government records with other primary sources to understand a system as a whole, and they put this approach to good use here. Penal Servitude makes a major contribution to the field and is sure to become the standard work on the subject.” Neil Davie, Université Lumière, Lyon, and author of The Penitentiary Ten: The Transformation of the English Prison, 1770–1850
"This ambitious work aims to explain the origins, design and evolution of the convict prison system, how it worked and how it was experienced by the incarcerated. In this, it blends institutional and social history." Family & Community History
“Penal Servitude is the first book-length treatment of the penal servitude sanction [that] foregrounds convicts’ lives and the creation of ‘whole-life’ histories. Drawing on innovative archival approaches to tell the story from above and below … the authors take pains to lay bare the nature of penal shift and its evolution through the years of the convict system, demonstrating the messiness and contingency inherent in its existence.” Labour / Le Travail
