Prisons and Prisoners

London: Longman ...., 1845. First Edition.. orig. publisher's cloth.. A near fine copy.. 8vo. There is a frontis., tinted plate, fldg. plan.

A important early Victorian survey of the British prison system written during a period of upheavel with regard to prison reform in the UK and in America. The author had travelled extensively in America and is well informed about the reform movement and realities of American penology. He includes a chapter that is severely critical of the Dickens' views of the American model prison experiment he visited in Philadelphia. The balance of the book is given over to discussing criminality (with constant reference to insanity) and the architecture and construction of model prisons (the fldg. plan is of Pentonville). The frontis. to the book is a humorous view of Newgate rendered by Cruikshank. Cumming, p. 32; Cohen, Cruikshank, # 6.