Punishment has changed a lot over the years in the UK
Me and my dad visited the local history group the other night for a talk on Petty Sessions. These are the lowest form of court for petty crimes in the UK up to the early 1970s.
The talk related to searches of the registers held at the County Record Office, for local names.
Punishment nowadays for petty crime either does not exist, due to the lack of resources or the will power to fill in all the forms.
I asked my dad if he had been in trouble and he told me of two occasions.
The first when he was about 16, he along with a few friends had been into a shop on the high street for some sweets. They were all stood sharing out the sweets when they got arrested for loitering (This is the only crime I can find to cover this). They all got fined, although my dad didn’t remember how much and his dad paid the fine.
The second occasion he had visited the next town on his bicycle and was pushing it along a street when he was arrested for going the wrong way down a ‘One way street’ while in charge of a vehicle. This was just before the war.
The police must of had very little to do in them days or had a quota to fill for their bonus.
Now the history bit
In the early 18th Century you could actually get hung for writing a threatening letter.
In the early 1700s 50 offenses were punishable by hanging but by 1800 that had gone up to 222 crimes.
These included
• Shoplifting (last hanging 1822)
• Sheep, Cattle and Horse stealing.
• Sacrilege
• Letter stealing
• Returning from transportation
• Sodomy (last hangings 1835, both men involved)
• Rioting
• Poaching
• Damaging forests and parks
• Forgery (last burning at the stake 1789) applied to women only.
• Being in the company of gypsies for more than a week
• Cutting down young trees (1821). The theory around this was things could be quickly replaced if stolen or damaged but trees could not.
• Strong evidence of malice in a child (only for children between 7 and 14) the youngest was 9/10 for burning down two houses.
Transportation was introduced in 1718 and it became the preferred option. Even so, 10,300 executions took place between 1700 and 1834 when capital punishment was reduced to include Murder and treason only. It did rise in 1776 due to the Americans, but once transportation started again to Australia it reduced.
162,000 were transported to Australia with 7 out of 8 being men.
The fact that 1 in 3 died before they even got to the ship and another 1 in 7 died during the voyage didn’t really matter. Most were kept on hulks of old war ships in very poor conditions.
By 1840 due to the Australians complaining about having criminals sent there, and the fact it was not working to cut the rising crime rates, a new plan emerged. Following the American system, prisons where built and used not only to keep people before a trial but for rehabilitation and punishment.
Different systems of reform were also tried.
The Silent system
Prisoners were generally hooded and made to do pointless work in total silence to help them consider their crimes.
Work or hard labour could be from picking old ropes apart (this actually took paid work away from some areas of the country).
o The treadmill was a large wheel used either to power a mill or even just for punishment.
o The crank was a large metal handle you turned for hours. The tension put on the wheel could be tightened up. This actually gave the nickname to the warders ‘Screws’. Every prisoner had to turn it 14,400 times. (would love to know were that amount came from).
o Shot drill involved simply passing a cannonball up and down a row of prisoners.
Hard bed, hard board and hard labour was used also. Boring food, work and poor sleep removed the prisoner’s will and self-respect.
It was normal for a sentence to be 1 year solitary confinement followed by 3 years hard labour.
Whipping or the Birch for misbehaving was also allowed right up until 1949.
Hard Labour was abolished in 1949/50 in the UK.
We got soft after the war.
Capital Punishment although not used since 1965 was abolished from Law in 1999 in the UK and from all British Dependencies by 2004.
All drawings are my own