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'Close confinement tells very much upon a man' : prison memoirs, insanity and the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prison
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Marland, Hilary (2019) 'Close confinement tells very much upon a man' : prison memoirs, insanity and the late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prison. Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences, 74 (3). pp. 267-291. jrz027. doi:10.1093/jhmas/jrz027 ISSN 0022-5045.
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Official URL: https://doi.org/10.1093/jhmas/jrz027
Abstract
This article explores prisoners’ observations of mental illness in late nineteenth- and early twentieth-century prisons, recorded in memoirs published following their release. The discipline of separate confinement was lauded for its potential to improve prisoners’ minds, inducing reflection and reform, when it was introduced to British prisons in the 1840s, but in practice led to high levels of mental breakdown. In order to maintain the integrity of the prison system, the prison authorities played down incidences of insanity, while prison chaplains lauded the beneficent influence of cellular isolation. In contrast, as this article demonstrates, prisoners’ memoirs offer insights into the prevalence of mental illness in prison, and its poor management, as well as inmates’ efforts to manage mental distress. As the prison system became more closed, uniform and penal after the 1860s, the volume of such publications increased. Oscar Wilde’s evocative prison writings have attracted considerable attention, but he was only one of many prison authors criticizing the penal system and decrying the damage it inflicted on the mind. Exploration of prison memoirs, it is argued, enhances our understanding of experiences of mental disorder in the underexplored context of the prison, highlighting the prisoners’ voice, agency and advocacy of reform.
Item Type: | Journal Article | ||||||||
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Subjects: | H Social Sciences > HV Social pathology. Social and public welfare | ||||||||
Divisions: | Faculty of Arts > History | ||||||||
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH): | Prisons -- Great Britain -- History -- 19th century, Prisoners -- Great Britain -- Biography , Prisoners -- Mental health -- Great Britain, Mentally ill prisoners -- Care -- Great Britain, Insanity (Law) | ||||||||
Journal or Publication Title: | Journal of the History of Medicine and Allied Sciences | ||||||||
Publisher: | Oxford University Press | ||||||||
ISSN: | 0022-5045 | ||||||||
Official Date: | July 2019 | ||||||||
Dates: |
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Volume: | 74 | ||||||||
Number: | 3 | ||||||||
Page Range: | pp. 267-291 | ||||||||
Article Number: | jrz027 | ||||||||
DOI: | 10.1093/jhmas/jrz027 | ||||||||
Status: | Peer Reviewed | ||||||||
Publication Status: | Published | ||||||||
Access rights to Published version: | Open Access (Creative Commons) | ||||||||
Date of first compliant deposit: | 9 April 2019 | ||||||||
Date of first compliant Open Access: | 17 May 2019 | ||||||||
RIOXX Funder/Project Grant: |
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