Crime and Punishment / 1556
Crime and Punishment: Early Prisons and Bridewell
Most early prisons simply held people, but Bridewell introduced correction through hard labour and discipline.
What To Remember
- Early prisons were usually holding places for people awaiting trial, punishment, or debt settlement, not long-term punishments.
- Conditions were dirty, unhealthy, and unsafe, and prisoners often had to pay wardens for food and bedding.
- Bridewell opened in London in 1556 as a house of correction, using hard labour to punish and reform the poor.
Early prisons
In the early 16th century, prisons were often secure rooms in castles, town buildings, or local gaols.
They held petty criminals, vagrants, debtors, drunk and disorderly people, and suspects waiting for trial or punishment.
This means prison was not yet the main punishment in the way it became in the 19th century.
Poor conditions
Conditions were harsh: prisoners were crowded together, with no proper separation of men, women, children, debtors, and violent offenders.
Wardens charged prisoners for food, bedding, and other basics, so poor inmates suffered most.
Disease spread quickly in dirty prisons with poor sanitation, and typhus could kill prisoners before they reached trial.
Bridewell
Bridewell opened in the former Bridewell Palace in London in 1556 and became the model for houses of correction.
It targeted poor people, vagrants, disorderly offenders, and homeless or orphaned children.
Inmates did hard labour such as beating hemp or other repetitive work, both to pay for their keep and to build habits of discipline.
GCSE significance
Bridewell shows an important change in punishment: the aim was not only retribution or deterrence, but also correction.
However, it still reflected harsh attitudes to poverty because the poor were treated as idle and in need of forced discipline.
Use Bridewell as a contrast with ordinary gaols, which mostly held prisoners before another punishment.
Revision Prompt
Why was Bridewell different from older prisons?