Skip to main content

Research Repository

Advanced Search

All Outputs (16)

Unfit for Labour: Histories of disability and ill-health in the Victorian prison (2025)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H., & Turner, J. (2025). Unfit for Labour: Histories of disability and ill-health in the Victorian prison. In S. J. Macdonald, & D. Peacock (Eds.), The Routledge Handbook of Disability, Crime and Justice (49-61). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003348733

This chapter explores the experiences of, and policies toward, disabled prisoners and prisoners with long-term health conditions in a historical context. How did prison administrators deal with such populations? The population of the modern prison re... Read More about Unfit for Labour: Histories of disability and ill-health in the Victorian prison.

Punishment in Britain in the Twentieth Century (2023)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2023). Punishment in Britain in the Twentieth Century. In P. Lawrence (Ed.), A Global History of Crime and Punishment in the Modern Age: Volume 6 (145-164). Bloomsbury Publishing

Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England (2020)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H., & Cox, D. (2020). Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England. In M. Van der Heijden, M. Pluskota, & S. Muurling (Eds.), Women's Criminality in Europe, 1600-1914 (134-147). Cambridge University Press (CUP). https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108774543.007

This paper draws on the research undertaken into the lives and prison experiences of around 650 male and female convicts who were released on licence (an early form of parole) from sentences of long term imprisonment (three years to life) in England... Read More about Gender and release from imprisonment: Convict licensing systems in mid to late 19th century England.

Punishment: Incarceration and the death penalty (2018)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2018). Punishment: Incarceration and the death penalty. In D. Nash, & A.-M. Kilday (Eds.), Murder and Mayhem: Crime in Twentieth Century Britain (243-270). Palgrave Macmillan

'Convict Prisons', 'Local Prisons' and 'Prison Reform' (2017)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2017). 'Convict Prisons', 'Local Prisons' and 'Prison Reform'. In J. Turner, P. Taylor, S. Morley, & K. Corteen (Eds.), A Companion to the History of Crime and Criminal Justice. Policy Press

Prison Histories, 1770s-1950s: Continuities and contradictions (2016)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2016). Prison Histories, 1770s-1950s: Continuities and contradictions. In Y. Jewkes, B. Crewe, & J. Bennett (Eds.), Handbook on Prisons (24-38). (2nd ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315797779

The stated aims of imprisonment became markedly less ambitious when the confidence that characterized the 19th-century reform movement was displaced by a realization that places of confinement – no matter how well designed or humanely intentioned. In... Read More about Prison Histories, 1770s-1950s: Continuities and contradictions.

Transforming the prison: histories of prison and imprisonment, 1770-1952 (2009)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2009). Transforming the prison: histories of prison and imprisonment, 1770-1952. In Criminal Justice (125 - 143). OUP Oxford

This chapter considers the emergence of imprisonment as the predominant form of punishment for the majority offences from the mid-nineteenth century onwards in Britain.  It examines imprisonment before and during the eighteenth century through to the... Read More about Transforming the prison: histories of prison and imprisonment, 1770-1952.

Victorian Prisons (2008)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2008). Victorian Prisons. In Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment (305 - 307). Willan

The 'Victorian Prison' refers to prisons during the reign of Queen Victoria (1837-1901).  The Victorian period is key to our understanding of prisons and imprisonment, not only in terms of the significant change4s that were made in teh administration... Read More about Victorian Prisons.

Separate and Silent Systems (2008)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2008). Separate and Silent Systems. In Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment (270 - 271). Willan

The separate and silent systems were two disciplinary regimes that became prominent in prisons during the early to mid-nineteenth century.  Both systems were based on the idea of reforming prisoners either through isolation or throught silent-associa... Read More about Separate and Silent Systems.

Less Eligibility (2008)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2008). Less Eligibility. In Dictionary of Prisons and Punishment (151 - 152). Willan

The principle of less eligibility is based on the notion that those in prisons (or work-houses, historically) should ensure material living conditions that compare unfavourably with those of similarly disadvantaged people outside these institutions.

HM Prison Service (2008)
Book Chapter
Bennett, J., & Johnston, H. (2008). HM Prison Service. In Dictionary of prisons and punishment (115 - 117). Willan

HM Prison Service is the organization charged with managing public sector prisons and young offender institutions in England and Wales.

Moral Guardians? Prison Officers, Prison Practice and Ambiguity in the Nineteenth Century (2008)
Book Chapter
Johnston, H. (2008). Moral Guardians? Prison Officers, Prison Practice and Ambiguity in the Nineteenth Century. In Punishment and Control in Historical Perspective (77 - 94). Palgrave Macmillan

This chapter is concerned with understanding the role and working lives of turnkeys, warders, prison officers between 1835 and 1877 period, and to examine this role within a broader understanding of the nature of local imprisonment at this time.  Ove... Read More about Moral Guardians? Prison Officers, Prison Practice and Ambiguity in the Nineteenth Century.