
To Detain or to Punish
Magistrates and the Making of the London Prison System, 1750-1840
Kiran Mehta(Author)
McGill-Queen's University Press
Published on 11. March 2025
Book
Paperback/Softback
306 pages
978-0-2280-2408-8 (ISBN)
Description
Imprisonment was rarely used as punishment in Britain before 1800. The criminal justice system was based on terror and deterrence, sentencing convicts to the gallows at home and transportation overseas, with prisons serving primarily as holding spaces for the accused until the case against them was resolved. A major shift began in the late eighteenth century when imprisonment became an end in itself: a means to reform as well as to discipline criminal offenders.
To Detain or to Punish revisits this revolutionary moment as it played out in the metropolis of London. Kiran Mehta charts how Londoners, through their interactions with police, magistrates, and judges, became prisoners, and then follows them into the prison, revealing how these institutions were managed and experienced. Local authorities' increased use of imprisonment, for punishment as well as for detention, sparked the wholesale reconstruction and redesign of London's prison estate. It also spurred the consolidation of the modern notion that prisoners who had not yet been convicted of a crime, or who had not been sentenced to imprisonment, should be held separately from and treated differently to those incarcerated for punishment. Most notably, the requirement to labour became a distinguishing feature of punitive confinement.
Challenging traditional ideas about who and what prisons were for and how they operated, To Detain or to Punish offers a radical reappraisal of London's prison system between 1750 and 1840.
To Detain or to Punish revisits this revolutionary moment as it played out in the metropolis of London. Kiran Mehta charts how Londoners, through their interactions with police, magistrates, and judges, became prisoners, and then follows them into the prison, revealing how these institutions were managed and experienced. Local authorities' increased use of imprisonment, for punishment as well as for detention, sparked the wholesale reconstruction and redesign of London's prison estate. It also spurred the consolidation of the modern notion that prisoners who had not yet been convicted of a crime, or who had not been sentenced to imprisonment, should be held separately from and treated differently to those incarcerated for punishment. Most notably, the requirement to labour became a distinguishing feature of punitive confinement.
Challenging traditional ideas about who and what prisons were for and how they operated, To Detain or to Punish offers a radical reappraisal of London's prison system between 1750 and 1840.
Reviews / Votes
"An invaluable, pioneering study of the London prison system during a fundamentally transformative historical period." Helen Johnston, University of HullMore details
Series
Language
English
Place of publication
Montreal
Canada
Target group
College/higher education
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Unsewn / adhesive bound
Illustrations
24 images, 20 tables
Dimensions
Height: 225 mm
Width: 150 mm
Thickness: 21 mm
Weight
458 gr
ISBN-13
978-0-2280-2408-8 (9780228024088)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions

E-Book
04/2025
1st Edition
McGill-Queen's University Press
€74.99
Available for download

E-Book
04/2025
1st Edition
McGill-Queen's University Press
€74.99
Available for download
Person
Kiran Mehta is a Leverhulme Early Career Fellow in History at the University of Leicester.