Jermey Bentham, Samuel Bentham and Willey Reveley,

1791.

This act, drafted by the noted prison reformer John Howard and the famous jurist Sir William Blackstone, substituted a period of incarceration for many crimes which had previously carried the penalty of death or transportation. It was motivated by the belief that solitary confinement, hard servile labour, and a life governed by petty systematic rules and religious instruction, would act both as an effective deterrent to potential criminals and as a way of reforming those who had actually erred. The act was in part a pragmatic response to the rise in prison populations after the American Declaration of Independence in 1776 denied Britain the option of transporting its felons. It was also the consequence of new

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Citation: Clark, Robert. "Penitentiary Act; Panopticon". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 28 October 2000 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=841, accessed 23 November 2024.]