The health of prisoners : : historical essays / / edited by Richard Creese, W. F. Bynum and J. Bearn.

• Superior document: The Wellcome Institute Series in the History of Medicine
• TeilnehmendeR: Creese, Richard,; Bynum, W. F.,; Bearn, J.,
• Place / Publishing House: Amsterdam ;, Atlanta, Ga. : : Rodopi,, 1995.
• Year of Publication: 1995
• Language: English
• Series: Wellcome Institute series in the history of medicine.
• Physical Description: 1 online resource.
• Other title: Preliminary Material --; Preface --; Notes on Contributors --; Introduction --; Howard’s Beginning: Prisons, Disease, Hygiene /; Medical Treatment and Prisoners’ Health in Stafford Gaol during the Eighteenth Century /; The Health of Prisoners and the Two Faces of Benthamism /; Development of the Prison Medical Service, 1774–1895 /; Elizabeth Fry and Mid-Nineteenth Century Reform /; The Prison Medical Service and the Deviant 1895–1948 /; Prison Doctors and Prison Suicide Research /; Health Services for Prisoners: Lost in Ambiguities /; The Criminal Lunatic Asylum System Before and After Broadmoor /; The Woolf Report and After /; The Lessons of History /; Index.
• ISBN: 9004418431
• Hierarchical level: Monograph
• Statement of Responsibility: edited by Richard Creese, W. F. Bynum and J. Bearn.

In eighteenth-century Britain, gaols were places of temporary confinement, where inmates stayed while awaiting punishment. With the rise of the 'penitentiary' from the early nineteenth century, custodial institutions housed prisoners for much longer periods of time. Prisoners were supposed to be reformed as well as punished during their incarceration. From at least the time of John Howard (1726-1790), the health of prisoners has been part of the concern of philanthropists and others concerned with the wider functions of prisons. The Victorians established a Prison Medical Service, and members of the medical profession have long been involved in caring for the mental and physical needs of prisoners. For two centuries, prison overcrowding has been identified as a major cause of mortality and morbidity in prisons. Historical debates thus often have a modern ring to them, which make the essays in this volume particularly timely.