The Different Ways of Treating Prisoners by Berwick and Jedburgh

The Different Ways of Treating Prisoners by Berwick and Jedburgh

Berwick prison and Jedburgh prison were different in many ways,

especially in the ways they treated their prisoners. The most obvious

difference was the centuries they were built in. Berwick was built in

the 18th century in 1750, a time in which no acts or government

reforms had been introduced and Jedburgh was built in the 19th century

in 1852, the time in which at least 3 government acts(Pophams's acts

of 1774, Sir George Paul's act of 1786 and Peel's jail act)were

introduced.

In the 18th century the government tried to accomidate prisoners in

the best way they could so in some cases prisons such as Berwick were

not purpose built. Berwick was a town hall which allowed one floor to

be occupied for the prisoners.As there was only a small amount of

space for the prisoners to be kept, everyone was confined to as little

space as possible, some cells accomidating upto 11 prisoners at once.

Jedburgh prison was compleatly different to Berwick. Because Jedburgh

wasnt built until the 19th century and many of the acts and ideas put

forward by individuals such as John Howard and Sir George Paul had

been passed by the government meant that Jedburgh had to be built in a

certain way to make sure that it was built suitably according to the

acts passed. This meant Jedburgh prison was able to incorporate many

things that Berwick prison didnt have.

An important difference between both prisons was the jailer. In

Berwick prison there was only one jailer, however this jailer might as

well of not been there as he owned a pub outside of the town so he

only visited the jail every few days to give them a bit of bread and

water. Also the jailer in Berwick prison was not paid by the

government to do this job so it wasnt top of his priority list. In

Jedburgh prison there was a govenor, the govenor had overall

responsibility of the entire prison he also lived in the prison along