Prisons and Panopticons

This article concerns a number of aspects of the history of social policy during the nineteenth century. In particular it argues that the five stage model of development proposed by Dr Oliver MacDonagh in 1958 has been somewhat too peremptorily dismissed by historians, and it uses the prison system between 1777 and 1877 as a test of each stage of the model as far as this part of the social administrative system is concerned.
In addition MacDonagh's views on the part of Jeremy Bentham in the changes which occurred in social policy in the nineteenth century were also said to be invalid and thus an attempt is made to illuminate further Bentham's role in prison reform.
The article therefore sets out to test MacDonagh's thesis in one particular area of development and suggests that as far as prisons are concerned it throws a good deal of light upon the processes of change which occurred.