Crime & Punishment

_{The ruins of Clerkenwell prison in the aftermath of a bombing by Irish nationalist group the Fenians. © Getty Images}

The 1870s were an anxious time. In 1866, the police had scored a coup in preventing an attack in Chester by the Irish nationalist group, the Fenians, but the following year a cask of gunpowder was ignited against the wall of Clerkenwell Prison, in an attempt to free two prisoners. Six died immediately, six more soon after, while 15 were permanently injured.

The Times denounced the outrages, claiming that ‘one young woman is in a madhouse, 40 mothers were prematurely confined, and 20 of their babies died from the effects of the explosion…others…are dwarfed and unhealthy. One mother is now a raving maniac’.

With hindsight, this was seen as hysteria – in 1868, five of the six accused were acquitted. Yet by then 113,674 special constables had been sworn in.

That same year, Sir Richard Mayne, the Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, died. He had been one of the two founding commissioners, appointed by Sir Robert Peel in 1829. Now, the Met seemed uncertain of what it was looking for, running through four commissioners in the next two decades. A further sign of disquiet and change was the first police strike, in 1872.

A number of reforms aided the police and the prison system: the 1867 Criminal Law Amendment Act had permitted evidence noted down by the police to be read in court, while the Prevention of Crimes Act 1871 established of a register of convicted criminals, set down regulations for photographing prisoners, and established penalties for repeat offenders and other areas of prison discipline.

Judith Flanders