[Prison Reform] Adshead, Joseph

Our Present Gaol System Deeply Depraving to the Prisoner and a Positive Evil to the Community. Some Remedies Proposed. [Association Copy]

[Manchester]: G. & A. Falkner, Printers, 1847. 107 pp., 8vo. Original printed brown wrappers, with front wrapper detached and substantially torn and chipped, but preserved. Some additional wear and soiling. Presentation inscription at the head of the title page reading “G. T. Bigelow Esq. / From the Author.”. Fair overall. Item #BK0175

An examination of British prison conditions by Joseph Adshead (1800–1861), a Manchester merchant, social reformer, and advocate of the separate system of imprisonment. Adshead had previously published Prisons and Prisoners (1845), in which he defended the Pennsylvania system against critics including Charles Dickens, who had condemned solitary confinement following his visit to the United States.

Adshead argues that the prevailing practice of confining prisoners together, often without adequate separation by age, offense, or criminal history, served to encourage further crime. He describes conditions at several prisons. The presentation inscription is of particular interest. The recipient appears to be George Tyler Bigelow (1810–1878), the Massachusetts attorney and later Chief Justice of the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court. In 1844, Bigelow and George Bemis defended Abner Rogers Jr., a prisoner charged with murdering Charles Lincoln Jr., the warden of the Massachusetts State Prison. Rogers was acquitted on the grounds of insanity in a widely discussed case that raised questions about criminal responsibility and the mental condition of prisoners. The presentation of Adshead’s work to Bigelow suggests a connection between two men involved in contemporary debates over prisons and their administration.

.

Price: $250.00