The Open University’s Head of History Rosalind Crone recently shared her many years of research into prison history to help make Channel 4’s Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History.
The series airing on Sunday evenings at 9pm on Channel 4, and available to watch in full on My4, follows barrister and TV personality Rob Rinder’s investigations into the history of Britain’s most notorious prisons: Dartmoor, Shrewsbury, and Shepton Mallet.
Rosalind worked as a consultant on the series, helping to shape the approach and overarching narrative about the history of punishment and its relevance to prisons today.
She was also interviewed on screen for Episode 3, which covers the history of short-term imprisonment at Shepton Mallet.
Rosalind drew on 19th century records from Shepton Mallet to highlight the use of corporeal punishment and describes the harsh and irreversible physical toll of so-called ‘hard labour’, characterised by gruelling hours spent on Shepton Mallet’s penal treadmill.
She said about her input in the series: “The aim was to demonstrate how time and again, the perceived need to punish overshadowed and stymied attempts to rehabilitate prisoners, a core aim of imprisonment even in the 19th century.”
The series comes at a critical time when prisons are once again in the headlines. It also draws parallels with more modern accounts of troubled prisons, such as the riots at Dartmoor in 1990, and called on personal histories of still-living former prisoners, governors, wardens, and other academic experts.
Rosalind’s work has long been centred on bringing a historical perspective to modern-day understanding of the utilisation, and experience, of imprisonment in Britain.
On her involvement with the series, Rosalind added: “For more than 15 years, my research focus has been on prison history, beginning with an interest in reading in prisons, which quickly expanded into research on prisoner literacy, prison schools, the (complicated) 19th century prison system, prison reform, and most recently, labour or work in prisons.
“It was great to bring some of that knowledge to Channel 4 in producing Britain Behind Bars, at this critical time for Britain’s criminal justice system.”
Find out more about Rosalind’s research on the OU and Arts Humanities Research Council funded website Prison History: https://www.prisonhistory.org/about/
You can also see a short film she made for the OU about the penal treadmill that prisoners were forced to endure at Victorian prison treadmills – the brutal reality and the lessons for today (youtube.com)
Watch Britain Behind Bars: A Secret History on My4: https://www.channel4.com/programmes/britain-behind-bars-a-secret-history/on-demand/74956-003
