Brixton Prison is the oldest correctional facility operating in the United Kingdom and the first English prison to become an exclusive women's correctional facility.

Originally built in 1820, Brixton Prison was intended to house 175 prisoners. However, regularly exceeding its capacity supporting over 200 prisoners, overcrowding was an early problem and with its small cells and poor living conditions contributed to its reputation as one of the worst prisons in London (worsened when Brixton become one of the first prisons to introduce treadwheels in 1821). What is a treadwheel? A treadwheel is a form of Animal engine powered by man. ...

Conditions for women were especially harsh as newly arrived female inmates were made to spend four months in solitary confinement and, following her introduction into the general prison population, would be required to maintain a condition of silent association. Female inmate were allowed to earn privileges over time which included limited conversation, payment for labor, the right to receive letters and visitation rights. Solitary confinement, colloquially referred to as the hole (or in British English the block), is a punishment in which a prisoner is denied contact with any other persons, excluding guards, chaplains and doctors. ...

Eventually the problem of overcrowding was addressed with the prison expanding to house over 800 prisoners and, in 1853, the British government converted Brixton into a women's correctional facility for women who preferred imprisonment rather then deportation to Australia (although female inmates who had become pregnant were also transferred to Brixton from Millbank Prison). Millbank Prison was a large prison built in Millbank, Pimlico, London. ...

Conditions in the prison gradually improved during the mid-19th century as a nursery was opened in the prison for children under the age of four and, by 1860, inmates were allowed to keep their children until the end of their prison sentence. Brixton eventually became a military prison from 1882 until 1898 and remains a trial-and-demand prison for London and the Home Counties. The phrase Home Counties is used to designate the group of English counties which border or surround London. ...

Further reading

• Babington, Anthony. The English Bastille: A History of Newgate Gaol and Prison Conditions in Britain, 1188-1902. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971.
• Herber, Mark. Criminal London: A Pictorial history from Medieval Times to 1939. Chichester, UK: Phillimore, 2002.

References

• Roth, Mitchel P. Prisons and Prison Systems: A Global Encyclopedia. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 2006. ISBN 0-313-32856-0