Thesis (Ph.D.)--Aberdeen University, 2008. / Title from web page (viewed on Apr. 21, 2009). Includes bibliographical references.

In 1840 all the burgh gaols of Scotland came under the direction of the General Prison Board operating through local county prison boards.  The burgh gaols had been the principal places of incarceration for both criminals and debtors since the Act of 1597.  No bridewells or houses of correction of any importance were established in Scotland until the end of the eighteenth century and then only in Edinburgh, Glasgow, and eventually Aberdeen.   At the same time the burgh gaols were seen as quite unsuited as places of incarceration but the great majority of the burghs did not have the financial resources to undertake major prison building without help from landed proprietors. Between 1815 and 1939 there were a number of initiatives which attempted to redress the situation. This thesis shows that some of these were generally more successful that it was thought except in the northern counties of Scotland, and in so doing touches on some of the major debates and themes of Scotties history like the inflammability or otherwise of the Scots, the role of voluntarism in society, the centre/civil society axis and the Anglicisation and centralisation following parliamentary reform.  Central to the matter are the relationships between burghs and counties and between the local bodies and the centre.  The role of the newly-established prison inspectorate and how the legislation of 1839 came to be passed and what it achieved are considered.