This thesis examines material culture and control at Staffordshire County Gaol and Lunatic Asylum between c. 1793 and 1866. Staffordshire was one of the first counties to voluntarily establish and operate a modern prison and asylum. The institutions were conceived as holistic approaches to cure. The intentions and practice of both facilities are scrutinised in order to present a synthesis of institutional provision in the county town. This thesis aims to foster a better understanding of the realities of everyday life inside by studying and comparing the `things' that surrounded the prisoner and the patient. By looking at location, space, architecture, dress, the paraphernalia of work and leisure and diet at both establishments; secondary punishments at the prison; and medicine and restraint at the asylum, it is proposed that control was manifested in three different ways at Stafford: implicit, direct and intrusive. These types of control formed three concentric circles that gradually encroached on the body of the inmate. The effectiveness of the three forms of control, and therefore the institution itself, was ultimately dependent on the response of the inmate to their surroundings
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:bl.uk/oai:ethos.bl.uk:522058 |
| Date | January 2008 |
| Creators | Wynter, Rebecca Imogen |
| Publisher | University of Birmingham |
| Source Sets | Ethos UK |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Electronic Thesis or Dissertation |
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