Punishment Vs Reform – Were Victorian Gaols Effective?

Rather than enter our class today, we entered a Victorian Gaol. We were told to count individual grains of rice in complete silence. Some of us then had to exercise by walking up and down on a bench. We then had to walk around the room holding a piece of string 1 metre apart. If we spoke we were moved down the zone board.

After lots of frustration we were told is wasn’t real. This inspired us to explore the punishment and reform in Gaols before deciding whether the policies were effective in turning criminals into model citizens.

We even measured out the size of a cell!!!