The emergence of the prison service
The earliest systematic reports on English prisons come from private surveys by people such as John Howard, who toured English gaols between 1770 and 1792 and James Neild who made similar visits in the 19th century, collecting information about the structure, condition and administration of over 350 gaols. After that date, there was an increase of parliamentary interest and activity, and an act of 1815 (55 Geo. III, c. 49) required returns to be made of all persons committed and of their crimes. The Gaols Act, 1823 (4 Geo. IV, c. 64), consolidated and amended the laws about building, repairing and regulating certain gaols and houses of correction but dealt with only 130 prisons, comprising county gaols and those in London, Westminister and 17 other towns. As a result of the Act between 30 and 40 small towns either closed their gaols or let them fall into disuse. From 1826 Eventually the reports of the visiting justices for these gaols contained information about the number and employment of prisoners and the state of the buildings, etc. They were declared to be no longer necessary in 1858 but had already ceased to appear by 1849.
The 1823 Gaols Act also made provision for justices in general or the quarter sessions to declare a new prison the county gaol and to sell off old gaols.
In 1835 the Prisons Act (5 & 6 Wm. IV, c. 38) sought to bring about greater uniformity in the government of prisons in England and Wales empowered the Home Secretary to appoint up to five inspectors. These were required to make an annual report for each of the establishments visited for the Home Secretary to present to parliament. The reports were divided at first between four districts (Home, Northern and Eastern, Southern and Western and Scotland with Northumberland and Durham), but this was reduced in 1853 to three (Northern, Midland and Southern), and to the Northern and Southern in 1863. They run from 1836 to 1878 but do not necessarily cover every gaol.
The District Courts and Prisons Act of 1842 laid down further regulations for building and running gaols. Another act in 1844 empowered the Home Secretary to appoint a Surveyor General of Prisons to advise justices on the building or rebuilding of gaols and report to him. The reports are concerned largely with convict prisons, but details about local gaols are often used to illustrate some point.
The Franchise Prisons Abolition Act, 1858 (21 & 22 Vic. c. 22), lists gaols that had been used to confine debtors and were ordered to be closed, with their inmates being transferred to the local county or borough gaol.
The Prison Act, 1865 (28 & 29 Vic. c. 126), deprived county justices and municipal corporations of their independent authority over local gaols, by laying down strict rules for all prisons. Any prison authority that refused to comply was deprived of the government allowance. Thirteen English borough or liberty prisons were closed by the Act and either sold or, with the Home Secretary's permission, used as police stations or lock-ups. Many other smaller prison authorities gave up their gaols because of the expense of complying with the new regulations. Under the Act the Home Secretary had the power to close inadequate prisons to allow an authority to enlarge or rebuild its gaol.
The Prison Act, 1877 (40 & 41 Vic. c. 21), finally removed the control of local prisons from local authorities and vested it in the central government. The control was to be exercised by the Home Secretary, through up to five commissioners who would be assisted by inspectors, whose annual reports were first presented to parliament in 1878. The Act restated the Home Secretary's power to close any prison by order, so long as one prison remained in each county. Of 113 prisons transferred to the Home Office, 38 were instantly closed, and another 19 had been closed by 1888.