Disorder Contained: Mental Breakdown and the Modern Prison in England and Ireland, 1840 – 1900

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Catherine Cox (University College Dublin) Hilary Marland (University of Warwick)

Disorder Contained

Mental Breakdown and the Modern Prison in England and Ireland, 1840 – 1900

Catherine Cox (University College Dublin), Hilary Marland (University of Warwick)

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English

Cambridge University Press
10 March 2022

Prisons; History of medicine

Disorder Contained is the first historical account of the complex relationship between prison discipline and mental breakdown in England and Ireland. Between 1840 and 1900 the expansion of the modern prison system coincided with increased rates of mental disorder among prisoners, exacerbated by the introduction of regimes of isolation, deprivation and hard labour. Drawing on a range of archival and printed sources, the authors explore the links between different prison regimes and mental distress, examining the challenges faced by prison medical officers dealing with mental disorder within a system that stressed discipline and punishment and prisoners' own experiences of mental illness. The book investigates medical officers' approaches to the identification, definition, management and categorisation of mental disorder in prisons, and varied, often gendered, responses to mental breakdown among inmates. The authors also reflect on the persistence of systems of punishment that often aggravate rather than alleviate mental illness in the criminal justice system up to the current day. This title is also available as Open Access.

By: Catherine Cox (University College Dublin), Hilary Marland (University of Warwick)
Imprint: Cambridge University Press
Country of Publication: United Kingdom
Edition: New edition
Dimensions: Height: 235mm, Width: 167mm, Spine: 20mm
Weight: 600g
ISBN: 9781108834551
ISBN 10: 1108834558
Pages: 320
Publication Date: 10 March 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

1. Introduction: Mental disorder and the modern prison in England and Ireland, 1840-1900; 2. The making of the modern prison system: reformation, separation and the mind, 1840-1860; 3. The prison medical officer: Deterrence, dual loyalty and the production of psychiatric expertise, 1860-1895; 4. Criminal or lunatic, prisoner of patient?: Confining insanity in the late nineteenth century; 5. 'He puts on symptoms of incoherence': Feigning and detecting insanity in nineteenth-century prisons; 6. Conclusion: The decline of the separate system, the prisoner patient and enduring legacies; Bibliography; Index.

Reviews for Disorder Contained: Mental Breakdown and the Modern Prison in England and Ireland, 1840 – 1900

'Drawing on a wide range of primary sources, this book is a fascinating contribution to historiography on British penal history. It offers a mental health lens through which to examine the penal process and is a chilling reminder that disciplinary systems that make prisoners amenable and malleable can also have serious detrimental impacts.' Alyson Brown, Edge Hill University 'Cox and Marland bring rich expertise to this investigation of the histories of mental breakdown inside the prison system of England and Ireland. Disorder Contained points to deep tensions inherent in the treatment of mental illness inside carceral institutions still relevant in our present.' Catharine Coleborne, University of Newcastle (Australia) 'Disorder Contained explodes the assumption that only recently have prisons come to house large numbers of people with mental illness. In this important, powerful book, Cox and Marland demonstrate that mental illness and the prison system have a long, troubled history together rooted in the nineteenth century. This is a study not just of value to historians but also for anyone interested in prison reform today.' Nancy Tomes, Stony Brook University