‘Not an Instrument of Punishment’: Prison Diet in the Mid‐nineteenth Century

This paper examines some of the issues involved in devising a suitable dietary for nineteenth century prisoners. It begins with a section defining and explaining the application of the ‘less‐eligibility’ principle—a principle which still strikes a chord with many people today. The paper goes on to describe the lack of standardized diet in the early part of the century, which first led the prison inspectors to investigate the properties of food. The inspectors, however, were administrators, not nutritionists, and the next section is concerned with the work of such medical men as Dr Guy and Dr Smith, who made more scientific experiments and observations in the 1850s and 1860s. In the final paragraphs, prison diet is compared with the sort of food consumed by working class families of the Victorian period. Both at the beginning and at the end of the paper, an attempt is made to demonstrate that the problem of reconciling humane treatment for the prisoner, with society's demands for justice, is just as great for the prison administrator of today as it was in the previous century.