This paper will explore the impact and effect of the ‘Blitz’ on the management and administration of the prison population; on the lives of prison staff; and on everyday life for those in custody in the English prison system. This research examines the experiences of ordinary prisoners and prison staff during the early part of the Second World War and the effect of War on the prison system and the daily experience of imprisonment at this time? At the outbreak of War over 5,600 prisoners were immediately discharged if they had less than three months to serve or if Borstal inmates with less than 6 months. A number of London prisons were evacuated and prisoners who had not had early release were moved to provincial prisons. It will examine the impact of air raids on the prison estate and experience as well as the positive ways in which prisoners contributed to the war effort through morale boosting activities or labour. This paper aims to contribute a more coherent and complete narrative of penal policy and the lived experience of prisons during the Second World War, a period almost entirely neglected in historical and criminological accounts of the prison. Prisons were also re-rolled to house POWs, staff were called up and then returned to the Service, leisure, labour, daily regimes and family contact for inmates and staff were all affected by emergency orders, the threat of air raids and the realities of the war.

Convict transportation occupies an important place in the growing study of historical criminology, in part because of its relationship to the development of the prison. One of the assumptions in the extant literature on early projects of convict transportation, and its links to colonization, is that the core agenda of those who supported convict transportation was an economic one, and that any religious rhetoric that existed only served to justify the economic project. However, in this paper, we argue that the opposite could also be true; that the real agenda of many individuals who conceptualized convict transportation could have been motivated by religious concerns, and that the economic agenda could be a vehicle for Protestant expansionism in the New World. The sociologist Joachim Savelsberg (2004) argues that the role of religion has been largely neglected in attempts to build a theory of punishment. He argues that religion plays a role in not only shaping the practices of punishment, but also the institutions in which decisions of punishment are made (2004, p. 377). We seek to make an intervention in this area through the case study of convict transportation.

Past Time focuses on the history of prison food. As part of the Welcome Trust funded "Prisoners, Medical Care and Entitlement to Health in England and Ireland, 1850-2000' project, Past Time explores the changing nature of prison food and its effects on physical and mental health through a series of workshops using theatre techniques.. The research aim was to explore whether there had been any improvement in the participants' coping abilities following their engagement in the project.

A mixed-methods approach was taken to review the prisoners' coping skills using questionnaires, interviews, and the COPE Inventory. Each participant completed a questionnaire and COPE inventory before participating in Past Time. After completing the project, each participant completed the COPE inventory again and participated in a short one-to-one interview.

Overall, the results suggested their mental disengagement decreased, indicating the participants' mental health had improved. Participants reduced their focus upon venting their emotions through violent or aggressive methods. A decrease in relying upon families and friends for instrumental support (financial support) due to the availability of work placements following the completion of the project. Participants were less focused on denying their situation and beginning to come to terms with their environment. There was an increase in depending on religion as a coping skill. One of the reasons was that the project end display was presented to the audience within the chapel. Participants explained it felt as though it was a turning point for them. There was a decrease in humour and emotional support as coping tools. There was a dramatic decrease in the use of substances such as alcohol and legal and illegal drug use as participants began to focus on positive reinforced coping skills.

Thirty people were sentenced to death in the countries of Monmouthshire and Glamorgan from 1850 to 1900. Seventeen of the condemned were granted mercy and had their sentences commuted. However, the remaining thirteen were executed. Using contemporary newspaper reports this paper explores the reasons why some people received mercy and why others were not so lucky. The key research question is what type of murders/murderers were excusable, if not acceptable, in nineteenth-century Wales? This paper adopts an intersectional approach considering gender, race and nationality, age, religion, and socioeconomic status. Narratives surrounding the social conduct of both the murderer and the victim are examined to assess public sympathies. The role of confession and repentance are considered, alongside defences of drink, anger, madness, or innocence. This paper argues that there was no set formula for a successful pardon. Factors such as being drunk, confessions, maintaining innocence, religious behaviour, prior convictions, domestic violence, non-Britishness, repentance, and the good/bad character of both the murderer and the victim can be found in both cases of reprieve and of execution. Some unexpected cases garnered public and state sympathy, whereas similar or theoretically more ‘worthy’ cases did not invoke mercy.