Prison reform from below: London, <i>c</i> .1780–1830

Abstract This article explores the history of the English prison reform movement from ‘below’ – that is, from the perspective of prison inmates. By highlighting the tangible changes that reform brought to prison communities, this article centres prisoners’ voices and actions to ask how prisoners experienced, made sense of and tried to shape the movement for prison reform. It focuses especially on prisoners in London's criminal prisons, and it makes use of petitions, letters and official prison records to locate the prisoner voice. In so doing, it uncovers the tactics that prisoners adopted to alternately limit, extend or adapt reform measures, and it reveals the many challenges prisoners faced in trying to influence prison practice.