During the 18th and 19th centuries, England had a few issues with overcrowding in their prison system and set about ways to rectify the problem. Among a number of inventive practices, of which deportation to the colonies was a favourite, the idea of coverting old ships to floating jails became fashionable. This was a period in which the concept of crime and punishment was being explored. A popular topic of conversation among the highly educated, dramatic changes were starting to occur as it became evident that imprisonment was as much a punishment in itself as flogging, banishment, torture or any of the ways criminals were dealt with in the past. Jeremy Bentham, a prominent British philosopher developed the concept of the Panopticon , a new type of prison in which inmates would be housed in separate booths, unable to see each other, but under constant supervision by prison staff. Hulks were a response to this new form punishment as prisons became overcrowded. Their masts lopped o...
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