Photographer Andy Aitchison's new book, Incarcerated, offers a unique visual record of Britain's still-functioning Victorian prisons, which collectively hold about a quarter of the UK's prison population. More than 30 of these 19th-century institutions remain in use today.
A Legacy in Bricks and Mortar
Between 1842 and 1877, 90 prisons were built or significantly expanded in Britain, marking the most prolific period of prison construction in the country's history. What is now HMP Lincoln opened at the end of this era. As the introductory essay to Incarcerated observes, here was "the Victorian faith in 'progress', rendered in bricks and mortar and applied to the challenge of remaking those who had set themselves against law and society".
Less than 50 years later, in their 1922 study English Prisons Today, Stephen Hobhouse and Fenner Brockway argued: "The only reform to which [these Victorian] buildings can be usefully subjected is dynamite." Despite such critiques, prisons like HMP Lincoln and HMP Liverpool remain as permanent as ever.
Two Decades Behind the Walls
Aitchison has been photographing inside Britain's prisons for more than 20 years. His interest began in 2004 when the Big Issue asked him to photograph inside HMP Wandsworth, another Victorian jail. He later told Time Out: "I went on to one of the wings and there was the usual shouting, but when I got to the radio room it was like a bit of a sanctuary. Once the guys stepped in there, it was a work environment and they became almost different people."
"I enjoyed it so much that after the shoot, I got in touch to ask if I could go back to make more pictures. I went 10 or 15 times over a six-month period. I started meeting guys the same age as me, who had a kid like me – they were in the same situation in life as me, but they were in prison and I wasn't."
Since that assignment, Aitchison has photographed nearly 50 prisons, often making repeat visits for long-term projects. His work has been used extensively by charities and published nationally and internationally, and he regularly contributes to Inside Time, the UK's leading prison newspaper.
Strict Conditions and Ongoing Research
Aitchison works under strict conditions: his equipment is searched on entry and exit, consent forms must be signed by any prisoner he photographs, and certain objects – keys, locks, fence numbers – must never be pictured. Faces of prisoners are not shown, as publishing a photograph of a serving prisoner requires explicit permission from the Ministry of Justice.
The images in Incarcerated are part of ongoing research by geographers, criminologists and historians on the long afterlives of Britain's Victorian prison estate. Together, they explore how the fabric and function of these 19th-century prisons have changed, the tensions between architectural obsolescence and persistence, and what it has felt like to live and work in them then and now.
Presented with essays by members of the research team, Aitchison's photographs form a unique portrait of Britain's still-functioning Victorian prisons and those who live and work in them. Incarcerated is available direct from the publisher Bluecoat Press.
