Criminals today have it easy. Cable TV. Internet access. Three square meals and free health care. Sure, they can’t leave to take a smoke break any time they’d like, but hey, things could be worse . . . and boy, were they ever in early nineteenth century England.

Nice accommodations came with a price. New prisoners were expected to pay a “garnish” when they arrived. This fee ensured they’d receive “clean” water, food, and even candles and newspapers. Unfortunately, if you didn’t have any money, it was likely the “pit” for you, where you’d maybe receive a piece of moldy, mealy bread once a day.

But no matter which cell you ended up in, there were some common punishments that prisoners often had to submit to:

Oakum Picking

Recycling isn’t new to our day. During the Regency and Victorian periods, prisoners were given old rope covered in tar, which had been used to fill the cracks in ships. The task was to untwist into many corkscrew-like strands, then unroll each strand until the mesh became loose. This was used to remake into new rope. Other than the tedious boredom, this doesn’t sound too horrific a punishment, right? Wrong. Not only were the ropes hard to break apart, the coating caused blisters on the hands, and the fibers were prickly and painful. Bad combo.

The Endless Treadmill

Personally, going to the gym and working out for a half hour on the treadmill is torture enough for me. Now imagine doing that for eight to ten hours a day, with no earbuds blasting your favorite playlist. Just trudging, trudging, trudging . . .

The Crank

No, I’m not talking about the warden on a bad day. The crank was a form of pointless punishment, which was not only physically demanding but psychologically brutal. It was a large handle, usually in a prisoner’s cell, that the incarcerated would have to turn, thousands of times a day. To make it even more cruel, the warden could tighten a screw, causing the crank to be tougher to turn. That’s where the slang term “Screw” came in to describe a guard or warden.

In my upcoming release, BRENTWOOD’S WARD, hero Nicholas Brentwood is a nineteenth century lawman who’s sent many criminals to experience such punishment . . . except for his latest offender:

There’s none better than NICHOLAS BRENTWOOD at catching the felons who ravage London’s streets, and there’s nothing he loves more than seeing justice carried out—but this time he’s met his match. Beautiful and beguiling EMILY PAYNE is more treacherous than a city full of miscreants and thugs, for she’s a thief of the highest order . . . she’s stolen his heart.

Modes of punishment have definitely changed over the past three hundred years, but human nature hasn’t.

Originally posted 2014-11-17 01:00:51.