"The first London house of correction was Bridewell Prison, and the Middlesex and Westminster houses also opened in the early seventeenth century.
Due to the first reformation ...
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of manners campaign, the late seventeenth century was marked by the growth in the number of houses of correction, often generically termed bridewells, established and by the passage of numerous statutes prescribing houses of correction as the punishment for specific minor offences.
Offenders were typically committed to houses of correction by justices of the peace, who used their powers of summary jurisdiction with respect to minor offences. In the Middlesex and Westminster houses of correction in the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries the most common charges against prisoners were prostitution, petty theft, and "loose, idle and disorderly conduct" (a loosely defined offence which could involve a wide range of misbehaviour). Over two-thirds of the prisoners were female." - (en.wikipedia.org 29.02.2020)
