Forms of Punishment
The punishment of prisoners at Woking consisted of:
1. Loss of marks, termed in prison parlance, “remission on her sentence,” but without confinement in the penal ward.
2. Solitary confinement for twenty-four hours in the penal ward, with loss of marks.
3. Solitary confinement, with loss of marks, on bread and water from one to three days.
4. Solitary confinement, with loss of marks, on bread and water for three days, either in a strait-jacket or “hobbles.” Hobbling consists in binding the wrists and ankles of a prisoner, then strapping them together behind her back. This position causes great suffering, is barbarous, and can be enforced only by the doctor’s orders.
5. To the above was sometimes added, in violent cases, shearing and blistering of the head, or confinement in the dark cell. The dark cell was underground, and consisted of four walls, a ceiling, and a floor, with double doors, in which not a ray of light penetrated. No. 5 punishment was abolished at Aylesbury, but in that prison even to give a piece of bread to a fellow prisoner is still a punishable offense.