{"status":"ok","message-type":"work","message-version":"1.0.0","message":{"indexed":{"date-parts":[[2026,10,8]],"date-time":"2026-10-08T21:05:56Z","timestamp":1791493556982,"version":"4.3.4"},"reference-count":25,"publisher":"Cambridge University Press (CUP)","issue":"3","license":[{"start":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]],"date-time":"2024-04-08T00:00:00Z","timestamp":1712534400000},"content-version":"unspecified","delay-in-days":0,"URL":"http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0"}],"funder":[{"DOI":"10.13039\/100010269","name":"Wellcome Trust","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","award":["103341\/Z\/13\/Z;103351\/Z\/13\/Z."],"award-info":[{"award-number":["103341\/Z\/13\/Z;103351\/Z\/13\/Z."]}],"id":[{"id":"10.13039\/100010269","id-type":"DOI","asserted-by":"publisher"}]}],"content-domain":{"domain":["cambridge.org"],"crossmark-restriction":true},"short-container-title":["Med. Hist."],"published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,7]]},"abstract":"<jats:title>Abstract<\/jats:title><jats:p>Existing scholarship on prison diets has emphasised the role of food and its restriction as a key aspect of the deterrent system of prison discipline introduced in the 1860s. Here we suggest that a strong emphasis was placed on dietary regulation after the establishment of the reformist, but also \u2018testing\u2019, separate system of confinement in the mid-nineteenth century. While the impact of diet on the physical health of prisoners was a major concern, we argue that the psychological impact of food was also stressed, and some prison administrators and doctors argued that diet had an important protective function in preserving inmates\u2019 mental wellbeing. Drawing on a wide range of prison archives and official reports, this article explores the crucial role of prison medical officers in England and Ireland in implementing prison dietaries. It highlights the importance and high level of individual adaptations to dietary scales laid down centrally, as a means of utilising diet as a tool of discipline or as an intervention to improve prisoners\u2019 health. It examines the forays of some prison doctors into dietary experiments, as they investigated the impact of different dietaries or made more quotidian adjustments to food intake, based on local conditions and food supplies. The article concludes that, despite central policies geared to establishing uniformity and interest in new scientific discourses on nutrition, a wide range of practices were pursued in individual prisons, mostly shaped by practical rather than scientific factors, with many prison medical officers asserting their autonomy in making dietary adjustments.<\/jats:p>","DOI":"10.1017\/mdh.2023.36","type":"journal-article","created":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]],"date-time":"2024-04-08T07:11:32Z","timestamp":1712560292000},"page":"265-285","update-policy":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/policypage","source":"Crossref","is-referenced-by-count":1,"title":["\u2018The god of criminals is their belly\u2019: diet, prisoner health, and prison medical officers in mid-nineteenth-century English and Irish prisons"],"prefix":"10.1017","volume":"68","author":[{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-9865-420X","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Catherine","family":"Cox","sequence":"first","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]},{"ORCID":"https:\/\/orcid.org\/0000-0002-6484-2501","authenticated-orcid":false,"given":"Hilary","family":"Marland","sequence":"additional","affiliation":[],"role":[{"vocabulary":"crossref","role":"author"}]}],"member":"56","published-online":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]]},"reference":[{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref8","first-page":"1750","volume-title":"A History of English Prison Administration","volume":"1","author":"McConville","year":"1981"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref7","first-page":"200","volume-title":"The Routledge History of Food","author":"Miller","year":"2014"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref18","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1353\/bhm.2018.0004"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref20","volume-title":"The Dietary Surveys of Dr Edward Smith, 1862\u20133: A New Assessment","author":"Barker","year":"1970"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref12","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/9781108594189"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref9","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1163\/9789004418431_008"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref11","first-page":"42","volume-title":"Medical Power in Prisons: The Prison Medical Service in England 1774\u20131989","author":"Sim","year":"1990"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref6","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1111\/j.1470-6431.1978.tb00299.x"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref14","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/acprof:oso\/9780199569076.001.0001"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref15","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1016\/S0140-6736(19)30112-6"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref16","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/pastj\/gtt020"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref22","first-page":"207","volume-title":"Diet and Health in Modern Britain","author":"Johnston","year":"1985"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref1","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.4324\/9781315769400"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref19","volume-title":"A Modern History of the Stomach: Gastric Illness, Medicine and British Society, 1800\u20131950","author":"Miller","year":"2011"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref24","first-page":"63","author":"Allday","year":"1853"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref23","first-page":"15","volume-title":"Reformatory Prison Discipline as Developed by the Rt. Hon. Sir Walter Crofton in the Irish Convict Prisons","author":"Carpenter","year":"1872"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref10","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1017\/mdh.2013.72"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref3","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1515\/9780228009658"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref4","volume-title":"English Local Prisons 1860\u20131900: Next Only to Death","author":"McConville","year":"1995"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref17","volume-title":"Subjected to Science: Human Experimentation in America before the Second World War","author":"Lederer","year":"1995"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref13","first-page":"7","volume-title":"Punish or Treat? Medical Care in English Prisons 1770\u20131850","author":"Higgins","year":"2007"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref21","first-page":"45","volume-title":"Report of the Thirty-First Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, Held at Manchester in September 1861","author":"Smith","year":"1862"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref25","volume-title":"Jottings in Solitary","author":"Davitt","year":"2003"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref2","first-page":"160","volume-title":"Hunger: A Modern History","author":"Vernon","year":"2007"},{"key":"S0025727323000364_ref5","doi-asserted-by":"publisher","DOI":"10.1093\/jn\/136.1.1"}],"container-title":["Medical History"],"original-title":[],"language":"en","link":[{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/services\/aop-cambridge-core\/content\/view\/S0025727323000364","content-type":"unspecified","content-version":"vor","intended-application":"similarity-checking"}],"deposited":{"date-parts":[[2024,12,9]],"date-time":"2024-12-09T09:07:39Z","timestamp":1733735259000},"score":1,"resource":{"primary":{"URL":"https:\/\/www.cambridge.org\/core\/product\/identifier\/S0025727323000364\/type\/journal_article"}},"subtitle":[],"short-title":[],"issued":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]]},"references-count":25,"journal-issue":{"issue":"3","published-print":{"date-parts":[[2024,7]]}},"alternative-id":["S0025727323000364"],"URL":"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1017\/mdh.2023.36","relation":{},"ISSN":["0025-7273","2048-8343"],"issn-type":[{"value":"0025-7273","type":"print"},{"value":"2048-8343","type":"electronic"}],"subject":[],"published":{"date-parts":[[2024,4,8]]},"assertion":[{"value":"\u00a9 The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press","name":"copyright","label":"Copyright","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution licence (http:\/\/creativecommons.org\/licenses\/by\/4.0), which permits unrestricted re-use, distribution and reproduction, provided the original article is properly cited.","name":"license","label":"License","group":{"name":"copyright_and_licensing","label":"Copyright and Licensing"}},{"value":"This content has been made available to all.","name":"free","label":"Free to read"}]}}