Police,Prisons and Prisoners: the view from the Home Office

Those with some knowledge of the history of the British women's suffrage campaign will be well acquainted with the experiences of suffragettes at the hands of police and prison officials. It is, however, through the writings of the suffragettes that such treatment is usually articulated and in this article I shall, instead, describe how the Home Office viewed the suffrage campaign, how it attempted to keep the movement under control, and whether it was likely that it would succeed in doing so. The Home Office had two problems, that of policing the suffragettes and then of dealing with the women once they had achieved their aim of imprisonment. The article is divided into two sections. The first deals with policing and the second with the way in which the Home Office handled suffrage prisoners.