On Monday 30 March 1885 Georgina was taken straight from the Old Bailey to Millbank Prison, a fortress-like building on the left bank of the Thames, close to Vauxhall Bridge. It was cold, damp and run-down and would be closed in 1890 and then demolished. Angèle visited Georgina on the following day and found her ‘dying of cold, she had no pantalon [underpants], she was crying and she told me she would die’. There were many who believed that she had got what she deserved. She had, above all, behaved in an unladylike manner:

Angèle and Harcourt did their best to whip up support, contacting Georgina's friends and all the newspapers they could think of. Harcourt lobbied the members of the jury, nine of whom signed a petition to Sir William Harcourt, the Home Secretary, asking him to remit or alleviate the sentence. One supporter, Pauline Cranstoun, went to Sir William Charley with the request that Georgina should be treated as if she were a ‘first class misdemeanant’. This would entitle her to privileges that were usually denied to prisoners who had been convicted of criminal offences. Pauline was successful and Georgina was moved to Holloway after a week.

Holloway had been opened in 1852 as the City of London's House of Correction. Modelled on Warwick Castle, it had pseudo-medieval battlements and turrets and was surrounded by an eighteen-foot-high brick wall. The building could hold up to 400 prisoners, mostly men but with a small number of women as well. As a first class demeanant, Georgina had her own room away from the common prisoners and was not obliged to work. She could buy her own food and wine from outside and wear her own clothes.