Introduction

The need to shine a light into the closed world of prisons has been recognized for a very long time. In Britain, the ‘official’ inspection of prisons dates back to 1835, when its first emergence was part of the broader ‘revolution in government’ in the middle of the nineteenth century during which much of the administrative machinery of the modern state was assembled (MacDonagh 1958; Braithwaite 2003: 10). But the question of external scrutiny of prisons had also been widely discussed in the previous century, notably by the prison reformer John Howard in his classic The State of the Prisons first published in 1777 (see Stockdale 1983). Indeed, we can trace this back even further: medieval prisons were sometimes subject to inspection (Peters 1995: 29, 36), as were some in the ancient world, notably in the Roman Empire (Peters 1995: 19).

Today, the inspection of prisons is carried out across the world by a range of national bodies, as well as by supranational organizations such as the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and the Special Rapporteur on Prisons and Conditions of Detention in Africa. The United Nations Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Opcat) came into force in 2006, requiring signatories to put in place adequate inspection arrangements.