Scenes from a Silent World

Francis Scougal was one of the pseudonyms of Felicia Skene (1821–1899), a writer and philanthropist, who also wrote fiction and religious works. She was particularly noted for her work with 'fallen women' and in the campaign for penal reform. This 1889 work was the result of ten years prison-visiting at Oxford Gaol. She argues for greater emphasis on rehabilitation of prisoners: they will be bound to re-offend if they are treated inhumanly while imprisoned and as outcasts when released. She argues against mandatory sentencing, on the grounds that individual cases cannot be treated identically; and opposes capital punishment, both because miscarriages of justice are bound to occur at times, and also because it does not act as a deterrent. Her non-judgmental account is remarkably modern. For more information on this author, see http://orlando.cambridge.org/public/svPeople?person_id=skenfe