Dartmoor: Penal and Cultural Icon

Abstract

Dartmoor is one of the oldest British prisons still in use. Opened in 1809, it quickly gained a brutal reputation that its later history has done little to dispel. The image of Dartmoor has loomed large in England's penal and cultural past and endures because of its combination of particular architecture, topography and inmate population as well as its unique capacity to invoke, within the public consciousness, an idealised and even mythical representation of all prisons. This article examines how a combination of physical and expressive factors has established and perpetuated the brutal, yet 'darkly glamorous', image of Dartmoor prison and its prisoners.

Show me the prison! The development of prison tourism in the UK

“…Well-known prisons, such as Pentonville and Dartmoor, attracted large numbers of visitors merely to observe from the outside and appreciate the power of the external architectural and moral structure (Barton and Brown, 2011). Pentonville was extremely influential nationally and internationally, and heralded as the most advanced building of its day (Evans, 2010: 367).This kind of fascination with the prison was not interpreted in any structured manner until quite late, in part no doubt because it continued to be depicted primarily as part of a cultural education rather than as a form of entertainment, which would have been perceived as less salubrious and tainted by the subject of crime.…”

“…Thus, deterrence became enshrined in the fabric of the institution with impressive and awesome structures that transmitted unequivocal penal messages which, in turn, elicited direct emotional responses from the public (Bender, 1987). Well-known prisons, such as Pentonville and Dartmoor, attracted large numbers of visitors merely to observe from the outside and appreciate the power of the external architectural and moral structure (Barton and Brown, 2011). Pentonville was extremely influential nationally and internationally and heralded as the most advanced building of its day (Evans, 1982: 367).This kind of fascination with the prison wasn't interpreted in any structured manner until quite late, in part no doubt because it continued to be depicted as part of a cultural education rather than as a form of entertainment, which would have been perceived as less salubrious and Possibly the earliest and best documented example of a dedicated and commercially-oriented prison museum is the exhibition ship 'Success' which was consciously promoted in a sensational manner to cater to public fascination with the seamier, more gruesome and dramatic aspects of incarceration.…”

Reconsidering the boundaries of the shadow carceral state: An analysis of the symbiosis between punishment and its memorialization

“…When prison agencies are involved in this form of penal tourism (Welch, 2015), ‘the blurring of boundaries between punishment as state practice and as popular entertainment’ (Lynch, 2004: 256) can be observed. Prisons, whether operational, repurposed as museums or both (Barton and Brown, 2011), can shape ‘our very capacities to perceive this particular coercive constellation of state power, especially in its historical and spatial contingencies’ (Schept, 2014: 201–202). We argue for a refined conception of the shadow carceral state that includes cultural institutions and processes of representation that reproduce punishment as the way of responding to criminalized conflicts and harms.…”