Time to write: convict petitions in the 19th century

Nineteenth-century convicts regularly used their right to petition the state. Their institutionalised lives were spent under repressive and harsh penal systems, designed to inhibit communication, but petitioning provided a channel of expression that must have been sorely absent from the monotony of their life in prison. Convicts commonly used petitions to complain about perceived injustices in their sentencing or to request early release on probation, leaving written records of the different experiences, motivations and objectives of petitioners. These written voices therefore provide the basis for a unique window into convict lives in the 19th century.