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  The pressure is rising on Dover's Barry-ometre for the return to this...
  
  "TREADMILLS: - close compartments in which a prisoner remained for a quarter of an hour at a time, vigorously treading down a wheel of 24 steps at a fixed rate. (after a period of rest, they resumed again). The men could get no firm tread as the steps sank away from under their feet and made it very tiring. The air became hot and difficult to breathe.... Although stocks, pillory and roadside gibbets were no longer used jails were very severe - treadmill, crank, oakum picking, and strict regimentation. Transportation only ceased to be an important method for major offenders in the early 1850s.. where there was NO threat to PROPERTY, (the criminal law was very lenient towards violence and sentences passed on those caught seem surprisingly light). Not until c.1865 were effective standards and treatment in gaol brought in and not until 1877 was a 'coherent national penal system' in place.
  (from "The Victorian Underworld" by Kellow Chesney, 1970)"
  
  Thanks to Kath Hollingsbee for the above quote. (which contains no added emphasis from me.)

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