How the Victorian's built Britain - Prisons - Spike Island - with Michael Buerk - John Crotty author

In this episode segment of How the Victorians built Britain, Michael Buerk focuses on reform and punishment, which changed dramatically in the Victorian era. He visits Spike Island Cork, which became the largest prison in the world in the 1850's and is still the largest ever formal prison in Ireland and Britain. Michael's speaks to John Crotty, former CEO at Spike Island and author of books on its history. John explains the awful conditions still prevalent in the prison of the early 1850's, which gave way during its 36 year life span to more rounded approaches to refrom.