Convicts: male convict at Pentonville Prison and female convict at Millbank Prison

An illustration of a male convict at Pentonville prison and a female convict at Millbank prison, from page 85 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The authors describe how the male prisoners at Pentonville are dressed alike in brown, each wearing "a peculiar brown cloth cap, and the peak of this (which is also of cloth) hangs so low down as to cover the face like a mask, the eyes alone of the individual appearing through the two holes cut in the front." The masks were designed "with every kindness and consideration to the prisoners, in order that their faces might not be seen in their shame". However the authors note that the masks "cannot but be regarded as a piece of wretched frippery, and as idle in use as they are theatrical in character" since the inmates at Pentonville were destined for transportation or penal servitude "where no such masquerading is indulged in [and] it becomes positively silly to impose such a costume on the prisoners as a means of preventing recognition in after life, since all such restraints are removed during the latter part of their punishment".