Boys exercising at Tothill Fields Prison

Book illustration of boys exercising at Tothill Fields Prison, from page 357 of 'The criminal prisons of London and scenes of prison life' by Henry Mayhew and John Binny. The authors cite a table of the number of children under the age of 14 who had been committed to Tothill Fields for various petty thefts during 1851-1852. No less than "55 children, under 14 years of age, were committed to prison for stealing fruit, or some article under the value of sixpence; 48 for stealing something of the value of sixpence and under one shilling; 48, again, for taking something worth between one and two shillings; and 40 for appropriating something that was estimated at between two and four shillings - the whole having been sentenced to terms under two months."