English Prisons: An Architectural History is the result of the first systematic written and photographic survey of prisons since the 20th century. It traces the history of the purpose-built prison and its development over the past 200 years. Over 130 establishments that make up the current prison estate and over 100 former sites that have surviving buildings or extensive documentation have been investigated, institutions ranging from medieval castles and military camps to country houses that have been taken over and adapted for penal use.

The Prison Service granted the project team unprecedented access to all its establishments, allowing the compilation of an archive of more than 5,000 images and 250 research files. The team was allowed to go anywhere, and to photograph almost anything (except where this could compromise security) and to speak to any inmate. A selection of the images from the archive illustrates this book.