An exhibition with a focus on nursing values is being held at the Royal College of Nursing (RCN) headquarters in Edinburgh. It covers the evolution of reform in patient care, women in prisons (with a focus on the suffragettes) and mental health. The exhibition challenges some of the more lurid stereotypes about prisons and prisoners by getting behind the labels to the individuals and their daily lives in prison.
Librarian Emma Taylor, who was involved in researching and adapting the exhibition, says it is aimed at the general public, but she advises the content is mainly suitable for adults, or teenagers accompanied by adults.
The move to equal health care
From the early 20th century, nurses have assiduously championed prison healthcare which is equal to the general population. This includes pregnancy care, trauma-informed mental healthcare and dignified end of life care.
A detailed exhibition from 1774 to 2025 shows the evolution of healthcare in prisons. With this, we learn that the first nursing service was not founded until 1919 at Holloway Prison, despite the committed energy of Elizabeth Fry and other early prison reformers, who were appalled at early prison conditions.
Early prison nursing care mainly fell under the Home Office’s purview and was often provided by prison officers. Even in 1948 after the NHS was founded, the quality of prison health care fell short of the general population. In 1996 the influential report Prisoner or Patient criticised inequitable care to prisoners; it laid out the principle of equal healthcare for all. In Scotland, prison care was transferred to the NHS in 2011: access to the same organisation for both prisoners and the general population helped to ensure that the structural conditions were in place for equal health care.
Women’s prisons and the suffragettes
The exhibition also informs us in detail of the history of women’s prison nursing services. The establishment of Holloway women’s nursing service followed a very critical review of mother and baby provision in 1919. Prison maternity care is illustrated in the exhibition with objects like stethoscopes and photos which many can relate to, such as mothers with their babies. There are also many items of historical interest, including a facsimile of a floor plan of Newgate Gaol (1777), and a food docket (a receipt, facsimile) showing the limited food available for prison children (1849).
Awareness of prison conditions was also increased by the suffragettes. Edith Hudson, both a suffragette and a nurse, was imprisoned in 1913 after trying to set fire to Kelso racecourse. She undertook a hunger and thirst strike in Calton Prison. Similarly, in 1914 the suffragette Ethel Moorhead was the first woman in Scotland to be force fed, developing pneumonia that was likely caused by feeding tubes entering the lungs. Prison nurses joined the outcry about the brutality of force feeding, leading to media attention on prison conditions.
Display items from the suffragette movement give a tangible sense of the suffragettes’activities, organisation and values. For example, the exhibition shows some medals and a photograph of prominent suffragette Elsie Duval in her cell. Bravery is clearly highly valued and a brooch was given by Mrs Pankhurst to Emily Ann Rawie for bravery in Holloway Prison.
Mental health conditions
The psychiatric prison hospital Broadmoor was set up in 1863 following the passing of the Criminal Lunatics Act 1860 in England and Wales. Scotland followed a different route and the first Scottish prison hospital at Carstairs was opened in 1948. In the century prior to this, such prisoners were held in Perth prison.
There have always been individuals with mental health conditions or learning disabilities in the general prison population. In discussion Emma Taylor detailed how RCN nurses compellingly described their use of trauma-informed care with prisoners,helping them to regain an understanding of the events leading to their imprisonment, as well as their identity beyond the prisoner role.
Care and control
A care or control dynamic runs through public services. In prison the scales inevitably tip towards control, especially given the issue of over-crowding and charged situations. But even in prison, care exists alongside control. Many of the displays in the exhibition embody stark authority, such as handcuffs, or knives used to cut ligatures. But they also testify to happier relationships. For example, a large handmade good luck card, from prisoners to a staff member.
A famous example of decision-making being handed back to prisoners is illustrated by the Barlinnie Special Unit, from 1973 to 1994: this was a therapeutic approach which was outstanding for being used successfully with violent male prisoners. This was a forerunner of person-centred care.
In the present day, a short film of prisoners and staff experiences shows a prisoner named Jamie saying that staff are most effective when they treat prisoners as individuals. This belief is also voiced by prison nurses, who talk about the need for holistic person-centred care. It’s perhaps unremarkable that person-centred care is also a nursing approach commonly followed with the general population.
Prison as rehabilitation
In our current political climate concern lies appropriately with victims of crime. So some may take the view that prison is for retribution, and prisoners are not entitled to equal health care. However, it’s important to remember that many prisoners are imprisoned for relatively minor wrong doing, and they may also be victims of social forces. These are well documented, and may include poverty, disabilities or difficulty finding employment. If prisoners are to have a working chance of rehabilitating in prison, they need the foundations of decent health care. Thus, the efforts of prison nurses to provide this are of considerable significance for any restoration of prisoners to society at large.
More information about RCN events can be found here. The exhibition finishes on 30 September 2026. A connected talk about the suffragettes and nursing will be held on August 20 2026.
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