This is part of the report by the visiting magistrates on Stafford gaol in 1850. The gaol had become severely overcrowded and, with regard to female prisoners, the justices declared

"That it is painful to reflect upon the ill effects which must and do result from a system which compels the association of comparatively innocent minded Females with the depraved creatures who are utterly lost to all sense of shame, glory in their depravity, and use every means to corrupt and debase all with whom they come in contact. Contamination of the most baneful character is in fact continually taking place in the Prison of the County."

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