Cornwall College students get a taste of life behind bars
11:14am Wednesday 24th October 2012 in News
Cornwall College students get a taste of life behind bars
STUDENTS from the A-level sociology course at Cornwall College Camborne visited Bodmin Jail to learn about the historic site and the folk tales that surround it.
The jail, which was a fully working prison from 1779 to 1927, has been used by The Royal Navy as a military prison as well as the secure hiding place for the Domesday Book and the Crown Jewels during World War I. The site offers a lot of history for students to learn about and is still one of the top tourist attractions in the UK.
The students were shown around by a guide and had each section of the jail and the punishments explained to them during the course of the day. Student Katie Charlesworth said: “The trip to Bodmin Jail was both enjoyable and educational, but I was shocked to discover the severity of the punishments given to local criminals for what now would seem to be less severe crimes.”
The jail is rumoured to be haunted by numerous characters, who were depicted to the students during their tour. The jail was a site at which many inmates were hanged, or tortured if they were not sentenced to death, and their souls are said to wander the jail.
Beth Pollock, an A-level sociology student who enjoyed the trip said: “Bodmin Jail was interesting because it gave an insight to the punishments and treatment between different social classes. “It seems really unfair that the richer classes were treated a bit less harshly than the lower classes.”
