Is it? How do you know? Which areas of the country did you study, how and for how long; and in which peer-reviewed journal were your results published?
A prison sentence "at hard labour" was no joke in Victorian times. Each prisoner had to help keep the treadmill turning for thousands of steps per day.
Perhaps punishments like these represented a leftover mindset from the earlier hanging, drawing and quartering.
@Thinkerbell It was a harsh time for most people without private income. Dickens wrote much which convinced those with a social conscience that things needed to change.
Because "Freedom of Press"... they can print whatever they want with zero accountability - no one really cares if it kills a few disabled people and their carers.
