State of the Prisons in England, Scotland and Wales is the culmination of over 40 years of work by the jeweller and prison reformer James Neild. Becoming interested in prison reform after visiting a friend in debtors’ prison while an apprentice, by 1770, he had made visits to several English and French gaols.  
After hearing a sermon by Weeden Butler (1742-1823) in February 1772, Neild was inspired to form a committee to fundraise for the release of debtors. The committee successfully managed to pay for the release of 34 prisoners and in May 1773, Neild established a more formal group, the Society for the Discharge and Relief of Persons Imprisoned for Small Debts. Popularly known as the ‘Thatched House Society’ after the tavern where the members met, the society initially focused on London prisons and Neild, as treasurer, paid weekly visits to institutions, inspecting conditions and negotiating the release of prisoners. The aims of the society were restrictive, concentrating only on cases deemed ‘worthy’, primarily those of married men with families imprisoned for debts less than £10. However, by 1800, some 16,000 debtors had been released and the society had begun working throughout England, Scotland and Wales.
In 1800, Neild published the first edition of his Account of Persons Confined for Debt in the various parts of England and Wales. The work was popular and by the third edition in 1808, it had expanded to include accounts from Scottish prisons. From 1803 to 1813, with the encouragement of his friend John Coakley Lettison (1744-1815) with whom he regularly corresponded about his inspections, Neild began serialising the most alarming accounts of prison conditions in the Gentleman’s Magazine under the title ‘Prison Remarks’. Such efforts increased the society’s reach even further.
State of the Prisons was published in 1812. Written with the assistance of Weeden Butler, the book reiterated the work of the society and offered detailed descriptions of every prison in England, Scotland and Wales, including the notorious hulks that were moored in the Thames and at Portsmouth. This copy was likely presented to George IV when Prince Regent. Finely bound in red goatskin by Taylor & Hessey, it includes a fore edge painting depicting perhaps the most famous of English prisons, the Tower of London.