Slopping out is the manual emptying of human waste when

prison cell A prison cell (also known as a jail cell) is a small room in a prison or police station where a prisoner is held. Cells greatly vary by their furnishings, hygienic services, and cleanliness, both across countries and based on the level of punish ...

s are unlocked in the morning. Inmates without a

flush toilet A flush toilet (also known as a flushing toilet, water closet (WC) – see also toilet names) is a toilet that disposes of human waste (principally urine and feces) by using the force of water to ''flush'' it through a drainpipe to another loca ...

in the cell have to use other means (formerly a

chamber pot A chamber pot is a portable toilet, meant for nocturnal use in the bedroom. It was common in many cultures before the advent of indoor plumbing and flushing toilets. Names and etymology "Chamber" is an older term for bedroom. The chamber pot ...

, then a bucket, now often a

chemical toilet A chemical toilet collects human excreta in a holding tank and uses chemicals to minimize odors. They do not require a connection to a water supply and are used in a variety of situations. These toilets are usually, but not always, self-containe ...

) while locked in during the night. The reason that some cells do not have toilets is that they date from the

Victorian era In the history of the United Kingdom and the British Empire, the Victorian era was the period of Queen Victoria's reign, from 20 June 1837 until her death on 22 January 1901. The era followed the Georgian period and preceded the Edwardia ...

and were therefore not designed with plumbing. As a result, there is no space in which to put a toilet, together with the expense and difficulty of installing the necessary pipes.

"Dirty Protest"

During the late 1970s,

Provisional IRA The Irish Republican Army (IRA; ), also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and informally as the Provos, was an Irish republicanism, Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, fa ...

volunteers protested against conditions of internment at

HM Prison Maze Her Majesty's Prison Maze (previously Long Kesh Detention Centre, and known colloquially as The Maze or H-Blocks) was a prison in Northern Ireland that was used to house alleged paramilitary prisoners during the Troubles from August 1971 to Sept ...

by refusing to slop out and instead smearing their faeces on the cell walls. This was later referred to as the

Dirty protest The dirty protest (also called the no wash protest) was part of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Irish National Liberation Army (INLA) prisoners held in the Maze Prison (also known as "Long ...

, part of several acts of disobedience within the "H-Blocks" culminating in the

1981 Irish Hunger Strike The 1981 Irish hunger strike was the culmination of a five-year protest during the Troubles by Irish republican prisoners in Northern Ireland. The protest began as the blanket protest in 1976, when the British government withdrew Special C ...

Phasing out

Slopping out was allegedly abolished in

England and Wales England and Wales () is one of the three legal jurisdictions of the United Kingdom. It covers the constituent countries England and Wales and was formed by the Laws in Wales Acts 1535 and 1542. The substantive law of the jurisdiction is Eng ...

by 1996, although '' Private Eye'' in 2011 reported that Prisons Inspector Nick Hardwick stated that it still persisted at HMP Gloucester. It was scheduled to be abolished in Scotland by 1999. Due to budget restraints the abolition was delayed, and by 2004 prisoners in five of Scotland's sixteen prisons still had to slop out. Slopping out ended in HM Young Offenders Institution Polmont in 2007, leaving

HM Prison Peterhead HMP Peterhead was a prison in Peterhead in Aberdeenshire, Scotland, operating from 1888 to 2013. Since June 2016, the former grounds operate as the Peterhead Prison Museum. History Peterhead Convict Prison was built around 1888. It was designed ...

as the last Scottish prison where prisoners did not have access to plumbing; 300 prisoners had to use chemical toilets due to the difficulty of installing modern plumbing in the prison's granite structure. Peterhead ultimately closed in December 2013. Slopping out is still in practice in prisons in the

Republic of Ireland Ireland ( ga, Éire ), also known as the Republic of Ireland (), is a country in north-western Europe consisting of 26 of the 32 Counties of Ireland, counties of the island of Ireland. The capital and largest city is Dublin, on the eastern ...

. Speaking at the launch of the Irish Human Rights Commission's Annual Report for 2009, the Green Party Junior Minister for Integration Mary White said it was time to move on from the Victorian practice. Slopping out was eradicated in Dublin's

Mountjoy Prison Mountjoy Prison ( ga, Príosún Mhuinseo), founded as Mountjoy Gaol and nicknamed ''The Joy'', is a medium security men's prison located in Phibsborough in the centre of Dublin, Ireland. The current prison Governor is Edward Mullins. History ...

by the end of 2013 and in Cork Prison in 2016. However, the practice continues at Limerick Prison.

Other

A "potwalloper" was a trusty prisoner who made sure the buckets were emptied and cleaned each morning. He did not do the cleaning himself, but he was responsible for making sure that other prisoners did.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Slopping Out Toilets Imprisonment and detention fi:Paljuselli

"Dirty Protest"

Phasing out

Other

See also

References