James Neild

James Neild (4 June 1744 – 16 February 1814) was an English jeweller and prison reformer. While he was supported by two particular friends, Weeden Butler and John Coakley Lettsom, his efforts were distinct from those of John Howard, and the Quaker group including Elizabeth Fry.

Early life Neild was born in Knutsford, Cheshire, and concentrated on philanthropy and campaigning; he worked especially in the field of prison reform.

Penal reformer In his early London days, when visiting in 1762 a fellow-apprentice who was confined for debt in the King's Bench Prison, Neild felt the necessity of reforms. Subsequently he inspected Newgate, the Derby prisons, Liverpool, Bridewell, the Chester dungeons, and before 1770 a number of prisons in northern France. The harsh treatment to which prisoners were subjected almost everywhere stirred him into activism. On the formation in May 1773 of a Society for the Relief and Discharge of Persons imprisoned for Small Debts, Neild was appointed treasurer, and remained associated with the society for the rest of his life. In his capacity of treasurer he visited prisons in and about London, and made weekly reports. Fifteen months after the formation of the society 986 prisoners had been discharged, at a cost of a little less than £2,900.

In 1812, after inspecting a number of prisons, Neild published State of Prisons in England, Scotland and Wales. Along with Jeremy Bentham's Punishments and Rewards (1811), Neild's book helped to trigger parliamentary pressure for reform.

Family Neild married, in 1778, the eldest daughter of John Camden of Battersea. They had two sons and a daughter. On his death he was succeeded by his younger son John Camden Neild, the recluse and miser. His elder son William was disinherited and went abroad, in circumstances that affected Neild's posthumous reputation.