The Evangelical contribution to the penal reform was embraced by a small number of Claphamites, including William Wilberforce, as part of the grand plan to improve the empire. The age of atonement, reflected in the theology and politics of post-Revolutionary Britain, saw the coming together of a coalition of Tory, Whig and what Buxton called ‘neutral’ forces to renew the criminal code and reform penal discipline. Their main vehicle was the Penal Discipline Society, which consistently opposed transportation and promoted the penitentiary as a better alternative. Where Bentham had presented secular arguments in favour of the Panopticon and against New South Wales, the PDS was not so convinced that there was a single, best solution to the problem of penal reform. The failure of the first penitentiary at Millbank to meet the unreasonable expectations placed on it for reform by religion and work alone meant that transportation would continue for the foreseeable future. The chapter demonstrates that Evangelical Anglicans were the ones most committed to penal reform as an aspect of the unified church state and the realization of the moral empire.