Chapter 1 explores how middle-class ideas about ‘civilising’ the masses and moulding women into responsible citizens influenced prison practices. It examines key aspects of a day in the Irish female convict prison. It first examines the classification system, established after transportation ended in 1853, through which convict women progressed. The second section outlines how the penal system sought to reform through schooling, religious instruction and practice, and work, while the third considers order and discipline. The chapter seeks to offer a glimpse of how inmates’ individual preferences, needs and demands could disrupt the structured prison regime. It demonstrates that many convicted women in Ireland deliberately and inadvertently thwarted attempts to impose uniformity and regulation.