Glasgow Magdalene Institution

Women under suspicion could be forced to undergo an intimate examination by male police officers; if they showed signs of venereal disease they would be incarcerated in the Lock Hospital without a time limit.

The fifth annual report of the Magdalene Institute, written in 1864, said it was of "profound regret an of painful surprise" that the "resorts of profligacy should so much abound" in both Glasgow and Scotland.

Despite this police all over the city were hunting for them and newspaper reports called on the public to be vigilant and look out for the girls, distinctive in their blue dresses and white aprons.

In the capital, the charitable organisation, funded by church collections and private donations, opened in the Canongate in the Old Town, a popular location for street prostitutes.

The Magdalene Asylum was "sharply segregated place", according to Scot-Pep, a sex workers' rights organisation based in Edinburgh, with prostitutes kept away from those women of a "better order".

[5] One resident of the Edinburgh asylum, Mary Paterson, (originally from Glasgow) was murdered by Burke and Hare shortly after leaving the institution on 8 April 1828.

[5] The Glasgow Magdalene Institution has inspired popular culture through a novel like Penance by Theresa Talbot that was published in October 2015.

She based the novel as a crime narrative through dramatic licenses to give the women of the Glasgow Magdalene Institution a voice.