The spotlight shed on gaols by John Howard, Elizabeth Fry and others, and the demand for reform of the old and the creation of something new. The question of the purpose of imprisonment became a major public concern, and for the first time differing ideologies competed about how to achieve the Holy Grail of crime eradication. The temporary nature of the hulks and disquiet about transportation led to the construction of penitentiaries under either the separate or silent systems. Millbank and Pentonville both came under mounting criticism from eminent Victorians, and both were deemed failures. Attempts by Alexander Maconochie to fashion an alternative approach were frustrated.