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No. 19.
HONGKONG.
REPORT OF THE SUPERINTENDENT OF VICTORIA GAOL, FOR 1885.
Presented to the Legislative Council by Command of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government,
on the 31st March, 1886.
No. 38.
COLONIAL SECRETARY,
GAOL SUPERINTENDENT'S OFFICE,
HONGKONG, 27th January, 1886.
In forwarding the prescribed Annual Statistical Return of Victoria Gaol, I beg to submit at the same time, for the information of His Excellency the Officer Administering the Government, a few observations regarding the Gaol and its administration, which are but little adverted to in the Official Return.
2. I assumed charge of the Victoria Gaol in the beginning of May last. My personal experience therefore only extends to eight months of the past year; and, if I venture to offer opinions and make suggestions as to desirable changes and reforms, I do so with diffidence, conscious of my limited ex- perience of the criminal classes and Prison Administration in the Far East.
3. In directing the administration of the Gaol in this Colony, it will hardly be disputed that Government cannot do better than to be guided in its general principles by English Prison experience, and to endeavour to attain the results arrived at in England. These results have of late years been marvellous, and are briefly but graphically described in Sir E. DU CANE's account of Penal Servitude (London 1882.) A combination of deterrent and reformatory Prison discipline, matured by the ex- perience of many years, has, in England, resulted in a diminution of crime truly astonishing. During the five years ending in 1859, the yearly average of sentenced Prisoners, in England and Wales, was
Sentenced to Penal Servitude Sentenced to imprisonment
2,589 .12,536
TOTAL,.............15,125
out of a population of over 19 millions. This number was year by year reduced till in 1881 it amounted to
Sentenced to Penal Servitude Sentenced to imprisonment
.1,525 .9,266
TOTAL,............10,791
while the population had increased from 19 millions to nearly 26 millions.
4. Such splendid results can hardly be hoped for in this Colony; but Government can at least strive to approximate them. There are many causes operating in Hongkong which make both the deterrent and reformatory results of Prison discipline less efficacious than they are at home. Some are inherent in the situation and conditions of the Colony; but some are removeable. The wealth and prosperity of Hongkong induces a large influx of Chinese and other foreign population amongst whom must be expected a fair proportion of the criminal classes. These latter, probably accustomed to the severity of the Canton and other Eastern Prisons, must be agreably surprised, and can hardly be deterred by the humane and gentle treatment, which, as a civilized and Christian nation, we extend to our Prisoners.
5. In this Gaol, as far as my observation goes, Chinese Convicts are better fed, better clothed, and better lodged than free coolie labourers, and the labour exacted from them is less. The deterrent effects of imprisonment are therefore almost limited to loss of liberty and its accompanying pleasures-a loss far more acutely felt by Western races than those we have to deal with here. Reformatory elements are greatly wanting here. Scholastic and religious instruction there is none for the Chinese Prisoners (if we except a Voluntary Christian Service in the Chinese language on Sundays). Instruction in trades can,
owing to limited accommodation, be extended to only a limited number, and the compulsory living in association is only likely to result in the moral corruption of many of the Prisoners.
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