2.
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tried here. The consequence is that prisoners, especially those undergoing long sentences, seeing no hope of obtaining their liberation before the expiration of their term, become desperate, and are ready to incur risk to effect their escape.
3. To put a stop to this indulgence can be done by making it clear that remission is earned. A scale of remission should be drawn up in a clear manner and be conspicuously hung up in the Prisons, so that every prisoner might have constantly before him the advantages to be derived by his cheerful obedience to the Gaol regulations, and by the due performance of all allotted tasks.
4. In these representations, I entirely concur. The necessity of some measure of the kind has been represented to me very forcibly, and accordingly, I have the honor to submit for your approval a scale of remission of sentences which I think suitable for this colony, and which I believe to be similar to the regulations as to discharge at present in force in the Convict prisons in Bermuda, under the authority of the Secretary of State for the Home Department. Messrs. Tomlin and Douglas, the Superintendents of the two prisons, have also represented to me the difficulty they experience at present in maintaining proper discipline, and in exacting a fair amount of work from the Convicts. They consider it very desirable that a graduated scale of remission increasing in proportion to the length of sentence, together with the conditions upon which it is granted, should be clearly defined.