PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON |
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
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7. In the male prison all prisoners on admission are worked on the treadwheel for the following periods: 1st offenders for three months; 2nd offenders for six months; and third offenders for nine months. They are worked for eight hours, and are a quarter of an hour on the wheel and a quarter of an hour off. They have also an interval of an hour for breakfast; after their period on the treadwheel has expired they are put to shot-drill, until removed to good conduct gang A.
8. In the male prison, baking bread, pumping water, sweeping and cleaning the buildings and yard. In the female prison, washing clothes, making and mending clothes, cooking for the male and female prisoners at Glendairy, Town Hall, and District A. Prisons, also sweeping and cleaning the buildings and yard, and breaking stone.
9. (a) The prisoners of gang A. were employed just outside the walls of the prison
during the year 1874 in quarrying stone.
(b) By three Superintendents.
(e) No escape of prisoners while being employed beyond the Gaol has taken
place during the last three years.
(d) There were no profits of labour.
The Honourable House of Assembly addressed a request to the Governor to issue a Commission to inquire whether and in what manner, the criminal labour of the country can be made partly or wholly remunerative to the island. His Excellency carried out the request of the Honourable House in August last. It is to be hoped that the labours of this Commission will have the desired effect, and that our prisons will be placed on the same footing as those of the mother country, where many of the establishments pay a large portion of the prison expenses out of the earnings of the prisoners employed in various trades and occupations during the period of their imprisonment.
10. 5,9391. Os. 74d. These expenses include all the prisons of the island. There is no separate account kept of the expenses of Glendairy. The food for the Town Hall and District A Prisons is prepared at Glendairy, and sent to those prisons daily, conse- quently form one item of expense, to which the costs of the other island prisons are added, and make the above mentioned amount.
11. There were no earnings.
12. The prison cells are closed at 6 o'clock in the evening, and opened at half-past 6 o'clock in the morning. There is a large lamp kept burning all night both in the male and female prisons opposite the cells. The cells are patrolled not less than three times during the night. An officer is always on duty.
13. The following are the number and nature of the punishments inflicted on persons
at Glendairy during the year :-
Males.-Flogging: 1, 7 stripes; 5, 12; 1, 18: 1, 24.
Solitary confinement: 2, 7 days; 3, 14; 2, 28.
Tread-wheel: 1, 7 days; 7. 14; 1, 20; 4, 28.
Females. Solitary confinement: 1, 2 days; 5, 7; 1, 10; 1, 14.
One prisoner was deprived of good conduct badges. Four were reduced from Gang A to B. There were 556 punishments awarded for minor offences, their nature was principally deprivation of molasses, tea, and bread in the morning, and the carrying of 32-pound shot. There were 26 punishments ordered under the amended rules of October last, namely, placing the prisoners on half-rations for periods from one to seven days.
14. There is a Chaplain, a Clergymen of the Established Church.
15. Religious services are regularly performed by the Chaplain. There is a morning service at 8 A.M., and there is regular afternoon service in the Chapel of the prison at 5 P.M. for males and females. The prison is supplied with bibles, prayer-books, and other suitable books for the use of the prisoners.
16. There are seldom Roman Catholic or Dissenting prisoners, but ministers of these persuasions are allowed free access to prisoners, and would be apprized if any of their persuasion were in prison if a prisoner desired it, but any books which such ministers may wish to supply to convicts must first be submitted to the Inspector of prisons.
17. There is a schoolmaster who assists the chaplain in catechising and instructing the prisoners, and attends the prison every evening.
18. On account of full and regular labour. and general good conduct in prison, and when prisoners have undergone two-thirds of their sentences, tickets of leave are granted to first offenders.
19. Coroner's Inquests have been regularly held. There were three deaths during the year. Verdicts-"Natural causes.'
1J
20. (a) Sanitary condition of the prison good.
(b) There were no prevailing diseases.'
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21. Every prisoner is allowed the following daily rations divided equally into two meals. The same is not given two days in succession, nor more than two days in one week:-
Yams, plantains, eddocs, or sweet potatoes Bread..
Indian or Guinea corn couco, or boiled rice Salt fish
Two ounces of bread, and a half pint molasses and water are given each convict
before going to work in the my ruing.
(Signed)
Lb. oz.
4 0
1
+ 0
0 2
FREDK. WATTS, Inspector of Prisons.
Answers applying to the Town Hall, and to A, B, C, and D Prisons.
1. There is no separate system, the confinement is in associated wards in all the prisons.
2. At the Town Hall Prison there are three warders who supervise the prisoners. At Prison A the prisoners are under the supervision of the matron and police. At the Juvenile Asylum B, the keeper is the supervisor. At C Prison, the keeper supervises and the prison is patrolled by police at night. At D, the keeper is the supervisor, and a police sentinel is placed over the prisoners.
3. At the Town Hall Prison there are six cells and eight associated wards. At A, there are two large associated wards, and six separate cells used for the discipline. At B, two dormitories. At C, there are six dormitories and six cells. At D, purpose of prison there is one associated room 41 feet long, 30 feet wide, and 6 feet 8 inches high, and three separate cells.
4. In the Town Hall Prison 200 cubic feet. At C 371 feet, and at 1), 3721⁄2 feet.
5.
At A 519 feet.
(a) Felons sentenced to hard labour.
(b) Misdemeanants sentenced to hard labour. (c) Felons not sentenced to hard labour.
(d) Misdemeanants sentenced to hard labour.
Untried prisoners.
(f) Seamen deserters.
(g) European soldiers and sailors.
(h) Debtors.
(i) Prisoners confined for want of sureties.
At B, 628 feet.
The deficiencies of the Town Hall Prison, and Rural Houses of Correction render
it impossible to enforce proper classification.
6. Shot-drill is enforced at all prisons in which male adults are confined.
7. All hard labour prisoners are subjected to shot-drill during one-third of the period of their sentence up to eighteen months, which is the maximum, notwithstanding the imprisonment should be of longer duration. Those sentenced to a less period than twenty-one days are kept at shot-drill the whole of that period, twenty-one days being the minimum of that description of penal labour. The hours of shot-drill are six daily, from 6 to 9 A.M. and from 1 to 4 r.M.
8. At District A Prison, six female prisoners sentenced to hard labour were kept at this prison for the purpose of pumping water and keeping the yards clean. This system was discontinued by order of his Excellency the Governor, and he directed that only female prisoners for trial, and women in confinement for debt, should be imprisoned at District A Prison. The water is now pumped by six hard labour prisoners sent from Glendairy on four days in the week. The yards are swept by any two prisoners who are willing to do the work, and the sweeping is always completed by 7 o'clock in the morning under the supervision of the sentry.
9. (a) At the Town Hall Prison, twelve prisoners are employed daily at Government House, keeping the grounds in order. Thirty-four daily on the pier-head discharging the dredge punts. At Juvenile Asylum B, the boys are employed in agriculture on the neighbouring estates. At ( Prison the prisoners are employed in breaking stone, and on the public highways in the parishes of Saint Philip and Saint John. At D, the prisoners are employed breaking stone.
(b) By Superintendents at all the prisons.
(c) There were no escapes of prisoners at the Town Hall Prison in the years 1871 and 1872, but there were five escapes in 1873, from the labour party employed at Govern-
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