PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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Inclosure 2 in No. 26.
RETURN of Number of Prisoners confined in the Georgetown Goal on the night of the 14th June, 1874.
Males Females
Total
Males.
Number in separate cells in wood prison
each of the small rooms in brick prison (13)
::
:::
518
71
589
120
brick prison
77
26
11
each of the wards in wood prison:-No. 1, 21; No. 2, 44; No. 3,
42; No. 4, 33
140
"
in corridors of brick prison
40
11
wood prison
None
19
confined in three rooms in the hospital below:-No. 1, 10; No. 2,
10; No. 3, 22
42
confined in debtor's ward
3
J
17
confined in hospital
61
518
Females.
11
confined in separate cells
14
31
in association in 13 cella (8 each)
in hospital
in corridors
Totul
:::
Officer on night duty from 6 PM., Joseph A. Blackmoore. This officer was also on duty during the day.
::::
39
5
19
71
589
Forty-two prisoners were punished this morning, by stopping their morning's allow- ance of bread and sweetened water, for making a noise yesterday evening.
No. 27.
(Signed) A. F. PILE, Keeper.
Governor Longden, C.M.G., to the Earl of Carnarvon.-(Received July 29.)
(No. 115. British Guiana.) My Lord,
Government House, Georgetown, July 1, 1874.
WITH reference to my despatch No. 102 of the 16th ultimo, I have now the honour to forward three printed copies of Mr. Sealy's Report upon the Penal Settlement at Massaruni for the year 1878.
2. Mr. Sealy, who had been previously Superintendent of Prisons in Trinidad, and given satisfaction there, was appointed by the Earl of Kimberley to succeed Captain Twyford as Superintendent of the Penal Settlement at Massaruni, and entered upon his duties on the 30th of October last. His Report shows that he has endeavoured to the utmost of his power to remedy the deficiencies, and improve the discipline of the prison. It is evident, also, from the Report, that there are many improvements still needed; but I trust that it is not too much to hope that a steady prosecution of those pointed out by Mr. Sealy, and of others, which from time to time may appear necessary,
will gradually raise this prison to a level, in point of discipline and efficiency, with the convict prisons of the United Kingdom.
3. The evils pointed out by the Earl of Kimberley in his Lordship's despatch to Sir John Scott, No. 403 of the 11th of December, 1872, chiefly resulted from the absence of efficient inspection, owing to the distance of the Settlement from Georgetown. The want of frequent and efficient inspection may be remedied by the establishment of a steam-tug to ply between Massaruni and Georgetown twice a-week, towing-barges laden with granite quarried at the Settlement. This stone is greatly needed for the service of the Government in the construction of sea-walls, groynes, and sea-defences generally. Some of the owners of large estates bordering on the sea have recently made application to the Government to be supplied with stone for the same purpose. Stones, too, is need for macadamizing the streets of this town. This large demand thus created can only be met if the number of prisoners at Massaruni be increased; but, with the increase of 100, which I have already proposed as a temporary measure, sufficient stone may be
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obtained to warrant the employment of a small steamer. By this means inspection may be made frequently, thoroughly, and without notice. With such inspection the isolation of Massaruni would lose its principal drawback, while retaining all the advantages which originally led to its selection by Sir Henry Light.
4. There is one other measure that I have under consideration, which I think will improve the condition of the prisons generally. It is the re-organization of the prison staff. At present overseers or turnkeys are appointed to cach prison. A man appointed to Mas- saruni remains at Massaruni always, and so at other prisons. It will be seen from the estimates inclosed in my despatch of the 17th ultimo, that the staff of the George- town Gaol is wholly insufficient for a prison having 550 to 600 prisoners within its walls; and that I have been compelled to ask for an additional vote in the Supplemental Estimates to pay for more warders. Many of the district prisons are under the charge of the police, who are thereby taken off from their proper duties. At Massaruni, the insufficiency in number of the staff of warders is compensated for by a guard of police, who are under the command of the Inspector-General of Police; and much inconvenience has arisen, both under Mr. Sealy's superintendence, and that of his predecessors, from the conflict of autho- rity thus occasioned; and it is desirable to enlarge the staff of warders under the sole authority of the Superintendent, reserving the police (if at all), as a reserve guard, for night service outside the prison, or to be ready in case of an emergency.
5. As a consequence of these arrangements, and of the want of encouragement held out to the lower grades, the office of turnkey or guard, both in the gaol in town, and at Massaruni, has come to be regarded as a sort of last resource for a man wanting employ- I intend, ment; and as a further consequence the service does not attract the best men. therefore (if your Lordship should approve of it), to propose to the combined Court next year a vote sufficient to cover the cost of re-organizing the prison service entirely, dividing the subordinate officers into the following five grades:
First Prison Officer. Second Prison Officer. Third Prison Officer. Fourth Prison Officer.
Probationary.
Every man to enter the probationary class for six months, and then move up, if found worthy, by regular promotion. Each class to receive a higher rate of pay than the class below it. I propose also to do away entirely with the distinction between turnkeys and guards, and gate-keepers, and overseers; to employ all the prison officers alternately on all prison duties, assigning a particular class of duties to each grade; and to make it a condition of entering the service that every prison officer shall be liable to serve in any prison, whether in Georgetown, or Massaruni, or Berbice, or elsewhere, and to be removed from one prison to another once a-year by order of the Governor. To this last condition I attach great importance, as it will enable the Governor to change the staff at Massaruni so frequently as to avoid the evils which have resulted in times past from keeping men there as warders, after they had become wearied and discontented, and lost their discipline. With these changes, and with the provision of better accommodation at Massaruni for the prison officers, I think the efficiency of the staff would be much improved.
Sir,
I have, &c.
(Signed) J. R. LONGDEN.
Inclosure in No. 27.
Her Majesty's Penal Settlement, Massaruni,
March 19, 1874.
I HAVE the honour to transmit the annual Report of the prison under my charge for the year 1873.
Also to report, for the information of his Excellency, that the necessary alterations and repairs of this prison, suggested by me in my letter dated 15th November, 1873, have been completed, and which are as follows:-
The erection of a "koker to west of prison ground, plastering the whole of the cells in the "Brick Prison," putting up eight new doors, and door jambs, and bevelling the ventilators and otherwise improving the ventilation of the whole of the cells, putting on new locks on the cell doors of the stone prison, bevelling the cells, lime-washing the cells and passages throughout; converting clothes rooms into cells to give accommodation to four more prisoners, and lathing in the passages above, for the better security of the prison, pointing the outside walls of the Old Prison, and