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central gaol at headquarters, the crowding together of large bodies of men within a limited is always dangerous in a tropical climate in case of the occurrence of a sickly season. There appears also to be a special risk attendant on the removal from certain districts of the Island (and more particularly from Kurunegala} of natives accus- tomed to an open air life and to a particular class of diet, to a crowded prison, and until they have been seasoned by previous discipline in their own locality.
32. In this respect the system now in force should, I am convinced, he considerably modified; and I do not propose further to increase the size of Welikada, but rather so to improve the condition of the larger district gaols as to allow of prisoners undergoing their penal stage in their own district, and only to transfer them to Welikada when they have been innured to hard work, prison discipline, and prison fare, removing them subse- quently in batches from Welikada to localities where they can be safely kept and em- ployed on severe but profitable labour.
33. It is also my intention to relieve the Superintendent of Welikada, whose time should be fully occupied by the management of that important prison from all responsi- bility in connection with the gaol at Hulfsdorf. I shall address your Lordship in a sepa- rate despatch on this subject.
34. It will hardly have escaped your notice that although the condition of Hulfsdorf is reported to be remarkably healthy, owing in all probability to the prisoners having worked all day in the open air, overcrowding has prevailed there to a most undesirable extent, five prisoners having been frequently locked up in cells containing 1,130 or even only 1,000 cubic feet, while the practice of locking up chatties and tubs with the prisoners was in force there as well as in Welikada.
35. But the latter practice has been peremptorily stopped, while every endeavour is being made to put an end to the overcrowding, a detachment of fifty prisoners having been removed thence in one batch to the 'Kalutara Gaol, where there is both room and
1 work for them, while further drafts will, I trust, be sent off before long to work at the salt lagoons at Hambantota and the Mannar Causeway.
36. I trust that these latter suggestions will meet with your approval.
Right Honourable Sir,
W. II. GREGORY.
I have, &c.
(Signed)
Inclosure 1 in No. 39.
Prisons and Prisons' Discipline Commission, Colombo, December 17, 1872. WE, the undersigned, members of the Commission on Prisons aal Prisons Discipline, have the honour to report as follows :—
We received a letter from the Colonial Secretary, dated September 30, 1872, acquainting us that your Excellency referred to us an accompanying letter from the Superintendent of the Colombo Convict Establishments reporting the excessive rate of mortality therein, and requesting us to make inquiry, and report on the subject.
We were also thereby acquainted that, as Dr. Charsley, the principal medical officer, would have to be examined before the Commission, Dr. Watt had been requested to sit as a member of the Commission on this occasion.
Dr. Watt has accordingly joined us, and we have had the benefit of his co-operation during the inquiry.
Dr. Charsley has appeared before us as a witness, and has by his own wish forborne from acting as a member of the Commission on this occasion.
In obedience to your Excellency's desire, we have held several meetings; we have examined the gaols in question, and we have taken the evidence of witnesses,
The absence from time to time of members of our body from Colombo" on official duty, and the pressure upon most of us of specially heavy official business at this season of the year, has caused a delay in the completion of the inquiry which we much regret.
We have also suffered a seveve loss during the period of this inquiry in the death of our excellent colleague, Mr. Duval: many of the questions which came before us were on matters peculiarly within his knowledge; and we should have been most thankful for his assistance, either as a member of the Commission, or as a witness, or as both.
After taking the evidence of Dr. Coghill, the Superintendent (a copy of which evidence is hereto annexed), we ascertained that an inquiry, ordered by your Excelleney, into certain irregularities in Welikada Gaol had been brought to a conclusion, and that your Excellency, with the advice of your Excentive Council, had adjudicated upon
the same.
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We requested to have copies of those proceedings; and your Excellency was pleased to direct the proceedings to be sent to us, with a letter from the Colonial Secretary, in which we were instructed to regard the adjudication of the Government on the subject matters of that inquiry as authoritative and final; and "to resist attempts, should such be made, by officers of the gaol to reopen questions which have heen authoritatively and finally determined."
The recorded result of that inquiry was to adjudicate that "the discipline in Welikada Convict Establishment had fallen, under the administration of the present Superintendent, into a state of disorganization; " that there had been "an antagonism between the medical and disciplinary departments of the prison," and that "the Governor must hold the Superintendent personally responsible for the existence of this antagonism.
We also have received, by your Excellency's order, the proceedings in seven inquests held lately on prisoners who have died within the gaol. should be supplied to us, and we had recommended that an inquest should be held in the We had requested that these case of every such death.
Your Excellency was pleased to notify to us, by the letter of the Colonial Secretary last referred to, that you had directed this to be done.
We also received a letter from the Colonial Secretary, dated October 31, 1872, by which your Excellency directed our special attention to the unhealthy and uncleanly practice in Welikada not to allow the prisoners to leave their cells or wards during the night for natural offices.
In the course of our inquiry we took at considerable length the evidence of Dr. Charsley.
A copy of this is appended.
J
In proceeding to report to your Excellency, it will be convenient to consider- First: The extent of the increase of mortality.
Second: What appear to have been its causes, or among its causes.
Third: What remedial measures should be taken.
First-As to the extent of the increase of mortality.
There can be no doubt that the increased rate of mortality in Welikada during
the last half of 1870, during 1871, and during the present year has been lamentably great.
The Hulfsdorf Prison has not, generally speaking, been in an unhealthy state (except for one period during which there was a prevalence of dysentery) nor is it unhealthy now.
There are many elements of unhealthiness there, which ought not to be allowed to exist, and we will speak of these presently; but the present sanitary state of the prison there is not alarmingly bad.
Throughout the greater part of the rest of this Report, we shall speak of Welikada, which is far the largest and most important establishment.
By an official paper in our possession, and hereto appended (marked A), which was drawn up by the late Mr. Duval, it appears that the average death-rate in Welikada Prison for the ten years ending with the close of 1807, was 11:30. By a Table put in by Dr. Coghill, with his evidence in this inquiry (marked B), and hereto appended, it appears that the death-rate for 1868 was 7·75; and that the death-rate for 1869 was 2:02. The same Table shows that the death-rate for 1870 was 10:11. But we learn from Dr. Charsley's evidence that 53 deaths which occurred in that whole year, there were only 8 during the first half-year.
The death-rate for 1871 was 17-82.
The death-rate for 1872 from January to October 17, (the day when Dr. Coghill made up his Return) was 19-33.
We append a Table (marked C), just supplied to us, which shows the number of deaths for each of the eleven months now expired, of the present year, distinguishing between patients for bowel complaints, and patients for other causes. It will be seen that the number of deaths in a month reached its maximum in August, and that it has gradually decreased since.
Dr. Charsley, by letter of December 4, has informed our President, that the total number of sick on that day was only three.
Thus we see that the period of two years and a-half, from the beginning of 1968
to the middle of 1870, was a period of remarkable and exceptional healthiness.
The last half of 1870 gave a death-rate exceeding the old average.
The death-rate, 17-82, for 1871 grew heavier; and the death-rate for the first nine months of 1872, 19:33, was heavier still,
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