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The sanitary condition of the gaol must have suffered greatly for want of hospital accommodation.
A new hospital ought to have been completed before the old one was done away with. The inadequate and ill-arranged buildings which have been used as a temporary hospital wards must have made disease more lasting and more deadly.
During the last two weeks the sick have been removed into the large building near the gaol, called the small-pox hospital, a measure which has been practicable, because amall-pox is not at present epidemic in Colombo. This removal of the sick prisoners has been very beneficial to them.
With respect to remedies, we consider that the first thing to be attended to is the immediate purification of the gaol.
We thoroughly agree with Dr. Charsley that the present is a crisis in which disci- plinary regulations must be subordinated to the exigencies of preserving life. The best thing would be to empty the whole gaol of prisoners, and to keep it emptied till it has been thoroughly disinfected and sweetened,
But if it is impracticable to find a place or places whither the whole body of the prisoners can be removed for a time, we recommend that the suggestion of Dr. Charsley be adopted of purifying one wing of the building at a time.
There is abundance of vacant space within the prison walls, and such prisoners as could not be properly placed in the other wing can be hutted out in Cadjan sheds, which can be rapidly and cheaply run up by the prisoners themselves.
Some additional peons will be required in order to prevent escapes, but the expense of this is not to be weighed against the cost of human life; and it will be probably found to be absolutely cheaper than the continuance of a system which sends so many patients to the hospital.
Let the walls of the cells and all the walls of every part of the building be thoroughly scraped, and let them be coated over, not with whitewash, but with Parian cement, which can be kept clean by washing with water.
Give more ventilation to the corridors of cells by openings in the roof, or by Louvre boards immediately under the roof.
Prohibit in the most peremptory and unmistakeable manner the placing of more than one prisoner within a cell. If there are more prisoners who ought to be cellular prisoners than the cells can accommodate, they must be hutted out in wards till more cells be built.
Let each cellular prisoner work for part of the day at least in a compartment of a shed, as suggested by Dr. Charsley, so that the man's face will be to the wall, and so that the sides of the compartment will prevent him from communicating with other prisoners, but behind him the shed will be open. If this be done, each man's cell can be left empty and with open door for a great part of the day, so as to be made fresh and wholesome when the man returns.
Give each man throughout the prison night-clothing; also every prisoner who goes into hospital should receive distinct hospital clothing.
llis other clothing should be fumigated while he is in hospital, and should be given back to him when he leaves hospital in a perfectly clean and wholesome state.
Let shot-drill and pingo work be done under a shed, or in some kind of shelter from
the sun.
Bring the cellular prisoners out of their cells at a later hour in the morning, Throughout the gaol put an end to the system of shutting men up at night with pans, tubs, chatties, or the like, to case themselves in.
Let there be in every cell and ward a bell and a tell-tale connected with it, so that the prisoner who requires to go the latrine, or urinal, can communicate with the prison orderly, or peon, and may be led there and back again.
Give more facilities for bathing, and for washing the face and hands.
If possible retain the building called the Small-pox Hospital, as the Gaol Hospital. A building, such as formerly used to exist, might be obtained, or run up in the cinnamon gardens, or elsewhere, suflicient for the emergencies of the outbreaks of small- pox, which from time to time occur.
The continued use of the present outbuilding as a gaol or hospital, would be an immense benefit.
Dr. Chursley has described the beneficial effects on the sick prisoners of their removal thither, to have been almost magical And experience elsewhere has shown how salutary are the effects on a sick convict of being moved away from the scene of his punishment This has notably been the case at Kandy.
If, however, the Small-pox Hospital cannot be retained, no pains or reasonable cost
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should be spared in building and fitting up the intended new hospital within the gaol, as quickly as possible.
Your Excellency, in the proceedings of inquiry as to Welikada Gaol, already referred to, has recommended and enjoined the restoration and maintenance of due discipline within the gaol, and the cultivation of good feeling and harmonious co-operation between the disciplinal and medical officers, so emphatically that it is needless for us to say more about these matters, than that we regard them as indispensable for keeping the gaol in a healthy condition.
We have said little about Hulfsdorff in this Report, because the state of the gaol there is stated to be generally healthy, But it is our duty to report that abuses exist there, which must sow the germs of disease, sure to break out sooner or later, in alarming mortality, unless these abuses are speedily checked.
The whole prison there is overcrowded; and the monster abuse of overcrowding the cells is continually practised.
When the Chief Justice inspected the place after the Cape Colombo Criminal Sessions, he ascertained that as many as three or four prisoners were often placed in a single cell; and on the measurement of one of these cells, the space contained in it was ascertained to be only 774 cubic feet.
The same prohibitions as to overcrowding which we have advised for Welikada, should be enforced at Hulfsdorff; and also the same prohibition of the use of night-tubs and pans for the reception of excreta.
At least half the number now in Hulfsdorff should be withdrawn from there.
We also feel it our duty to advert to the great probability which is understood to exist, that a large number of convicts will be required for several years on the new Colombo Breakwater, and the quarries and other works connected with it,
If this be so, provision should be made in good time for lodging convicts near the scenes of their labour, for organizing an effective control over them, and for guarding against escapes.
Among the numerous matters for consideration here, sanitary matters will not be the least important.
His Excellency the Right Hon. the Governor,
&c.
&c.
&c.
We have, &c. (Signed)
E. 8. CREASY, C.J.
C. TEMPLE, P.J.
Q.A.*
C. H. STEWART, P.J. J. R. MOSSE, D.P.W.
*The Queen's Advocate desires me to state, that as he was unable to attend the proceedings, except for a very short time, he does not sign the Report.
E. S. CREASY.
No. 40.
(Signed)
The Earl of Kimberley to Governor the Right Hon. W. H. Gregory.
(No. 159. Ceylon.)
Sir,
Downing Street, July 2, 1873.
I HAVE received your despatch No. 103 of the 14th April last,* with copies of the Report of the Commissioners appointed to inquire into the causes of the sickness and mortality in Welikada Prison, and other papers connected with the subject.
The excessive mortality began in June 1870; and in the last six months of that year instead of 8 deaths, which was the number in the previous six months, there were 45 deaths, being at the rate of 90 per annum, which appears to be a death-rate of about 20 per cent. for those six months; and this enormous death-rate continued, with scarcely any diminution, throughout the years 1871 and 1872, though towards the end of the latter year, on some very simple, and what might seem obvious and indispensable, steps being taken to remove the causes, the mortality ceased; and the total number of sick on the 4th December, 1872, was only 3.
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• No. 39.
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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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C.O.885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE. LONDON
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