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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Thus, so far as I can gather from the returns and statements (which, however, do not appear to agree on all points), not far from 200 deaths beyond the average rate of mortality have taken place in this prison in the course of two and a-half years, for want of proper sauitary precautions.
It is stated, in extenuation, that large drafts of prisoners from the prisons at the out- stations, numbering, according to Mr. Vanderstraaten, 226, were brought into the prison in May and June 1870, and that the greater number of these were sickly men, from the station of Kornigalle, which is unhealthy; and from the returns appended to Dr. Coghill's printed Report for 1870, I find that the total number received from that station in the whole of that year, was 239; and the deaths of that class of prisoners were 23, out of a total of 53 of all classes. From Kegalla, which is also stated to be unhealthy, 86 were received in 1870, and of these 4 died.
How far these drafts from the out-stations were of an exceptional number or character in the year 1870, I am not informed. The prison of Welikada is intended, and ought to be adapted, to receive the prisoners from the out-stations whose sentences exceed three months. If the numbers from Kornegalle or elsewhere were in excess of the number so sentenced, it should be stated on what grounds and on whose responsibility the numbers so in excess were sent to a prison already overcrowded. And if, as stated by Dr. Coghill, the 226 prisoners sent from the Kornegalle prison in May and June 1870 were "all mere skeletons," and ready to fall at the first approach of sickness, it would be important to inquire whether they had been reduced to this state by abuses in the Gaol of Kornegalle similar to those which prevailed in the Gaol of Welikada.
I concur generally with the Prisons Commission as to the causes of the mortality in Welikada Gaol, and I agree in their opinion that amongst the "specific mischievous practices" which they regard as having caused it (jointly with others) is to be numbered
'overcrowding, especially in placing more than one prisoner in a cell.”
These cells are stated by the Prisons Commission to be of different dimensions, the new cells containing rather more than 1,000 cubic feet, the old cells less, and I gather from Assistant-Surgeon Attegalle's letter of the 3rd June, that these latter cells contain only 672 feet, and from the returns in your despatch, No. 101, of the 2nd September, 1872, that whilst 180 cells contain 672, 30 contain but 350* cubic feet, and only 20 contain more than 1,000,
On reference to the prison digest sent to the Governors of Colonies in 1867 for their guidance in such matters, you will find that whilst 900 cubic feet are there stated to be sufficient for the cell of a single prisoner under a long sentence in this country, 1,200 cubic feet with 100 superficial feet were considered by the Commission which reported on gaols in British India in 1864 to be requisite in a tropical climate. Dr. Watt, I observe, considers even this insufficient.
As to the practice of putting more than one prisoner into a cell there is much confusion in the several statements elicited from Dr. Coghill and others, but though it is only in particular instances that Dr. Coghill is enabled to specify numbers and dates, I sec no reason to doubt his statement, made after his attention had been called to some apparent and perhaps actual contradictions and fully corroborated by others, that during his superintendency there had been a practice which, though not systematic, was yet "usual
and "frequent," of contining three prisoners in cells not large enough to hold one, and even in the cells which were little more than half the proper size for one, whilst it appears that before his time in the Welikada prison, and both before and during his time in Hulfsdorff, five had been so coufined. In the latter prison, indeed, where the larger cells contain not more than from 1,000 to 1,130 cubic feet, the measure- ment of the others not being given with the exception of one measured by the Chief Justice, which contained 774, the average number confined appears to have been from four to five, and "seldom or never less than four," whilst one returns given in which the numbers confined in each of the thirty-one cells on the 25th October, 1866, are shown to have been in some of them ten, and in few less thau eight. In Hulfsdorff, however, the prisoners were not confined to their cells in the daytime.
In the returns accompanying your despatch, No. 161, of the 2nd September, 1872, both Hulfsdorff and Welikada are returned as giving "complete" effect to the separate system, a statement so utterly opposed to the facts now disclosed as, unless it can be explained, to deprive those returns of all title to eredit.
The hours of confinement in the cells in Welikada were twenty-one out of twenty-four, and for twelve hours at night the prisoners were locked up without light and without and this was continuous at Welikada at a time means of egress for natural purposes,
⚫it will be seen from the subsequent correspondence that this was a mistake, and that in fact the cells in question contained 830 cubic feet.
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when diarrhoea, dysentery, and cholera were disastrously prevalent. The results were revolting and fatal.
It appears, indeed, that whilst the prisoners were dying at Welikada, those at Hullsdorff, under still severer conditions of overcrowding at night and with the same denial of egress, were not unhealthy; and this is used as an argument to prove that overcrowding was not a cause of the Welikada mortality, though in the one prison the confinement in the cells was for only twelve hours of the twenty-four, in the other twenty- one hours. The same inference is drawn with more justice from the fact that at Welikada itself, previously to June 1870, the health of the prisoners had been maintained with not less overcrowding than that which occurred in the years 1870, 1871, 1872. But on examination I find that this exemption was only during 1868-69, and the first half of 1870, for in the years preceding 1868-70 the death-rate had been little less than in the years which followed; being for 1865, 1866, and 1867 respectively 17, 17, 27 and 16, 33.
The fact that excessive overcrowding is injurious to health and endangers life rests upon a far wider generalization than any that can be drawn from the state at one time or another of any particular prison in Ceylon. When once such a disease as cholera, or dysentery, or diarrhoea had set foot in the prison, though it might still have been possible . to escape such a visitation as that which occurred, it would have been unreasonable to expect that the overcrowding would not grievously add to the danger and the suffering.
The effect of overcrowding was no doubt greatly aggravated by the arrangements for the night to which I have adverted, and which the Prisons Commission and Dr. Watt have so justly denounced. And again, I must observe that such arrangements could not have been adopted if attention had been given to the portion of the Prison Digest which deals with such subjects. At page 81, the general subject is treated, and in Appendix D, page 90, are to be found the detailed instructions drawn from the rules in force in Bengal.
It was amongst the prisoners confined in the cells that the far greater part of the mortality took place, but the overcrowding was by no means limited to the cells. In the association ward when the Commissioners visited the prison it was found that 47 men were confined for twelve hours, from 5:30 PM. to 5·30 A.M., and Dr. Watt states that the cubic space for each prisoners was 258 feet, and the area 13 feet 2 inches, whilst the arrangements for the uight were no better than in the cells. Sixty are said to have been confined in it at other times, and 90 are said to have been confined in a ward measuring 25 feet by 20. All this time there was, according to the report of the Com- missioners, abundance of vacant space within the prison walls for prisoners to be hutted out in Codjan sheds, which could be rapidly and cheaply run up.
In the hospital the cubic space was about double that of the associated ward, but at the same time less than half what it ought to have been even in times of average sick- ness. It consisted of one ward containing a little over 24,000 cubic feet, and had accommodation for 16 beds, and Dr. Coghill had said in his report for 1870, When 49 patients with orderlies and nurses are locked up all night in the hospital, which has occurred repeatedly, the state of the air can be more easily imagined than described. And I would here point out the desirability of having the new hospital begun at once. I beg that this subject of a new hospital may be taken into immediate consideration. A ward for medical cases, another for surgical, another for diarrhea and dysentery, and another for contagious diseases, such as cholera and scabies, &c., are absolutely necessary, as also a convalescent ward with a cheerful aspect. With a probable number of 800 prisoners we must be prepared with a sufficiency of hospital accommodation for the sick and their thorough segregation."
In the same report Dr. Coghill points to the revolting nature of the arrangements for the prisoners confined in the cells during the night, and recommends ward boxes on the dry-earth system, and "thus," he says, "many cases premonitary of cholerá, diarrhura and dysentery would be checked at the earliest stage, and the spread of disease prevented."
The simple remedy thus recommended in the Report for 1870 (which was in accordance with what is prescribed in the Prison Digest Appendix D), was not adopted tilll you gave directions on the subject, which would appear to have been in the latter part of 1872.
A little later still the crowding of the cells was put an end to. Patients in the over- crowded hospital were removed to a small-pox hospital, which had long been unoccupied, But situated near the prison, and there the sick recovered and the mortality ceased. not till 200 lives had been sacrificed.
• Edition printed for Parliament.