PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
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TLC.O.
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3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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tion of the foundations for the walls of the gaol on the site selected for it is being performed by prison labour from the present gaol.
4. This gaol will be entirely new, and will cost fully 30,000, if indeed it can be built for that sum; it will be solely on the separate system, and will be constructed on the most approved model. I have had some apprehension that your Lordship might have been unwilling to allow me to incur this expense, but I am convinced that our prison system can never be complete and satisfactory without this second convict prison.
5. On the subject of the reconstruction of the local prisons on the separate system so as to accommodate 400 prisoners, and of the erection of 100 new cells at Galle, I propose addressing your Lordship in a separate despatch; these proposals are not immediately pressing, as they are in great measure dependent on the removal of the convicts from the breakwater on the completion of that work, and it is especially with the temporary breakwater prisons that I wish to deal in this communication.
6. These temporary prisons consist of the old Commissariat Store, in close proximity to the works, opened as a prison on 1st April, 1874, and which holds 150 prisoners; secondly, the Slave Island Gaol, opened in January, 1874, and the average strength in which has been 350.
Breakwater Guol.
7. As an exceptional measure the continuance of the association system in this gaol has been allowed by your Lordship, but certain ameliorations in a sanitary point of view I will allude to are suggested in the despatch and in the Memorandum inclosed in it. each of these in detail.
I. It is not possible to increase in size or number the openings in the longitudinal party wall, which is, in fact, the main support of the roof of the whole building; any tampering with this wall would, 1 am assured, bring down the whole structure, which is a very old one.
II. The two cells alluded to receive light and air through an open batten ceiling at the top; they are used solely for the temporary detention for an hour or two of an occasional refractory prisoner until the next escort goes to Slave Island, when the prisoner is forwarded to the cells at that establishment. Both light and ventilation are ample for such a purpose.
II. The latrines referred to are, it should be mentioned, used only at night, the principle of the improvement suggested that the latrines should be connected with the wards by an outside covered passage open at the sides, is unquestionably an advantageous one, and though there is not room to erect a separate building in the exact manner proposed in the Memorandum, the object aimed at will be equally well, if not better, secured by building two small privies outside each of the walls of the passage and opening into a covered verandah which will be secured with an iron grating.
I may here mention that, finding that the night privies at the Welikada Gaol were also open to a similar objection as communicating directly with the corridors, I have given directions that they also shall be altered in a similar manner so as to communicate directly with the outer air.
IV. There are already twenty openings in the crown of the arched roof, carried up by wooden trunks almost precisely in the manner suggested in the Memorandum.
V. The condition attached to the continued occupation of the Breakwater and Slave Island Gaols-viz., that immediate steps should be taken to vacate them should unfavourable health conditions manifest themselves among the occupants, had already in great measure been anticipated in view of the very unhealthy state of Colombo for the past two months, by the erection of temporary sheds to hold 100 prisoners inside the prison walls at Negombo, and these sheds have been kept empty to provide against any emergency,
8. So far, however, there has been no room for apprehension of any sort with respect to the Breakwater Gaòl; during the twelve months that it has now been open there has not been a single death among the prisoners, and I am informed that its sanitary condition, owing in great measure, no doubt, to the salubrity of its position as well as of the work upon which its inmates are enagaged, is superior to that of any other of the Colombo gauls.
As to its ventilation, 1 extract the following passage from a Memorandum by the acting Colonial Secretary on the subject, the statements in which would be corroborated by Mr. Birch, who has also frequently visited this gaol:
"The Breakwater Gaol is probably the airiest and most healthy in the Island. Captain Thompson, Superintendent of Welikada, frequently visited it in the middle of the night, and found the air in it pure and sweet, and I have visited it twice at the most crucial time, the early morning, when the prisoners were being turned out, the air in it
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was perfectly pure and free from smell, as, indeed, it must be with the strong breeze that is always blowing there."
Slave Island Gaol.
9. Certain alterations are suggested in the Memorandum in Wards B, C, D and G in the Slave Island Gaol, by which those wards may be converted into cellular accommodation for 142 prisoners. I regret, however, to state that on sanitary grounds I could not under- take the responsibility of placing convicts in cells of such limited superficial dimensions as those proposed in the Memorandum.
10. The superficial area of the cells at Welikada is 11 ft. x 7 ft. 2 in., or say 79 square feet; that suggested for Slave Island is only 9 ft. x 4 ft. 8 in., or 42 square feet, and the locality is much less airy. So small a superficial area could not be adopted with safety in a tropical climate, and unfortunately the walls and openings in the wards are so constructed that there is no alternative between a width of 4 ft. 8 in. and one of 9 ft. 4 in. for these cells, the former being inadmissible on sanitary grounds; while the latter (which might also be introduced into Ward A) would give cellular accommodation for 100 prisoners only, at a cost of about 20,000 rupees. Ward G is, I should mention, merely a cadjan shed, and is not therefore susceptible of conversion into cells.
11. I append a Report from the Principal Civil Medical Officer and Inspector General of Hospitals giving cover to a further Report from the Medical Officer of the Welikada Gaol, strongly deprecating the introduction of the cellular system at Slave Island, or, indeed, in any of our future gaols, and giving statistics which are, no doubt, somewhat alarming in support of the healthiness of association, as compared with cellular confinement in Ceylon.
12. I am not, however, prepared to accept in lots the opinions of these gentlemen. which would discountenance the cellular system altogether; whereas, in my opinion, that system is absolutely necessary for penal discipline in the first stage; there are also a variety of circumstances which materially affect the comparison instituted by Drs. Keynsey and Vanderstraaten.
13. The prisoners confined in the cells are men in the first stage. They enter the prison frequently in a low physical condition from previous poor living, others are enfeebled by the effects of debauchery and drink. Such persons are naturally more subject to sickness than men who have been well fed, clothed, and housed, and have gone through a period of regular work.
14. Moreover, the irksome restraints of prison life, and the separation from friends and relatives, affect the minds and impair the health of prisoners far more upon entrance than when they become accustomed to confinement.
15. Again, the Breakwater Prison must, as has been already pointed out, be excep- tionally healthy, having the fresh sea-breeze at all times blowing through it, and the prisoners in both gaols are engaged on work which, though irksome to them, is far more calculated to promote health and strength than intramural penal labour, such as shot drill, coir beating, &c., in use at Welikada.
16. Were the conditions reversed, were Welikada converted into spacious association- wards, and the Slave Island and Breakwater Gaols into cells, and the penal stage under- gone in the latter, it would, I anticipate, be found that locality and mode of employment have more to do with the health of prisoners than structural arrangements.
17. At the same time, I cannot but concur with these medical gentlemen in their deprecation of the conversion of the Slave Island Gaol into cells. The risk would undoubtedly be great, and past experience has shown but too strongly how difficult it is to restore good sanitation when once it has been lost. Wishing, therefore, to carry out to the full the views expressed in the despatch as to segregation, but at the same time desirous not to run counter to the opinions of two gentlemen of such authority and experience as Drs. Kynsey and Vanderstraaten, I propose, if your Lordship will accept my suggestion, to separate the sleeping-place of each prisoner by a boarding 18 inches high. The warders who patrol the wards, which are thoroughly well lighted, will thus be enabled to prevent any contact or conversation, as a prisoner would have to raise his head over the partition in order to communicate with his neighbour. I solicit the expression of your Lordship's opinion on this measure.
18. The defects in the night-privies in some of the wards shall at once be rectified, and it should be explained that the portion of Ward D), which is erroneously called a hospital, is in reality only a dispensary, in which the doctor can see any prisoners com- plaining of sickness. But the patients from all the gaols in Colombo are now treated in one central hospital, situated in an airy position, about a quarter of a mile distant from Welikada, ambulances being provided at each gaol for the conveyance of prisoners who
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