TUITIT
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference
C.O.8
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
885
3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
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nang.
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who reach the upper stage will have hereafter to be provided for elsewhere. showing the proposed arrangement is inclosed.
A tracing
6. It is of course impossible to carry out all these alterations at once, as regard must be had to the housing of the prisoners whilst they are in progress
The works now (1872) in hands will admit of the introduction of penal labour for all, and separate work during the day of a large proportion of the lower class prisoners, and it is proposed to take a sum of 15,700 dols. in next year's estimates to build a separate ward of 52 cells, and complete the rectification of the inclosure walls; the completion of these services will enable the whole of the European prisoners to be placed in separation, and the ground to be cleared for the erection of 2 new separate wards of 100 cells each one, or both, of which can be undertaken in the following year; these last being completed the conversion of the existing wards may be proceeded with as funds are available.
7. At Penang the existing prison establishments consist of the criminal gaols at Butterworth and George Town, each of which comprise both House of Correction and Convict Lines, and the Sheriff's Gaol, situated near the General Hospital. The buildings at the two first-named are not well adapted for carrying out a proper system of discipline, nor will they admit of economical adaption, it is therefore proposed to concentrate the whole prison establishment in connection with the Sheriff's Gaol, where there is sufficient room for extension; this will have the additional advantage of effecting considerable economy in administration.
8. The average number of local prisoners confined in the Penang criminal gaols during the last twelve months is about 340, of whom rather more than half are sentenced for periods of six months and under, and must be provided for under the new arrangements, the balance going to Singapore; there are also at times as many as 40 to 50 prisoners waiting trial, and it appears necessary to provide for about 250 in all.
9. The majority of these will be lower grade prisoners undergoing rigid penal discipline, and requiring close supervision. Bearing in mind this, and anticipating the carrying out of the structural arrangements proposed further on, the following is con- sidered a proper and necessary establishment for the prison staff, on the supposition that a few sentries and gate-keeper can be had from the police if required:
1 Superintendent
Name of Office.
2 Warders (Europeans)
3 Assistant Warders (natives)
20 Sub-Worders (natives)
1 Clerk and Interpreter
1. Storekeeper and Assistant Interpreter
1 Matron
Salaries.
From
To.
Dols.
Dols.
900
1,200
480
5.-10
120
2.40
84
108
240
360
180
240
120
240
10. An approximate Estimate (Appendix A) amounting to 71,600 dollars of the cost of the proposed alterations and extension of the Sheriff's Gaol is submitted here- with, together with a tracing showing the general arrangements.
11. As regards the existing buildings it is proposed to remove the present guard- room and the out-houses with which the gaol-yard is now encumbered, and to throw the present Justices' room and gaolers' quarters (which are now too much in the heart of the prison) into the prison accommodation, which would then be divided between prisoners waiting trial and sick, the half appropriated for the latter purpose being adjacent to the General Hospital, would share the staff and equipment of that establish ment by means of a door of communication opened for the purpose, the present small hospital would be converted into a cook-house for the whole prism. The arrangements for detention of females waiting trial, and prisoners under sentence of death, to remain as at present, and separate airing-yards for male and female convicted (sick) and unconvicted prisoners to be provided in connection with the foregoing. It is not now proposed to divide this accommodation into separate cells, but the building will admit of it if it should be found necessary hereafter.
12. The extensions proposed are a considerable enlargement of the gaol enclosure, and the erection therein of two separate wards of one hundred cells each, the provision of accommodation for six women and children, under a matron, in a small yard within the general enclosure, but divided off from the rest of the prison, and the provision of all necessary accessories, including warders' quarters, a new approach is also shown to enable the entrances to be placed, so that the offices, stores, guard-room, and
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cook-house can be concentrated at it in one yard accessible from the outside without passing through the body of the prison.
13. It will be difficult to make any effectual introduction of an improved discipline hore (at Penang) so long as the prisoners remain in the present gaols, impossible to cconomise the staff and administration until the proposed concentration has been effected; this, on the other hand, cannot be begun until the greater part of the new buildings are completed, and it is, therefore, proposed to push them as quickly as possible, taking a sum of 46,000 dollars in next year's estimates which will build the two large new wards and the other enclosure walls. It is intended to concentrate the whole of the convicted criminals in the new establishment in the course of 1873, and to move the Sheriff's prisoners temporarily into the House of Correction, until the alterations to the part of the prison now occupied by them shall have been completed in 1874.
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14. At Malacca the average number of local convicted criminal prisoners is from Malacca. sixty to seventy, of whom rather more than one-half are sentenced to terms of less than six months, and would have to be provided for in the local prison. There are also from thirty to forty at times waiting trial; altogether provision must made for, say, seventy, and for this it is considered that the following is a suitable establishment of prison staff with some little assistance from the police. It has not been thought necessary to provide a matron on the permanent establishment, female prisoners being rare, one of the warder's wives could be got to act when necessary :—
Name of Office.
1 Chief Wander (Eurojus an)
2 Assistant Warders (natives)
5 Sub-Warders (natives)
1 Clerk. Interpreter, and Storekeeper
Salaries,
From.
To.
Dols.
Dols.
600
900
120
2:40
8.1 210/
108
360
15. There are now two separate prisons at Malacca, viz., the Criminal Gaol, comprising the Convict Lines and House of Correction, adjacent to the Stadthouse, and the Sheriff's Gaol in the outskirts of the town. It is proposed to concentrate the whole prison establishment at the latter place, where the buildings are suitable, and can be adapted at a comparatively moderate expense; the present Criminal Gaol would not convert well, and is, morcover, required for other purposes for which it is better suited.
16. The inclosed tracing shows the proposed structural additions and alterations to the Sheriff's Gaol to adapt it for a general prison; these include the division of one of the two existing blocks into separate cells for the convicted criminals, the removal, of a number of detached out-houses and the provision of a suitable Chief Warder's quarters (over the gate), of sheds for shot-drill and hard labour, and of small separate wards and enclosures for the sick, and for punishment and condemned cells. The total cost is estimated at 9,000 dollars, the whole of which it is proposed to expend in 1873.
17. Two appendices are annexed: A being the estimate for the proposed works and General alterations; B, comparative statements of the cost of the present and proposed prison staff at the three Settlements. In preparing this, the salaries assumed for the new offices are means between the proposed limits, those for existing offices are as actually paid, no credit is taken for the convict petty officers, the cost of whom to Government cannot be accurately stated.
18. The estimates for works and alterations are no doubt very heavy, but it is considered that they are put quite as low as is safe. No large building of this class has been erected in the Colony hitherto to make a standard of comparison, but in the Ceylon Commission's Report of 1869, a new female penitentiary for forty prisoners is estimated at 3,000, or about 353 dollars per head, and the saving by reducing the proposed accommodation of another new prison from two to one hundred is set at 10,0007, or 470 dollars per head; the total estimate for Penang is 71,600 dollars, of which sum 56,100 dollars is the cost of new wards, accessories, and enclosure for 200 criminal prisoners, adding to this four-fifths of the cost of the stuff quarters and administrative buildings, gives 68,100 dollurs us the entire cost of a new gaol for 200, on the scale and kind of accommodation adopted (leaving 3,500 dollars as the cost of improving the Sheriff's Gaol), which is equivalent to 340 dols, 50 c. per head. But the whole expendi- ture is not proposed to be undertaken at once, and there will be more reliable data after the first instalment has been spent, when some reduction may possibly be effected in the remainder.