PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference
C.O. 885
4
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
Loan of key.
The Settlement and its isolation.
The staff
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had no special motive in running away, but that, finding himself unguarded, with the open forest before him, the impulse to do so was irresistible.
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Considerable blame attaches to warders Vanderheyden and Dowrich for the loss of a master cell key; though there are no printed rules to that effect, yet verbal instructions have been issued that a principal warder is on no account to hand his key to a junior officer, and that on one officer receiving keys from another he is to count them in the presence of the first. Both these rules were neglected by the two officers referred to, and, looking at the consequences which might have resulted from their carelessness, I am not prepared to recommend to the Governor any reduction in the fines imposed upon them. The inuendo of warder Dowrich against Vanderheyden of "foul play" inʼlosing the key, with a view to injure him, I could find no foundation for. It shows, however, the want of good feeling among the officers of the Settlement, of which I have more to say.
16. The Governor's frequent visits to the Settlement since his arrival in the Colony render it quite unnecessary for me to offer any description of the prison to his Excellency, Situated forty miles up the Essequebo River, near its junction with the Massaruni, it is completely isolated, and can only be reached by boats; the clearing in the forest which forms the prison lands cannot be much under 100 acres, but the prison, and most of the other buildings, are placed in a small area, and surrounded by a high palisade. The staff is large-larger, I think, than in any English prison with the same number of convicts. It consists of a Superintendent, an Assistant Superintendent, a Resident Surgeon, and a Resident Chaplain, with some 20 warders and 11 guards, to a convict population of 225. Nothing seems wanting to promote the discipline of the place: the muster of the convicts and officers at daybreak, the early morning service in chapel before proceeding to work, and the medical inspection, are all conducted with as much order and regularity in this remote forest prison as if it stood in the heart of an English county, but unfortunately Isolation, depressing its isolation, which is its chief terror to the convict, is not also without its depressing influence on the officers-their minds lose tone, and become, to use a familiar phrase, "hyped." Men who have served long at the Settlement have described to me the effects of the great solitude,'combined with the continual strain on the mind in watching over a convict prison and dealing with a convict class. In support of this view, I need hardly refer to the resignation, in broken health, of the last Superintendent, and the late Acting Superintendent (though the latter was induced to withdraw his resignation); and even Mr. Sealy, with his special training and great strength of mind, tells me he has once or twice nearly broken down himself from anxiety.
influence upon officers.
Want of good. feeling among officers.
17. From the official papers with which I was furnished before leaving town, on my visit to the Settlement, I was not unprepared for the want of cordiality which I found to exist between the Superintendent and those officers of the establishment with whom he might have been expected to have been intimately associated and to look for "pport, and this feeling has evidently spread among the subordinate officers. I need not add that, if not checked at once, it must be extremely prejudicial to the discipline and to the best interests of the prison. The present Superintendent is an officer of great energy and industry, and an undoubted disciplinarian, and perhaps it is not be wondered at that men like those who form the greater part of his present staff, and entering the service for the first time, are a little impatient in submitting to the rules he has thought proper to make for their guidance in minor matters. The extracts I made from the Chaplain's Reference to Chap. Journal, and which I beg leave to append, will, I think, in some measure show the want proper feeling on the part of the officers towards the Superintendent, to which I have already alluded."
lain's Journal.
Suggestions.
Formation of a "Prison Corps."
of
18. Had not the Governor, by your letter of the 20th ultimo, done me the honour to say that I might accompany my Report by such remark or suggestions as I might think
proper to make, I should not have presumed to offer for his Excellency's considera- tion the following observations, which I do with the utmost diffidence:→→→
I venture to submit that the depressing influences on the officers of all grades by too long a residence at the Penal Settlement might be met by the formation of a "Prison Corps," the members of which should be liable to be changed from one prison to another, at the pleasure of the Governor; and, by judiciously arranging their terms of duty, each would soon become acquainted with the slightly different routine observed at the Settlement and the county gaols.
A great object would be to raise the tone of the prison service. Until lately, in this Colony, it was the last resource of the idle and dissolute. A better class of men appear to be now offering, and I think they should be encouraged, not only to enter, but to remain in the service; and this might be done by a little more attention to their comforts by holding out the prospect of promotion to deserving men, and by establishing
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a sick and retiring allowance fund for their benefit. At the Penal Settlement-if not at To improve the the other prisons-a small collection of well-chosen books, and two or three newspapers, position of prison would be a source of instruction and amusement to the men and their families. previous Reports I have urgently advocated the appointment of a Director of the Prison, Appointment of
In officers. and more recently the same recommendation has been made by the Commission which Director. snt in 1873-74 to consider the question of removing the Penal Settlement. Such an officer, to use the words of Colone! Du Cane, "not coming in daily contact with the officers and prisoners, but only visiting the prison magisterially at uncertain intervals, it is of course felt that he can give a fresh and impartial consideration to any question or complaint." His functions would not supersede those of the existing visiting Inspectors, but he would have the advantage over them, that he would be au courant with all that was going on in the establishment, while they, making their inspections one after the other, are each totally unacquainted with what has taken place in the prison since his previous visit-it may be a period of many months. Had there been a Director of the Penal Settlement it would have been impossible for the unfortunate feeИng which exists among the officers not to have been seen at once and checked immediately.
The rules in force at the Penal Settlement are those which were authorized in 1870, To provide “ A and they are compiled in many places word for word from the Rules for Convict Prisons Manual of Duty" in England, but I think something more in the shape of a " Manual of Duty" would be for officers. most useful to the prison officers. Captain Twyford the late Superintendent prepared Captain Twyford's such a Manual, pointing out the duty of each officer under almost any position in which Manual. he might be placed, including the proper care of keys; and at Governor Scott's request
I spent some time in looking over this little work, with a view of having it issued to the prison officers; but Sir John's departure from the Colony prevented any further steps being taken in the matter, and I have much pleasure in submitting this revised copy to the Governor, should his Excellency not have already seen it.
I have now only to ask the Governor's kind consideration to this very imperfect report. I had not visited the Settlement since Mr. Sealy's appointment, and really knew nothing whatever of what had taken place upon it since that time.
I have, &c. (Signed) J. BRUMELL, Director of Prisons,
The Hon. W. A. G. Young,
Government Secretary
Sir,
Inclosure 2 in No. 14.
Government Secretary's Office, April 5, 1875. I HAVE the honour to report to your Excellency that in pursuance of your instructions I left Georgetown on Tuesday morning the 30th March at 7 o'clock, in the Colonial steamer "Essequebo," for the purpose of paying a visit of inspection to the Penal Settlement at Massaruni.
2. The representation made to the Contractor in consequence of Mr. Brumell's complaint of the length of time consumed in making the trip on the last occasion, and a Leave Georgetown personal interview which I subsequently had with the Agent for the Contractor, when I for Settlement. took occasion pointedly to call his attention to certain requirements of the contract as to
the speed of vessels, have, I am glad to say, not been unproductive of good results. The
Essequebo" made the run in five hours and thirty minutes. This I am told is the Duration of trip. quickest trip on record, and it brings the service well within the requirements of the contract. The speed required of the large steamers by the contract, viz. 10 knots an hour, should enable them on average to make the run in 6 hours; and the small steamers should make it on the average in 8 hours. I judge the principal cause of the undue time taken to make the trip heretofore is the use of bad coal. When we started from Georgetown in the "Essequebo" we were using coal which had only arrived in the Colony a few days previously. It afforded ample steam. In returning, however, after this coal had been all used, we were using some old coal that was in the bottom of the bunkers, and a perceptible difference was occasioned in the speed. The pressure of steam fell off by 6 lbs.
3. Immediately on landing I proceeded to the work of inspecting the prison, and Inspection of prison the various buildings connected therewith. I found the interior of the prison in perfect proper. order. The cells were clean, sweet, and wholesome. So far as the condition of things was dependent upon the regulation of the Superintendent, I could take exception to nothing.
4. The Chancel which Mr. Sealy has added to the Chapel, has not only greatly Improvement in
chapel and hospital.