108.
4. I regret that I have not been able to do anything to relieve the over-crowding in the women's division of the prison. The space allotted to the women within the gaol walls is altogether too confined to allow of the necessary additional accommodation being built there; and for this and other reasons, which I will state presently, I concur in the opinion of Mr. Brumell, that it would be expedient to remove the females altogether out of Georgetown Gaol, and to build a new prison for females alone. In such new prison the accommodation could be so arranged as to separate the utterly depraved and shameless criminal from the younger woman, or the woman convicted of her first offence, an offence it may be involving no great moral guilt, and to whom forced association with some women of the kind to be found in our prisons would be hurtfully degrading. The removal of the women to another prison would leave the division now occupied by them free for the occupation of male prisoners; and this would, I hope, euable the Government to do away altogether with the most objectionable feature in the existing system, the associated wards.
•
5. The Anglican Chaplain notices in his Report that youths of comparatively tender years are forced in goal to associate with those much farther advanced in crime than themselves, and subjected to the laborious punishment of shot drill, which seems to overtax their strength." It is of course very undesirable that boys or girls should be sent to prison at all; but I am glad to see that the Sheriff is able to report that the Rev. Mr. Wood has described a state of things which is not within his knowledge or that of the keeper of the gaol. The gaol surgeon also reports that the rule usually observed is to "work juvenile prisoners as much as possible by themselves, and none are subjected to shot drill under fifteen years of age, and those have been incorrigible old offenders. I inspect daily the prisoners at shot drill, and regulate the sized shot the prisoners has to carry according to his physique." The existing prison rules, too, require that "juveniles under sixteen years of shall be separated from adults." The Presbyterian Chaplain, in his Report, notices
age the presence in gaol "of a greater number of very young delinquents during the last two years, making growingly apparent the urgent want of a Colonial Reformatory." The Sheriff states in his Report that the number of prisoners under sixteen years of age committed in 1874 was 285; he adds, "most had attained an age when in this climate they may be looked upon and treated as men and women."
6. In my despatches 103 of the 17th of June, 1874, and 116 of the 4th of July, 1874, I brought under your Lordship's notice the inadequacy of the institution officially known as the "Industrial and Reformatory Schools and Orphan Asylum" to meet the requirements of a real reformatory school for boys. The institution is, in reality, an orphan asylum for little coolie children chiefly, somewhat similar to that at Tacarigua in Trinidad; and though it may perhaps be made, under judicious management, to answer the purpose of an industrial school for girls as well as an asylum for orphan infants, it is wholly unsuitable as a reformatory school for boys. In order to provide such a reforma- tory, I have, with the concurrence of the Court of Policy, concluded arrangements for the purchase, for the sum of 5,000 dollars (equivalent to 1,0411. 13. 4d.) of an abandoned sugar estate called “ Onderneeming," in the county of Essequebo.
.
This estate contains about 700 acres of land good for cultivation or pasturage. It has drainage without the aid of steam, and the situation (while sufficiently remote from Georgetown to keep the boys free from the evil influences of the city) is both convenient and accessible. On one side of it are the Colony House and other Government establish- ments at Suddie. On the other is the stilling (or wharf) to which the steamer from Georgetown goes with mails and passengers every Monday, Wednesday and Saturday. Official visitors can inspect the place constantly and without difficulty. The Police Inspector of the district and the Sheriff of the county live at Suddic. The Rector of the parish lives on the estate itself. The police barracks are close by; and as there are twenty- είχ
sugar estates on the Essequebo coast, the reformatory at Onderneeming will be fully under the check of publicity. The boys can be employed in gardening, in draining the land, in the care of stock; those who evince intelligence may be taught trades, but agri- cultural labour ought, in my opinion, to be the principal employment in the school, as it must hereafter in the lives of the boys.
7. Next to the overcrowding in Georgetown Gaol, the want of light and supervision at night in the curridors of the prison, and in the associated wards was reported in my despatches as amongst the worst defects of the prison; these defects, it will be seen from the Sheriff's reports, have been remedied by the introduction of gas throughout the gaol, and the appointment of six night guards.
8. To guard against danger from fire in the wooden prison, water has been laid on to cach flour, with service hose, which is kept always ready for instant use.
9. Although the prison, notwithstanding the numbers sent away, was overcrowded
109
throughout the year, the health of the prisoners was generally satisfactory. The report of the Medical Officer shows that, out of a total of 9,001 prisoners who were admitted into the prison in 1874, 3,420 were admitted into the gaol hospital; of these 3,334 were cured and discharged, 74 remained at the end of the year, and 11 died, being a mortality of 0.12 on the number of prisoners received into the prison.
10. Mr. Sheriff Brumell in his report speaks of the destructive effect on discipline of marching the prisoners from, the gaol through the town to the sea wall, where they are employed daily, under the supervision of the Officers of the Public Works Department, on the sea defences. It is, no doubt, as Mr. Brumell observes, that ** prisoners prefer labour outside the prison to working inside," and that "the substitution of shorter terms of solitary imprisonment with bread and water for longer terms of nominal hard labour, is very desirable;
"and Mr. Brumell quotes in support of this, my own opinion, given in 1865 (while I was Lieutenant-Governor of Dominica) that "solitary confinement on bread and water is the only punishment which prisoners really fear." I have not altered my opinion, except, perhaps, that I think flogging is dreaded by some, not all, prisoners, as much as solitary confinement, and I concur with Mr. Brumell, that the daily march of the prisoners through a street (they pass along one long street from the sea-wall to the gaol) in Georgetown is prejudicial to discipline. But I cannot at present establish a better system,
The daily average of prisoners in Georgetown Gaol in 1874 was 541.
The daily average in the Georgetown Gaol Hospital was 71. Of the remaining 470, about 50 on an average were females who are always employed inside the gaol, and there are usually about 80 prisoners not sentenced to hard labour, such as men waiting trial, debtors, &c.'; leaving a daily average of about 340 males for hard labour. It is impossible to employ all these within the confined area of the gaol walls. About 35 are employed daily in the prison service, cooks, scavengers, &c. As large a number as the shed will hold are put to shot drill, another gang to breaking stones, and a third (of men ordered to light labour by the Surgeon) are employed in pulverizing earth for use in the gaol, &c. A gang of prisoners is employed daily to keep the grounds round the Public Hospital Infirmary and Maternity Ward clean, and the remainder, usually numbering about 150, are employed at the sea-wall.
There is no more appropriate work for prisoners than this; once at the sea-wall they are removed from communication with the town, the work is of a healthy and useful kind, and at the same time is hard work.
With regard to the substitution of solitary confinement for hard labour, I have to observe that in the first place, the laws of the colony almost invariably prescribe imprison- ment with hard labour as the punishment of crimes and offences, great and small; and, in the second place, that solitary, or even separate confinement, is, and will continue to be, practically impossible, until there is sufficient prison accommodation to give to every prisoner a separate cell. This appears to me to be the most essential point to attain, and hope that the measures which I bave taken will enable me to accomplish it in a few weeks.
I have, &c.
Sir,
(Signed)
Inclosure in No. 17.
J. R. LONGDEN.
Sheriff's Office, Georgetown, March 31, 1875.
I HAVE the honour to submit to bis Excellency the Governor my annual Report on the County Gaol of Georgetown, and the district prisons at Mahaica and Fellowship for 1874.
KIME
Prison Staff-During the past year three officers retired from the gaol service with gratuities, and two were dismissed. An important addition was made to the prison staff on
(401)
• Gaol hospital
Women..
Unemployed
Prison service
Sbot drill, &c. in prison
Public hospital, &c.
Light labour
Hand labour at sen wall
Total..
: : : : : : : :
Averages.
71
50
BU
35
60
30
18
150
514
2 F
7
PUBL
RE
R:
OFFICE
+
Reference →
885
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