25
England. Government Prisons, Hulks,
whom this country has to dispose; and if not, in what manner can they be provided for at home, and with what amount of expense, inconvenience and perhaps of danger? These are questions which it may not be indispensable immediately to determine, but which certainly do lie at the bottom of the prevalent agitation on the subject, and to which it might be no cause for regret if the attention of Parliament were fully awakened. The matter at issue is not Colonial merely, but National, and it in- volves the whole subject of Secondary Punishments.
51. Without attempting here to solve so large a problem, an endeavour will be made to bring together a few figures which may be useful. The⚫ object will be to state, first, the extent of prison- accommodation at the disposal of Government; secondly, the whole stock in hand, so to speak, at any one time, of prisoners convicted of transportable offences; thirdly, the numbers annually sentenced for the latest years for which there are complete returns; fourthly, the numbers annually removed to Australia within the same period.
52. The extent of available accommodation is
understood to be as follows:→→
England. Prisons (exclusive of
are stated in the Appendix
No. 5.
Ireland.
and Portland Prisons, Gaols, and Spike
-
6,400
Island+ Bermuda and Gibraltar
-
4,000
2,600
-13,000
- 24,000
4,000
-28,000
41,000
Van Diemen's Land and Norfolk
Island
New South Wales
Estimated Total of Convicts on 1st
January, 1850
Besides these actual convicts, there seem fair reasons for concluding that the number of persons who have once been convicts and are become free, in the Australian colonies, cannot be less than
• The grounds of this calculation 48,000*. This makes a total of 89,000 persons, at one time or other convicted of serious offences, who would now be living in the United Kingdom, if there had been no provision for them abroad.
54. The average numbers sentenced to trans- portation, annually, for five years, ending the 31st of December, 1848, have been as follows:----
Great Britain
Ireland
Total.
3,429 1,400
4,823
County Gaols)
3,100
Hulks
2,140
Parkhurst (Juvenile Prison) 720
Portland (Public Works)
840
-6,800
Ireland.
Prisons (say)
1,500
Spike Island (Works)
2,000
3,500
Bermuda. (Public Works)
Gibraltar.
1,700
(Ditto)
900
- 2,600
}
12,900
Total accommodation, Prisons and
Public Works
Beyond these numbers, a few hundreds sentenced to transportation are usually in the county goals, waiting for vacancies in the Government prisons.
53. The numbers actually under the sentence of transportation at the present time may be stated, it is believed, as follows:-
In Ireland the average for many years was pretty steady at about 700, but in 1847 and 1848 it sud denly increased to 2,200 and 2,700. If it be sup- posed that, as this arose from extraordinary circum- stances, it may diminish again, the estimate for the
By information just received, future may be modified accordingly. The number however, it appears that in 1849
the number sentenced in Ireland of females cannot be stated separately, but it is
2,454 males, and 585 females.
has been 3,039, consisting of supposed that they form one-seventh of the whole number. Perhaps it may be assumed in round numbers, that the persons sentenced annually for some years to come, will be not less than-
Males
Females
Total -
3,800
700
4,500
Many, it is presumed, must be detained in Ireland, for want
of room, in other than Government prisons.
H
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
TLC.O.885
2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO