15
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O.885
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO
16
3. I am the more desirous of satisfying you as to my own views on this point, as you might not unnaturally suppose from the correspondence (ending with your despatch No. 192 of the -25th June last) in which I pressed for the punishment of a certain class of offence by the lash, that I am a strong advocate of that kind of punishment. This is far from being the case. I am anxiously watching the effect of flogging in the class of cases in question, and should it not prove to be deterrent I should not hesitate to propose its discontinuance. I enclose copy of a circular issued by me so far back as the 10th of March 1897, in which the restriction of the number of lashes to fifteen is advised. circular has been enforced in all the prisons of this colony.
This
4. I now submit for your information copy of two reports made by the Inspector- General of Prisons, Major Knollys-
s-a very reliable and humane officer of good judg- ment-in which he offers suggestions on the rules proposed by you.
5. From these reports you will learn that the punishment of flogging is seldom administered in the goals of this colony, and that the cases of corporal punishment with the cane are decreasing in number. I now proceed to examine the regulations proposed by you in the appendix to the despatch under reply.
Regulation 1.-I am inclined to agree with the Inspector-General of Prisons, that in this colony the power of ordering the punishment may be safely left with the Superin- tendent, who is either a trained officer of high standing specially selected by the Secretary of State, or (in the case of Kandy) by the Governor, or an officer of the Civil Service holding a responsible position; I would also suggest that for the reasons given by Major Knollys, the order should not be subject, at least as regards corporal punishment with the fear that the delay-in the case of cane, to the written approval of the Governor, habitual offenders at Jaffna, a delay of about three weeks--would be prejudicial to dis- cipline. I would substitute for this an immediate report in every case where there has been punishment by flogging with the lash, and a monthly return of cases where the cane has been used.
I support the recommendation of the Inspector-General of Prisons, that the following offences be added to the list of offences for which corporal punishment may be inflicted :—- (d) Feigning disease or madness, or wilfully disabling himself by disease or injury. (e) Acts of gross indecency.
Regulation 2.-To this there is no objection: the number of strokes is more than is inflicted in this colony.
Regulation 3.—This is already in force.
Regulation 4.—To this there is no objection.
I have, &c.,
WEST RIDGEWAY.
Enclosure 1 in No. 8.
(Circular No. 42.)
Colonial Secretary's Office,
Colombo, March 10, 1897.
SIR,
CORPORAL PUNISHMENT.
I AM directed by His Excellency the Governor to inform you that the Principal Civil Medical Officer and Inspector-General of Prisons are of opinion that the infliction of 15 lashes on a criminal has as good a deterrent effect as a larger number.
2. I am to communicate this expression of opinion to you, as you may perhaps deem it desirable, when passing sentences of corporal punishment, to adopt the recommendation of those officers, except when the culprit is an exceptionally powerful man guilty of a ̧ cruel offence.
I am, &c.,
The Police Magistrate,
· 12,629 ; not printed.
E. NOEL WALKER,
Colonial Secretary.
17
Enclosure 2 in No. 8.
THE HONOURABLE THE COLONIAL SECRETARY.
1. Corporal punishment for prison offences in the prisons of Ceylon is regulated by Sections 65, 66, 67 and 68 of Ordinance 16 of 1877, and Sections 4, 5, 6 of the amending Ordinance 24 of 1890, and Rule 247 of the Prison Manual.
2. Under the above sections the Superintendent (answering to the Governor of an English Prison), or in his absence a visitor, has power to inflict flogging not exceeding 12 lashes, or caning with a rattan, not exceeding 20 strokes.
3. Two visitors, under the same sections, may inflict flogging not exceeding 25 lashes, and caning not exceeding 30 strokes.
4. The offences for which flogging is given are generally those contained in the Regulations forming the enclosure of the Secretary of State's despatch. Caning is usually given for persistent or obstinate neglect or refusal to perform the allotted tasks, and is only resorted to after repeated warnings and minor punishments.
5. By Section 68 of the Ordinance and Rule 247 of the Manual the provisions of The medical officer invariably Regulation 3 in the enclosure are strictly enforced. examines a prisoner before he is subjected to corporal punishment, and the punishment is inflicted in the presence of the Superintendent and medical officer.
6. By the Governor's directions flogging seldom exceeds 15 lashes.
7. The necessity for corporal punishment in the prisons of Ceylon is increased beyond that in prisons in other colonies, by the persistent opposition of the Medical Department to punishments that include any diminution of diet.
8. There are only two forms of punishments which can be inflicted on men who are in the first year of their sentence of imprisonment or on prisoners who are ordered to perform sitting hard labour by the medical officer. There are punishments which affect the diets, or corporal punishments, confinement in a punishment cell is provided by the law, but such punishment is wholly useless-severe as it is to Europeans, to a native it would simply mean so many days of rest and sleep.
9. In face therefore of the opposition of the Medical Department to dietary punishments it is often necessary to resort to caning in place of them. This caning, though it is no doubt corporal punishment, is not the same in severity as flogging, and should not be considered in the same light.
10. As regards the opposition of the Medical Department to dietary punishments, I cannot of course argue, from a scientific point of view, with professional men; I can only say that the Medical Department has never shewn any statistics to support their theory of the effects of dieting punishments, while the statistics that we have certainly tend to prové that the theory is not based on fact.
11. In Jaffna Prison for habitual criminals, with a daily average of about 100, there were more dietary punishments in 1896 than in any other prison in proportion to the average number of prisoners, yet for the past two years there has only been one death, that of a man who caine into the prison ill and died in 6 days.
12. Of the whole of the prisoners undergoing the most rigorous sentence as regards diet that exists in Ceylon, that of one month's imprisonment, only two died out of 3,966 who had to undergo the sentences in 1896.
13. I give these instances and I believe they disprove the theory of the Medical Department that any increase of mortality can be caused by dietary punishments. Until this opposition to these punishments is removed it will be very difficult to make much further decrease in corporal punishment as far as caning is concerned,
14. I may add that the decrease of corporal punishment has been kept constantly in view during the past few years, and the table which I attach giving the return of these punishments for 1895 and 1896 shew that this has not been without result.
15. With regard to paragraph 7 of the Secretary of State's despatch I may call attention to the fact that all the Superintendents of prisons at out-stations are members of the Civil Service, holding responsible positions as Government agents or assistant Government agents.
L. F. KNOLLYS, Acting Inspector-General of Prisons. 23rd July 1897.
16177-
C
?