CO885(3-4) — Page 22

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

C.O. 885

4 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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built with any view to carrying out the separation of prisoners. The original scheme. was much more extensive, and if carried out would have satisfied all ordinary require ments. No attempt is made at separation during the hours of work or divine service. No unconvicted prisoners are detained in the General Penitentiary; in some of the remaining prisons they are wholly, in others only partially, separated from convicts during the day, but in all cases they are locked up in separate wards at night.

19. Solitary confinement can be inflicted by Courts of Law for certain offences, but it is believed that in practice it is seldom ordered.

Solitary confinement can also be inflicted for prison offences by the Superinten. dents of the different prisons who may order any offender to close confinement in the refractory or solitary cells for any time not exceeding three days, or for such time not exceeding six days as a visiting justice shall by a written order determine. For the offences specified by section 53 of the same Act, two visiting justices, or any two justices of the peace of the parish in which the prison is situated may after an inquiry on oath order the offender to be punished by close confinement for any term not exceeding one month.

20. No special report is made of these punishments to the Inspector of Prisons or any other authority, but they are entered in the Superintendent's Journal, and when a prisoner is tried before official visitors or visiting justices, the notes of the charge, evidence, and sentence are recorded at length in the justices' book.

Penal Labour.

21. Penal labour, using the words as meaning labour by treadwheel, crank, or shot-drill, is now euforced in the Penitentiary and district prisons, but not in the short- term prisons. In the Penitentiary the treadmill has been in use since the year 1866, and the shot-drill since 1871. The treadmill is constructed to admit of 36 men being worked at a time, 21 on and 12 off. The class of prisoners selected for work on the wheel, and the rules under which they work, will be found in the Return 5.

22. Short drill has only recently been introduced in the prisons of the Colony; at present it is in use in the Penitentiary and in all the district prisons, though not in any of the short-tema prisons. The manner in which it is carried out will appear from the Return 6.

We may observe that in some of the prisons the shot used are 24, and in others 32 pounders. We see no reason why this distinction should be made.

23. No prisoner is put to any penal labour without having been previously examined by the surgeon of the prison, and on any prisoner complaining of ill-health or inability to perform the labour exacted from him, he is taken off work till he can be examined by the surgeon. With these precautions we do not think that there is reason to suppose that any ill-effects follow the enforcement of labour, either on the treadmill or at shot-drill. We understand that since we visited the Penitentiary a crank has been introduced there which is intended to be principally used for the punishment of prison offences.

Whipping.

21. The punishment of whipping, as regards the Courts of Justice, was altogether By the 19 Vict., c. 30, however, abolished by the 4 Vict., c. 52, sec. 7.

it was enacted that prisoners convicted of obeah or myalism might in addition to imprisonment with hard labour be sentenced to receive not exceeding 78 lashes (not more than 39 lashes to be inflicted at one time), and one month is to clapse between each infliction of punishment. Only one instance of a prisoner having been flogged under the Act has occurred the last five years.

25. By the 28 Vict., c. 18, scc. 2, as amended by 20 Vict., c. 7, sec. 1, and Law 4 of 1872, the judge of any circuit of district Court may in addition to the punishment authorized by law, sentence any male prisoner to be whipped on his second or subsequent conviction for any of the offences therein specified.

"Every second or subsequent conviction for stealing, destroying or damaging, with Intent to steal, any cultivated plant, root, fruit or other vegetable production used for the food of man or beast, or for medicine, or for distillation, of dyeing, or for or in the course of any manufacture growing in any garden, orchard or provision ground, whether the same be inclosed or not, or in any cane, coffee or pimento field, stealing any horse, mare, gelding, or colt, filly, mule or ass, or any bull, cow, ox, heifer, or calf, or any

• Prison Act, 1856, sec. 28, clause 3.

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ram, ewe, sheep or lamb, pig or goat, or wilfully killing any of such quimals with intent to steal the carcass, Skin, or any part thereof, or wilfully maiming any of the said animals, and for any second or subsequent conviction for stealing any domesticated animal, or any animal ordinarily used for human food, or feloniously receiving any such property or animals as aforesaid knowing them to have been stolen," and the words second or subse- quent conviction are declared to include a conviction for any offence in the second section specified after a conviction for any offence therein also specified. The number of stripes and the instrument with which they are to be inflicted must be specified in the sentence. Convicts over the age of sixteen years may be sentenced to not more Convicts under 16 to not more than 36 lashes with the ordinary cat-of-nine-tails. than 18 stripes with a rod of tamarind or other switches.

26. The punishment must be inflicted in the prison in which the offender is detained, and in presence of the surgeon of the prison, or in the absence of some other duly qualified medical practitioner, who may if necessary interpose at any time He is also bound and direct the postponement of the remainder of the sentence. within seven days after the infliction of the punishment or any part thereof to furnish to the Governor a report of the condition of the convict, and whether the punishment has been wholly or partially inflicted, and the Governor has power either altogether to remit or to direct any further postponement of any sentence which has been partly executed. The cat in use in the General Penitentiary corresponds in every respect with the model cat sent out to this island from the Office of the Secretary of State for the Colonies.

27. It is believed that there is considerable reluctance on the part of some of the judges to exercise the powers thus conferred on them; but, with one or two excep. tions, the witnesses who were examined before us, of whatever religious denomination, of whatever class in life,pf whatever colour, from whatever part of the Colony, agreed in thinking that nothing short of the infliction of corporal punishment will put a stop to the crying evil of prædial larceny. A very strong instance of the growing preva- lence of this opinion may be found in the evidence of Mr. William Wemyss Anderson, one of the oldest residents in the Colony, who describes himself as a negrophilist, and who, in fact, many years ago, took an active part in promoting the policy of emancipa- tion. That gentleman states: "I have all my life been a negrophilist, but the conclu sion I have arrived at is that there is now a prevalence of certain descriptions of crime which is undermining the prosperity of the country-I mean petty thefts. I know of one lady who had ninety goats stolen from her in St. Andrew's in a few months; and of another in the same parish who has had to sell her penn in consequence of all her stock being stolen. I think it has become necessary, and I say it with great regret, to The evil has give the judges power to order corporal punishment in these cases. become of such maguitude, and bears so hardly on poor people, especially women, that I think the deterrent is necessary."

Mr. Anderson's opinion as to the magnitude of the evil is certainly not unfounded. As an instance of what is going on all over the island, we subjoin an extract from the evidence of a very intelligent witness, Mr. Peter Moodie, whom we examined at Port Antonio, in the parish of Portland. Mr. Moodie has lived all his life in the parish, has held several public appointments, and is intimately acquainted with the district and its inhabitants. IIe purchases fruit largely from the peasantry for the American trade, and is also a large cultivator on his own account, so that he has means of information on the subject. He states that the stealing both of ground provisions and small stock is largely on the increase in the parish; that in the year 1870 he established a field of bananas near the town of Port Antonio, which he had to abandon in consequence of the larcenics committed on it. He adds: "I am largely engaged in the fruit trade, and in daily intercourse with the small settlers, who are always complaining of petty thefts by people of their own class and colour. They have fruit ready for shipment, and the night before the vessel is ready to load the whole field is robbed." He further states, that he considers detection almost impossible, as the fields are a long distance from the houses and surrounded by bush, and if a constable is watching a fickl, half-a-dozen of the gang of thieves are watching him. Again, the Rector of St. Ann's says, that he has been obliged to give up planting (ground provisions) because he was so robbed, and that he cannot even keep the breadfruits near his own house, and that no middle-class person can do any good by planting. Mr. Royes, the custos of St. Ann's, states that the stealing of fruit and canes is on the increase in that parish, and that though he has plenty of fruit-trees he is obliged to buy fruits; that he loses two-thirds of his cocoa- nuts, although the trees are supposed to be watched; and that the people plunder each These are not exceptional other as much as they plunder the proprictors, or nearly so.