40.
by building a stone wall which effectually separates it from the yard in which the male convicts work.
Separate working cells have also been constructed, in which each female convict works by herself at washing, sewing or stone-breaking; and although there are not a sufficient number of these cells to ensure solitude for each, still it is a step in the right direction.
The forge also has been removed from the dangerous position it occupied before, and has been placed in a safe and commodious stone building in the male labour yard.
General Rules and Regulations.
The new rules have been followed during the year, but I regret to have to report that the ambiguity of the wording of some of the clauses prevents their working satisfactorily.
One instance will suffice:
Clause 74 was evidently intended to give the Inspector of Prisons, or Visiting Justice, ample powers to punish any breach of gaol discipline committed by a convict, but it is so worded that whether the offence committed be a mere triffing infraction of the rules, or a most aggravated assault upon a turnkey, corporal punishment cannot be inflicted unless for a third or subsequent offence.
The mark system introduced under these rules works well in the opinion of the superintendent.
Mr. Harley reports that the prisoners take a great interest in it, and that many watch jealously the number of marks they obtain, of which they are informed once a week by the superintendent.
Economy and Expenditure.
Every attention has been paid to ensure the strictest economy consistent with the efficient working of the establishment, and a constant check and supervision maintained over every item of expenditure.
I think this to be the fitting place to remark that whilst the most rigid economy should be observed, the ultimate object for which the gaol exists should not be lost sight of, viz., the suppression or at all events the diminution of crime.
It is but a blind and suicidal policy which seeks before anything else to make the value of prison labour cover the cost of the establishment, as the real return for present outlay is to be looked for in the future, and not in the present.
As a secondary consideration, prison labour may and indeed ought to be made as productive as possible.
Expenditure, with salaries, to 31st December, 1874 Valuation of labour
Prisoners.
£ .. d. 7,632 18 3 6,115 10 81
On 31st December, 1874, there were in confinement in the Royal Gaol and the
Convict Depôts,
Male prisonera
Female prisoners
Total..
These prisoners were thus classified
Felons
Misdemeanants..
Debtors
Waiting trial
Adjourned coses
Committed for want of bail
:
::::::
The total number committed during the year 1874 was 3,877. The daily average during the two years was:
::
:
::::::
415
51
466
141
296
3
11
14
1
400
ど
41
1873.
.1874.
Males
831
370
Females
::
::
::
25
36
356
406
Escapes.
The escapes during the year have been 17, and 16 fugitives have been captured.
Employment of Prisoners.
Under this head, I beg to repeat all that I said in my last year's report. I do not know that I can express more fully or more forcibly the views I entertain as to the in- sufficiency of our present system as a deterrent, but the experience of the twelve months that have elapsed since the date of that report has strengthened my opinion, and furnished even stronger proof of what I then advanced.
It is painfully evident from the tables attached to this report that the year 1874 has seen no diminution in crime. The grand total of commitments to the Royal Gaol up to the 31st December, 1874, as shown in Table A, was 3,377, an increase of 728 on the preceding year; and if we deduct from the two years the total number of breaches of laws which cannot be considered in any sense criminal, such as:
Breach of contract.
Debt.
11
sanitary regulations. harbour regulations. tramrond regulations.
borough regulations.
Debt to the Crown.
Driving cart without badge.
Immigrant without pass. Non-payment of compensation.
bail bond.
Plying for hire without license.
Riding on shaft of cart. Squatting.
Trespass.
Witness for Crown.
we shall find that the increase of crime, properly so called, is very much more con- siderable.
An examination of the different heads under which this large number of offenders is classified, proves beyond a doubt that as yet no improvement has begun in the criminal classes of this Colony.
Table A shows that whilst the number of felons and misdemeanants committed in 1874 exceeds the number committed in 1873 by 831, the number of females com-. mitted in the latter year is nearly double that of those committed in the twelve pre- ceding months.
In 1873 265 females were committed, and in 1874, 518; or to state the case in another way in 1873 the proportion of female to male crime was 11-83 per cent., whereas in 1874 it increased to 18:38.
The table of ages of prisoners committed gives also a most unsatisfactory result, shewing a large increase of commitments of juvenile offenders, viz. :*-
Between the ages of 10 to 16 years, an increase of
57
15 to 18
11
18 to 20
20 to 25
"
11
TI
30
108
145
160
This, I fear, tends to give additional proof (if any were required beyond that furnished by Table F) that juvenile crime is terribly on the increase.
The next Table which calls for attention is Table B, and certainly the comparison it affords between the two years is far from being satisfactory. Drunkenness, disturb- ing the peace, fighting, &c., &c. (ride Table G), have greatly increased.
Another and a most serious feature appears in Table C, which shows that whilst the number of offenders of other countries has not increased during the year dispro- portionately with the immigration therefrom, there were 801 Trinidadiaus committed to the Royal Gaol in 1874, as against 535 in 1873.
I look, however, upon Table F as the one which calls for the most serious atten- tion of all, except, perhaps, that part of Table A showing the increase of female
crime.
By Table F it will be seen that whereas in 1872 there were but 30 juvenile offenders in the Royal Gaol, that number in 1873 increased to 51, and in 1874 had
(404)
M
*
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE
Reference :-
C.O. 885
4
PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON
ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC-
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