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BARBADOS.

No. 5.

The Officer administering the Government to the Earl of Carnarvon.—(Received August 13.) (No. 100. Barbados.) My Lord,

Barbados, July 29, 1875.

I HAVE the honour to forward printed copies of the Report of the Commissioners on Convict Labour made to Governor Rawson, which I have but now received.

2. I shall give my attention to this subject at the earliest possible moment.

I have, &c.

(Signed) 8. FREELING, Administrator.

Inclosure in No. 5.

Report of Commissioners on Convict Labour.

To his Excellency Rawson W. Rawson, C.B., Governor, &c.

WE, your Excellency's Commissioners, appointed by your Excellency under your warrant bearing the Geat Seal of the Island of Barbados, " for the purpose of fully inquiring into and considering whether and in what manner the criminal labour of the country can be made partly or wholly remunerative to the Island," have the honour to report to your Excellency on the matter thus referred to us.

We have had under our consideration :---

1 The distribution of the criminals in the Prison of Glendairy and the Town Hall, and the Juvenile Prison at District Police Station "B," and the propriety of providing accommodation for the whole of the adult criminals at Glendairy.

2. The work upon which the criminals are, or have been employed, in so far as it is, or ought to have been, of a remunerative kind.

:

3. The capability of the criminals for other kinds of remunerative work, and how

they might be most advantageously employed.

4. The results of the system in England and elsewhere by which criminal labour has been made remunerative, with a view to the adaptation of such of them as may be applicable to our own prisons.

5. The best means of at once commencing the introduction of a system for making the labour of the criminals partly or wholly remunerative.

I. By the returns furnished us at our first meeting, we found that of 278 prisoners sentenced to hard labour, 106 males were confined in the Town Hall Prison, 71 males and 71 females at Glendairy; and 30 boys at the Prison of District Police Station "B." We think that the first step towards the profitable employment of these criminals, so as to ensure the necessary supervision and intelligent direction of their labour, is to provide proper accommodation for the whole of the adult prisoners at Glendairy, in such buildings as may be necessary for their proper classification and separation; and this we find has already been to a certain extent recommended to the Legislature in the Report of the Joint Committee of the Council and Assembly appointed to consider and report upon your Excellency's message respecting "the fitness of the Town Hall as a place of confine- ment for prisoners, and to inquire generally into the state of prison accommodation throughout the island :" which Report was published in the Official Gazette" of the 8th of December, 1873. In considering the erection of additional buildings at Glendairy, the plan of the building and cells of the Jamaica Penitentiary-which has been referred to us may supply information of value on the economising of space, and be a guide to the erection of a building containing separate cells of a convenient kind at the smallest possible cost.

II. We find that the prisoners at Glendairy have not been employed at remunerative labour, except to a very small extent: four men having been employed in the bakery for

ET LITT

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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