CO885-(1-2) — Page 652

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

C.O.

Reference :-

885

2 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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be directed to the possibility of effecting a material diminution of the number of convicts now annually transported.

I do not propose to put an end to the punishment of transportation; for the gravest crimes short of those which are punished by death, transportation should be retained, and in some part of Her Majesty's dominions places for the reception of con- victs so sentenced must in this case be provided; but in the present state of our Convict Colonies, we cannot continue to send out to them several thousand convicts every year.

To effect any material diminution in the number of convicts now aunually transported, our system of secondary punishments must be reconsidered, and our prison discipline must be modified.

Irrespective of the difficulties connected with transportation, our administration of justice would, in my opinion, be improved if our courts had the power of inflicting more regular gradations of punishment than they now possess.

The punishment of imprisonment is now limited by statute to three years, but practically, in con- sequence of the arrangement of our prisons, and especially since the introduction of the separate sys- tem, imprisonment seldom exceeds eighteen months.

Sentences for two years are very rare. The next gradation is seven years transportion. This is in itself an evil. It embarrasses our courts, by impeding the due apportionment of punish- ment to crime; and it is the main cause of the inconvenient number of convicts who are annually sentenced to transportation.

To correct this evil I would suggest :

1st. That prison discipline must not be limited to

the separate system.

2ndly. That we

should establish large industrial

prisons, in which the prisoners may be employed on public works or in out-of-door labour, and which may thus, as suggested to the Prison Discipline Committee in 1850, be rendered to a great degree self-supporting; and,

3rdly. Having thus rendered it possible to inflict long imprisonments without injury to health, and with probable benefit to character, we should legalize such sentences.

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The prison at Dartmoor, with room for 1200 pri- soners, has been put into a state which will admit of its being appropriated to carrying into effect long sentences of imprisonment; and it is a question for the serious consideration of Her Majesty's Governmeut, whether other district prisons on a large scale, with a view to the changes indicated above, ought not as soon as possible to be constructed.

One objection which would of course be made to such a system, would be the increased number of→ persons who would be ultimately retained in this country after the commission of serious crime. This would to a certain extent be true.

But it will be remembered, that for several years

all our seven-years transports (which constitute about four-sevenths of the whole, and two-thirds of those

to whom I wish to apply this plan) were sent to the hulks, and then discharged in this country; and 1 am not aware that any complaint was ever made upon this ground.

Moreover, the whole additional number to be re- leased would probably not exceed from 2000 to 2500 per annum in Great Britain, and 1800 in Ireland.

We may fairly hope that the inconvenience would be diminished by the reformatory treatment which would be adopted in such establishments; but what- ever may be its extent, it must be weighed against the advantages the country would derive from being relieved from existing difficulties.

I propose that long imprisonments should be substituted for sentences of seven and ten years, and that above ten years all should still be transported, and for the present sent to Western Australia.

I am assured that the expense of such an urrange- ment, considering the extent of prison-room which

we already have, and the saving which would be effected in conveying convicts to Van Diemen's Land at 241. per head, will not afford any serious impediment to its adoption.

I subjoin some tables and calculations, which will

be found to throw light on this and other statistical parts of the subject.

But it is not my present purpose to lengthen this paper by entering further into these questions vi detail-many of them of great importance-the C