CO885-(2-3) — Page 579

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference -

TTC.O.885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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V.-COMPARATIVE TABLE.

COMPARATIVE TABLE showing the Number of Offences, Apprehensions, Convictions, and Acquittals, for the last Three Years.

Years.

1870.

1871.

1872.

The number of offences reported to the police

1,851

The number of persons apprehended by the police or summoned before the

magistrates.

13,620

13,065

14,232

The number of summary convictions—

1. For offences against the person

1,607

1,679

1,459

2. For prædial larceny

731

531

416

3. For offences against property other than prædial larceny 4. For other offences

1,133

813

930

2,949

2,206

2,463

The number of convictions in the Superior Courts—

1. For offences against the person

2. For predial larceny

3. For offences against property other than prædial larceny

4. For other offences

The number of persons acquitted—

In the Inferior Courts

In the Superior Courts

::::

315

436

780

22

50

145

439

6-18

620

236

203

553

4,526 529

4,912 972

4,538

1.110

Note 1.—The Returns for 1869 (the first year for which criminal statistics were renlered) not having

furnished any reliable data of the adjudications, these cannot be given in the above Table. 2.—The offences reported were for the first time included in the criminal statistics in 1872. 3.-The Returus för 1870 and 1871 are made up for the calendar year; but the Returns for 1872 are

made up for the financial yeur, viz., from October 1, 1871, to September 30, 1872.

(No. 75.) Sir,

No. 5.

The Earl of Kimberley to Governor Sir J. P. Grant, K.C,B.

Downing Street, May 16, 1873. I HAVE received your despatch No. 44 of the 11th of March,* forwarding the usual Returns relating to Crime and Prison Discipline in Jamaica for 1872.

2. I have also received your despatch No. 40 of the 22nd of March, reporting the appointment of a Commission, consisting of Mr. District Judge Drake, the Acting Inspector-General of Immigrants, and Mr. R. B. Llewelyn, of the Colonial Secretary's Office, to inquire into the discipline and state of the prisons in the island.

3. When I receive the Report of this Commission I shall be in a better position than at present to judge of the state of prison discipline in the island, but in the meantime it may be of assistance to the Commissioners in their labours if I briefly review the Returns now before me, pointing out the deficiencies which occur to me as existing in the several establishments.

4. With regard to the General Penitentiary, it appears that whilst its average popula- tion is 450, it only contains 303 separate cells, the rest of the prisoners being confined in 15 associated wards. I regard the complete establishment of the separate system in prisons, especially in the principal prison of a colony, as highly desiralite,

5. In the separate cells each prisoner has 330 cubic feet of space; and in the wards 338 cubic feet. (Question 4). I doubt the sufficiency of this allowance, even where the cells or wards are used merely as sleeping places, in such a clinate as that of Jamaica.

6. It is stated (Question 5) that the prisoners are classified “chiefly in accordance with their sentences and the nature of their offences." The sound principle of classification is to classify the prisoners in grades, which represent the duration of the imprisonment they have already undergone, and their conduct in prison, and which are so regulated that promotion from class to class (to be earned by steady industry and good conduct) involves an appreciable improvement in the prisoners' condition.

7. The distinction which appears to be observed. (Question 7) between the treat. ment of prisoners convicted for the first time and reconvicted prisoners in the matter of

• No. 4.

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tread wheel labour, seemed to me objectionable. All prisoners undergoing the same class of punishment should, so far as considerations of health permit, be subjected to precisely the same discipline-leaving the comparative gravity of their offences to be marked by the Court in awarding the sentence.

8. In answer to Question 12, it is stated that the dormitories are not lighted, and are only patrolled "hourly" by the night watch. I need hardly point out to you that where a number of depraved men are associated together during the hours of sleep, it should be in wards which are lighted and under constant supervision.

9. Question 18-"Prisoners tried and convicted for the first time of offences other than unnatural crimes are, provided their conduct during imprisonment is good, entitled by law, and with the approval of the Government, to a remission of one-eighth part of their sentence."

To make a distinction between reconvicted and other prisoners in respect of remission, is open to the objections stated in the 7th paragraph of this despatch, and is contrary to the English practice; and I need hardly say that in this country prisoners convicted of unnatural crimes are subject to the same rules as other prisoners with regard to remission of such sentence.

10. The maximum amount of remission obtainable in England under the Penal Servi- tude Act of 1864, is one-fourth of such part of the sentence as remains after nine months' probation, as exemplified in the margin.* And remissions are earned not simply by such good conduct as is implied in the due observance of prison rules, but by steady industry accompanied by good conduct, and ascertained by a system of marks which you will find described in the evidence taken before the Royal Commission on Penal Servitude in 1863.

11. It is stated in the Returns that the Middlesex and Surrey County Prison is not on the separate system; although prisoners undergoing sentences for misdemeanour are confined in the prison, there is "no labour except cleaning the prison, and that the prisoners sleep at pleasure day and night "-"sleep in associated dormitories not lighted," and the guards only patrol "hourly." (12). In regard to these statements I have to refer you to the remarks contained in paragraph 8 of this despatch.

12. The St. Catherine Prison is not on the separate system, and the prisoners in association have only 403 cubic feet of space. (4). The labour arrangements of this prison appear satisfactory.

13. In the Falmouth County Prison it is stated that "separation is not complete except that males and females are kept quite separate." This answer which occurs in regard to several of the prisons evinces a want of knowledge on the part of the officer supplying these details of the technical use of the word separation in connection with prison discipline.

14. The convicted prisoners are classified as misdemeanants and felons (Question 5). I have to refer you on this subject to the remarks regarding classification contained in paragraph 6 of this despatch, The division of prisoners into felons and misdemeanants is inappropriate. It cannot have escaped your observation that by the law of England and the countries which have adopted the law of England, offences are classified as felonies or misdemeanors upon no defined principles. For example, theft by a servant is a felony. A precisely similar act, in a moral point of view, committed by a banker, is a misdemeanour.

15. The dormitories are not lighted, and the night watch only patrols every half hour. (Question 12).

16. In "Mandeville County Prison" there is no separation "except (as stated in the last case) that males and females are kept quite separate." The prisoners are 100 crowded, having only 290 cubic feet of space (Question 4). The dormitories are not lighted nor sufficiently patrolled (Question 12)

17. In Hanover Prison there were five deaths out of an average population of 34-3, representing a mortality of nearly 15 per cent. And two of the deaths were from dysentery and one from diarrhoea (Question 19.) These facts point to the conclusion that the sanitary state of the prison was not satisfactory.

18. Here also the prisoners are classified as felons and misdemeanants (Question 5). 19. There were eight escapes in 1872-a fact indicating inefficiency on the part of the task-masters employed to guard the prisoners whilst working beyond the walls.

20. In St. Mary's Prison the prisoners are stated (Question 8) to be employed "working on sugar estates in the field." From this I am led to infer that the prisoners' labour is hired out on the contract system to private employers. Such a system, unless conducted under very strict supervision on the part of the Government, is open *Sentence 5 years-Probation 9 months-Residue 41 years-Remission 1 year.

(128)

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