CO885-(2-3) — Page 594

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference.

411TC.O.885

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

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

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passage (which, as a means of admission of air, and containing 4,117 cubic feet, must be taken into consideration), to contain in the whole 26,788 cubic feet.

For the thirty days ending the 20th July last the average daily number of prisoners confined in these wards amounted to 141, giving an average of only 189 cubic feet for cach prisoner, a quantity greatly out of proportion with the recognized amount required per head, viz., 600-feet.

The ventilation of the wards, which is also very defective, is effected by means of small barred windows, looking into, and on a level with, the prison yard, the close proximity of some of them, however, to the flights of steps leading up on either side to the main building, renders them nearly useless for the admission of air, at the same time that the prisoners confined in the wards on the leeward side of the passage above mentioned must of necessity be the recipients of the foul air generated in the wards on the windward side.

As might be anticipated, the evils attendant on this want of ventilation and over- crowding is shown by the fact that, after the prisoners have been locked up all night, when the turnkeys enter the passage in the morning for the purpose of turning them out, the atmosphere has become so polluted, and the heat is so great, that it is not until they return into the open air that they are able to unlock all the wards,

It may, therefore, he considered a matter of congratulation that under these conditions the prison is as healthy as it is, and that there is so small an amount of sickness among the prisoners is. I consider, in a great degree, due to the vig'lant supervision of the medical officer attached to the gaol, combined with the attention paid to cleanliness by the daily cleansing of the wards by the prisoners and the frequent lime- washing. These wards, with six cells in the yard of the gaol, used for solitary confine- ment for breaches of prison discipline, constitute the total accommodation for prisoners under sentence of penal labour. misdemeanants, those under sureties, and prisoners committed to take their trial at the Grand Sessions.

The other part of the Town Hall assigned for the use of prisoners is the debtors' quarter, consisting of three rooms in the upper part of the building, each ventilated and with a sufficiency of space,

There is also the hospital, a detached building in the gaol yard, consisting of three wards, the ventilation of which is good, and for the numbers confined in it is sufficiently spacious.

2. As a place of security the Town Hall Gaol is quite the reverse of what a prison intended for the safe custody of prisoners ought to be. In lieu of the prison being kept secluded, and access being denied to all but those whom business connected with the establishment would entitle to admission, the gates of the prison are constantly open to all comers, and people of all classes have full ingress.

This arises, as I mentioned above, from the Town Hall being the appropriated place for the meeting of the Legislative Chambers, and the sittings of the various Courts of Justice. Hence the concourse of strangers in the prison yard in the shape of plaintiffs, defendants, witnesses, and a crowd of idlers of that class usually attendant upon Courts of Justice, in fact, a constant going backwards and forwards and bustle, offering unusual facilities for the escape of prisoners, at the same time necessitating the temporary cessa- tion of all the usual penal occupations of the prisoners.

The walls surrounding the gaot yard are also of such a height as to offer no great impediment to e-capes over them by active and determined men (they having already taken place), while the place on which the building used for divine service has been erected in close proximity to the wall, the roof nearly on a level with it, actually invites escape. abutting as that part does on a piece of vacant ground opening into the main street. Giving the officers of the gaol every credit for vigilance, we cannot but feel indebted to the forbearance or want of enterprise of those confined in it, in not more frequently attempting to escape out of enstody. I may add that there is not a single arui of any description for the use of officers in ease of emergency.

3. The discipline of the Town Hall Gaol is carried on by means of a staff of one keeper, three turnkeys, and a doorkeeper, scarcely too numerous when we consider the number of prisoners confined, and the circumstances militating against their safe custody. There is also a staff of superintendents of the conviets when at work outside of the gaol, varying in number according to the strength of the gangs employed,

At the present moment the keepership of the Town Hall Gaol is vacant, difficulty being experienced in finding properly qualified individuals willing to undertake the office arising in a great degree from the smallness of the salary in comparison with the responsi- bilility of the position, and the confinement indispensable for the constant and faithful discharge of its duties.

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The regulation recently introduced by your Excellency, not only making shot drill a part of the penal labour to be performed by the prisoners, but also increasing the number of hours of drill, and consequently its severity leads to the expectation that the discipline may be more deterrent, as from, I may say, almost daily observation the regulations for its performance being more stringently enforced, I have reason to think that the prisoners find shot drill far more irksome than sitting down and hammering soft stone, of which quality most of that on which they work consists. Still more is it likely to prove effective when compared with the penal labour performed outside the prison, That such work is any punishment I doubt; in fact, under the circumstances, it is looked upon as a recreation, prisoners having been known to beg permission to work outside the gaol, and for obvious reasons--the sight of what is going on in the streets, on the wharves, and in the harbour, the recognition of particular prisoners by their friends among the crowd, shouting news of their family, with other advantages taken in different ways of the superintendents' notice being withdrawn, tending much to relieve the monotony of prison life; at the same time, the work on which they are engaged is of so light a character, that it has no terrors for them as a punishment.

I think it is a matter for consideration (with the exception that I shall notice presently) bearing in mind the totally inadequate result of the convict labour when compared with that of the free labourer, whether it would not be for the public benefit to employ free labour, the expense being more than equalized by the then practicable reduction in the staff of superintendents and the greater amount of work done. In fact, as one of the most deterrent elements of prison discipline, no prisoner should be taken outside the walls of the prison during the term of his imprisonment; he should be made to feel that for that period he is cut off from all communication with the outer world, even by sight, and that for good conduct, which is simply a compliance with the rules of the gaol, and which the old offender well knows is the best mode of completing his time with the least inconvenience to himself, he can look for no remission of his sentence, but must expect to fulfil it in its entirety, with the exception that, for an overt act of good conduct, such as assisting a keeper in an emergency, discovering any plot among his fellow prisoners, &c., he would be entitled to the favourable consideration of the authori- ties. Of course there is a class of offenders to whom the earning a fair day's wage is unknown, and who would always be coming back upon the hands of the jailer, but I believe the adoption of this system would tend to render gaol discipline more deterrent and far to lessen the number of prisoners, and thus effect a reduction of cost to the public.

The saving which might also be effected in the expense of the superintendents might in part be applied to supplement the salary of the keeper of the Town Hall Gaol, thus ensuring increased efficiency without any additional charge.

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There is, however, a very great obstacle existing in the Town Hall Prison to rendering its discipline sufficiently deterrent, and that is, the entire absence of enforcing the separate system. Where, as is now the case, prisoners are locked up thirty or more together in one ward for the night, imprisonment loses much of its terror, and classifi- cation of prisoners, even as regards the well and badly behaved, is impossible, facilities are given for the conception of all sorts of crimes and the concoction of plausible stories to impose upon the authorities, while the prisoner who may have been confined for the first time, and for a venial offence, leaves the prison a far worse member of society than when he entered it-the result of contamination from his associates.

I have endeavoured to show your Excellency that the provision for the accommoda- tion of the prisoners in the Town Hall Gaol, either as regards space or security, is insuflicient; at the same time, until, by the construction of a sufficient number of cells to carry out the separate system (which cannot be effected within the present limits of the Town Hall Gaol), and thereby doing away with the indiscriminate crowding of twenty or thirty criminals in one ward, such a discipline as we may look to as deterrent of grime cannot be enforced. With separate cells solitary confinement might be made a punish- ment for offences committed outside the gaol in addition to those against prison discipline, while the infliction of flogging as a punishment for offences against the person accompanied with violence (also administered for breaches of gaol discipline), may be expected to have the same deterrent effect as already experienced in England in the cas of the offences of garotting and wife-beating.

A. F. Gore, Esq.,

Colonial Secretary.

(Signed) CHAS. T. HYDE, Provost Marshal

ت الى سمعة الحياة

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