CO885-(2-3) — Page 609

PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

Reference :-

C.O.885

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

3 PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

80

unhealthy, yet it is repugnant to the enlightened views of the period that prisoners should be so congregated, rendering nugatory, as it must, all attempts at a proper classification and an efficient discipline. As the rooms of this prison will not admit of any alteration that would fit them for the reception of that class of prisoners, who now, in the absence of suitable accommodation, are of necessity confined there, such, for instance, as those convicted at the Court of Grand Sessions, and who should be subjected to a more rigid and penal system than those sentenced by magistrates for petty offences to short terms of imprisonment, your committee recommend that one hundred additional cells should be erected at Glendairy, and be constructed with the view of separating the prisoners at night, and adapted to the system and discipline at present carried out at that prison. The committee have inspected Glendairy, and find that the space within the boundary walls affords ample room for effecting this proposal, and relief to this extent would then be afforded the Town Hall Prison. In a short time the Legislature will remove its sittings to the chambers prepared for it in the new buildings, after which the Town Hall will only be used for the holding of the Courts of Justice, and the free ingress of the public of which the Provost Marshal complains will to a great extent be obviated, and with a more thorough ventilation, which the committee deem desirable, and which they think can be effected, this prison may then be allotted to, and rendered fit for, the reception of male debtors, as at present, and prisoners convicted of petty offences, and sentenced by the magistrates, and of those awaiting their trial at the sessions, for which two classes of prisoners the committee are not prepared to recommend that any further accommodation should at present be provided. Your committee have visited and inspected the prison at " A," to ascertain if any and what provision could be made there for the separation of female debtors from prisoners who have been convicted of crime, with whom they have hitherto been confined. Lord Kimberley draws special attention to that portion of Captain Hyde's report that refers to this subject, wherein he states that respectable female debtors are confined at Prison “A,"together with short sentenced female prisoners, and that a respectable woman may thus find herself shut up in the same ward with the most abandoned of her sex; his Lordship goes on to state, that it is not justifiable for the Legislature to maintain a law enabling judgment creditors to sue out execution ca sa in cases of mere civil debt, when there is not necessarily any ingredient of culpability, if it neglects to provide a decent place of detention for incarcerated debtors, and subjects them to associate with criminals. The predominating views of the committee would lead them to recommend, as the wisest policy, the abolition of im- prisonment for debt, in all cases where indebtedness has been unaccompanied with fraud; Lord Kimberley's remarks would rather indicate a concurrence in such policy; this would be the simplest and most ready remedy for the evil complained of, but as public opinion may not be sufficiently matured for the adoption of such a course, your Committee recommend that two rooms which they saw at Prison "A" should be prepared for the detention of female debtors. These rooms have hitherto been of little or no use, and one or both of them may be so arranged as to completely isolate female debtors from criminal prisoners, and give ample accommodation for the highest number hitherto confined for debt at any one time at that prison, the general average being between 6 and 7, the highest on record 13, and there being none at the time of your committee's visit. Your committee cannot but express their surprise, that attention had not previously been drawn to the accommodation these rooms would have afforded for the separation of debtors from criminal prisoners. Your committee are of opinion that the recommendation herein made, with improved ventilation of the cells, will meet the present want of prison accommodation, and will, if carried into operation, admit of the adoption of a more perfect system of prison discipline than can possibly be attempted under present circum- stances. As the terms of their instructions require that they should "inquire generally into the state of the prison accommodation throughout the island," they are indisposed to conclude their report without offering some suggestions bearing on the point in relation to the future. Preparations are being made for the construction of a new Lunatic Asylum in a new locality, and the question will arise as to what purpose the present site and buildings can be applied; although this question may not require solution for some time, your committee consider that they will not be exceeding their instructions by advert- ing to it. The present practice of confining convicted offenders in prisons situated in different parts of the i-land, where neither the construction of the buildings, the staff of officers, nor other appliances are such as will admit of their isolation, and the enforce- ment of a discipline calculated to render imprisonment for crime penal is decidedly objectionable, and one that should be remedied whenever an opportunity presents itself for doing so, and this opportunity will present itself when the lunatics are removed from the present asylum, which may then be reconstructed, and converted into a female prison.

I

Its contiguity to Glendairy will allow of its being placed under the supervision of the Governor of that prison, the buildings nsed at present for females may then be appropriated for the reception of males undergoing short terms of imprisonment for petty offences under Magisterial sentences; the practice of committing convicted prisoners to out-stations may be discontinued, and those prisons retained only for the detention of prisoners awaiting their trial.

FRANCIS GODING, Chairman.

(Signed)

Inclosure 2 in No. 17.

The House of Assembly to his Excellency the Governor.

THE House of Assembly have the honour to state, for the information of his Excellency the Governor that, in view of the paragraph in his Excellency's speech at the opening of the session referring to the unfitness of the Town Hall Prison as a place of confinement for prisoners, and to other prisons in the island requiring improvements, a Joint Committee of the Council and Assembly was appointed to investigate the question, and have presented their report thereon, a copy of which the House have the honour to transmit to your Excellency herewith. The report referred to recommends inter alia that 100 additional cells should be erected at Glendairy; that arrangements should be made for ventilation in the Town Hall Prison, and two rooms at present useless at Glendairy should be converted into places of confinement for female debtors.

The House of Assembly request that his Excellency will cause an estimate of the cost of carrying out the proposals alluded to in the report forwarded, and cause the same

to be laid before the House of Assembly for consideration.

December 23, 1873.

(Signed)

No. 18.

AUGUSTUS BRIGGS, Speaker.

Governor Rawson, C. B., to the Earl of Kimberley.—(Received January 27.)

(No. 6, Barbados.) My Lord,

I HAVE the honour to acknowledge your Lordship's despatch No. 61 of the 14th

Barbados, January 8, 1874. November, on the subject of the last statistical returns of Gaols and Prisoners in this Island in 1872.

2. I have communicated to Mr. Watts your Lordship's remarks respecting the efficacy of shot-drill, and with reference to the suggestion that either the tread-wheel or crank should be substituted for shot-drill in the cases mentioned by Mr. Watts; I have written to the Governor of British Guiana for information as to the results of the use of the crank in the penal settlement there, and as to the means of employing the motive power to some useful purpose.

3. In Barbados it has not been found practicable to utilize the treadwheel, and the number for which it is adapted is too small to admit of all the prisoners being worked upon it. When the Glendairy Prison is enlarged, fresh means must be found for enforcing disciplinary punishment within its walls.

4. Upon the minor points adverted to in your Lordship's despatch I have to report :—

1st. That the local law limits the issue of tickets of leave to prisoners convicted of a first offence, and my Council advise me that there would be no disposition on the part of the Legislature to extend the privilege further,

2nd. The inclosed return explains the cause of the escapes from the Juvenile Prison. Out of the nine cases in three years, two were only attempts to escape, and six occurred while the boys were employed in agricultutal pursuits in the open fields outside the prison walls; and of the seven who escaped, all but one were retaken, mostly on the same, or following day.

(128)

I have, &c. (Signed) RAWSON W. RAWSON.

• No. 16.

Y