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7. On the 30th March last, I made a pressing representation to Government on the overcrowded state of the Gaol and the subject was fully enquired into by a Commission of which the Honourable E. J. ACKROYD was Chairman. "Their Report, dated 1st June, 1886, submitted several recommendations, which have in part been carried out, and are, I understand, in part still under the consideration of Government, but no material relief to the congested state of the Gaol has as yet been experienced, and the danger to discipline, the danger of moral contamination, and the provocation and temptation to Prison offences which I pointed out as due to the overcrowding in associated wards, now exists in as full force as ever.
8. Notwithstanding the limited and inconvenient space, an extra loom for grass-mat making and an extra loom for coir-mat making have been put up for work during the year. This not only increases the number of prisoners instructed in industrial work, but adds to the profits of the Gaol.
PRISONERS AND THEIR DISCIPLINE.
9. In the previous year's Report, I expressed an opinion that Chinese convicts were as amenable to discipline and disposed to be as well conducted as those of most other races. The experience of another year has confirmed me in this opinion. The number of Prison offences reported during the year has indeed been great, compared with those of English Prisons, but this, as formerly reported, is in a great measure due to the enforced association of prisoners, by day and night, at meals, at labour and in sleeping, and also, though in a less degree than formerly, to want of training and experience in Prison Officers. Yet the present year shows a slow but marked and steady improvement, as to the number and nature of Prison offences. In 1885, with an average number of 530 prisoners, 6,473 Prison offences were reported, giving an average number of something over 12 Prison offences a year for each prisoner. In 1886, with a daily average of 674 prisoners, 7,198 offences were reported giving an average number of a little over 10 offences a year for each prisoner. This modest though satisfactory improvement is not owing to any slackness in reporting Prison offences. For increasing strictness in this respect has been the steady rule during the year. But it is not only satisfactory to observe a reduction in the average number of Prison offences, but still more satisfactory to observe that the general experience of the results of a judicious Prison discipline have been verified in this Gaol, in so far as a much larger proportion of the offences during the past year have been committed by a smaller number of habitual offenders. On the last day of 1885 there were only 78 Chinese prisoners in Gaol who had been free of punishment for three months, while on the last day of 1886, there were 144 prisoners who had been free of Prison punishment for three months and, among these, 44 had been free of punishment for a whole year.
10. While there is a proportionate reduction, as compared with last year, of every kind of Prison offence, this reduction is most appreciable in the graver Prison offences.
11. The inveterate temptation of prisoners, in constant association, to talk is difficult to overcome. The offences under this head in 1885, were 2,132 to a daily average of 530 prisoners amounted to a small fraction above 4 offences per man per annum. In 1886 these offences were 2,659 to a daily average of 674 prisoners and amounted to a small fraction under 4 offences per man per annum.
12. The other graver offences, such as assaults, acts of violence or insubordination, obtaining tobacco or opium, show a marked diminution.
13. During the year 7 cases of insubordination towards and assaults on Officers of the Gaol were tried as against 11 cases in 1885. Of these cases 6 offenders were awarded corporal punishment and one was awarded additional imprisonment by the Police Magistrate. The cases of prisoners assaulting and fighting with each other show a fair actual and considerable proportional reduction. Nine of these cases were tried by the Superintendent and a Visiting Justice; eight of these offenders were awarded corporal punishment, and one solitary confinement. Another case, an aggravated assault with a hammer, was tried in the Supreme Court. The remaining cases of assaulting and fighting were not serious and were in fact mostly squabbles over food or work.
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14. The reduction in the number of offences of having tobacco or opium is a most marked feature during the past year. This is chiefly due to the great attention and vigilance of the Prison Officers. The ingenuity of prisoners and their friends, as exercised in the efforts to pass in these narcotics, is very great, and constant vigilance is necessary.
15. In my Report for 1885, I detailed the steps adopted with this view. The tobacco introduced during the year has chiefly been brought in by the chain-gang, and by far the greater number of these offences are
for secreting stumps of cigars or cigarettes picked up on the road or at work.
16. In my Report of 1885, I adverted to the risk of possible conspiracies, with so many convicts living in association. This year has not been without its experience in this respect. A conspiracy was made to set fire to the Gaol, in hopes of effecting an escape in the confusion. The attempt was frustrated, ample information having been received in time, and I am in hopes of shortly obtaining sufficient evidence to prosecute the intending incendiaries. As a full report on this subject was sub- mitted to Government at the time, it seems unnecessary to enter into details here. The desperadoes concerned in such attempts are generally members of the Triad Society. It is very difficult to get any
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