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Q-Now under Rule 270 eight classes of acts are declared to be offences against Prison discipline. For the first offence under any one of these classes, what punishment may the Superintendent inflict and under what Rule?
A-He may inflict three days' confinement in a punishment cell on punishment diet under Rule 271.
Q-Or he may deprive a prisoner of his pork?
A-Or he may deprive a prisoner of his pork. He might also be put back to a period of No. 1 labour under Rule 287 or a period of No. 2 labour; it would depend upon what labour the prisoner was doing. A prisoner on light labour-No. 3 labour might be put back to No. 2 or to No. 1 labour according to the nature of his offence.
Q-Do you read the words under Rule 271, "It shall be lawful for the Superintendent to examine any such prisoner touching such offence" as binding upon you to examine?
A-Most certainly.
Q-What do you understand by "disobedience of the regulations of the Prison " in Rule 270, sub-section 1?
A-Talking, or effacing an order board, or leaving without permission his party or place where he is located.
Q-How do you punish such disobedience if repeated?
A-If repeated, and if it is a trivial offence, I should give him from one to three days' rice and water. If he is on No. 1 labour-on crank labour-I might give him three days' or seven days extra on No. 1 labour.
Q-Would you flog him at all?
A-I might put him on three days' solitary with rice and water and I might whip him, but only if the disobedience were such that it amounted to insubordination.
Q-What is that-three days' solitary rice and water?
A--It is punishment diet in a darkened punishment cell.
Q-Have you ever resorted to flogging in such a case?
A-Yes; refusal to labour.
Q-I am speaking simply of disobedience of the regulations of the Prison?
A--I consider that repeated refusal to labour is disobedience of the Prison Regulations.
Q-But refusal to labour is provided for by another section entirely, is it not?
A-I do not take it as such.
Q-Have you ever flogged a man then for disobedience of the Regulations of the
Prison?
A-A man has been whipped. It was a case of a prisoner who feigned madness, and it could hardly be said that he was whipped for a minor offence. He was whipped because he would not work.
Q-What I mean is this: there is a distinct difference between refusal to labour, as I take it under these Regulations, and disobedience of the Regulations of the Prison?
A-Certainly.
Q-What I want to know is, have you for what you considered an act of disobe- dience of the Regulations of the Prison ever sentenced a man to be flogged?
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