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With a view to decreasing the number of prisoners confined in Gaol in default of payment of fines, I have suggested legislation such as has recently been introduced at home, allowing part pay- ment of a fine to be equivalent to serving a proportionate part of the sentence of imprisonment in default.
6. There were 4,038 reports made by Prison Officers against prisoners for offences against Prison discipline, as compared with 2,619 reports for the previous year.
A proportion of the increase is directly due to the increased population of the Gaol in 1898, and I attribute the remainder of the increased reports to the following conditions which rendered difficult the enforcement of strict discipline :--
(a) The location of a larger number of prisoners in Association while the work of sub-divid-
ing the cells, which is referred to in paragraph S, was in progress.
(6) The interruption of the regular routine of labour by this and other structural improve-
ments on a large scale that have been carried out during the year.
(c) The numerous changes in the Indian Gaol staff to which I have adverted in C.S.O. 187.
Discipline cannot be maintained by inexperienced officers.
I give below the number of reports for offences against prison discipline for each of the last three years, and the average number of reports per unit of the Gaol population :-
Year.
Daily Average Population.
1896,
514
1897,
462
1898,
511
Number of Reports
for Offences against Prison Discipline.
3,884
2,619
4,038
Average Number of Reports per Prisoner.
7.55
5.66
7.90
7. The returns which are appended show a considerable increase in assaults on each other, on Prison Officers, by prisoners, and in the offence of having tobacco,
The number of cases of assault on Prison Officers was two, which is below the average.
The number of assaults by prisoners on each other shows a large increase. The assaults were, however, with one exception, of a trivial nature, and arose out of petty disputes between prisoners engaged together on unaccustomed work in connection with the structural alterations in, and additions to, the Gaol.
The increase in the offence of having tobacco is due to the fact that, at various periods during the year, there were a certain number of free men engaged on work in the Gaol.
8. The following improvements, referred to in paragraph 16 of my Report for 1897, have been completed during the year under review almost entirely by prison labour at what must be regarded as the small cost of $15,000:-
(a) On the site of D wing, a large two-storied workshop has been erected, the upper floor of
which is used as a printing shop while the ground floor is devoted to mat making.
The workshop was much needed, and has rendered possible a useful extension of industrial labour.
(b) The sub-division of Association cells into separate cells has been completed. There are now 427 separate cells in the Gaol, and 26 Association cells, giving accommodation for 453 prisoners in separate confinement, and for 104 extra prisoners by placing 5 prisoners in each Association cell, or a total of 557 prisoners.
(c) The Officers' quarters inside the Gaol have been converted into a commodious hospital, and offices for the Chief Warder and Clerks, but the hospital is still occupied by the Indian Staff peuding the building of quarters for them outside the Gaol.
(d) What was formerly the Chief Warder's and Clerks' offices, has been turned into a
reception room with cells attached.
(e) The old hospital, which is above the female Prison, has been prepared for the reception of female prisoners as an extension to the existing female Prison. It is, however, still occupied by male prisoners pending the removal of the hospital to the new accommo- dation provided for it.
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