1823 J Society Jor the Itnprovemint of Prison Discipline. 



obliged, but who are willing, to work, 

 are placed in the inside, and the con- 

 victed on the outside, of the wheels : 

 the labour of the latter is very severe, 

 the steps being nearly two feet and a 

 quarter apart. 'J'lie governor states 

 that, since the erection of the mill, he 

 does not set the same faces return, as for- 

 merly.* The profit to the county du- 

 ring the last year, from the labour of 

 the prisoners, amounted to 210/. lis. 



At tiie Cambridge county-gaol, a 

 discipline-mill has been in full opera- 

 tion during the last six months. The 

 male prisoners work in two compart- 

 ments, and the period of labour is ten 

 hoiirs per day. There has not been 

 one instance of a re-committal since 

 the erection of the mill ; before, returns 

 were frequent. The female prisoners 

 are under the sole care of the gover- 

 nor's wife. 



In tlie town-gaol at Cambridge a 

 tread-mill is erecting. The daily al- 

 lowance of money has been changed 

 into a fixed ration of food. 



In this manner the Committee re- 

 port on all the gaols in the kingdom. 



In many prisons the practice still 

 continues of using irons in ordinary 

 cases, with the view of insuring the 

 .safe custody of tlie prisoners. The 

 Committee arc inclined to think that 

 the security which irons afford has 

 been greatly over-rated. The use of 

 fetters has a tendency to relax the 

 vigilance of prison-officers ; and proba- 

 bl3', if tlie circumstances were exa- 

 mined, it would be found that, in a 

 large proportion of cases in which the 

 escape of prisoners had been eflccted, 

 irons had actually been used. It is 

 satisfactory to observe the gradual 

 discontiimance of this practice, which 

 is likely before long to be altogether 

 exploded. At Newgate, until no dis- 

 tant j)eriod, fetters were used in every 

 J'urd; no irons are now to be seen, 



^7 



• Tliis is a cemmoii falseliood of allper- 

 80B9 connected witli the execution of tlie 

 Criminal Laws. During the year in which 

 the Editor of tliis Miscellany served the 

 oflirc of sheriff, only one person was 

 brought twice into Newgale, and he was a 

 wild ideot. We defy this Committee to 

 prove by facts, that more than one in ten, 

 " who fall under the lash of the law," are 

 further objects of its cognizance. Why, 

 therefore, propagate this error, which, 

 more than any other, tends to confirm 

 thousands in the belief, that our Criminal 

 Laws are too lenient ? 



Monthly Mag. No. 378, 



with the exception of those on capital 

 convicts, who wear them not for secu- 

 rity, butas a distinctive piuiishment. 

 Few gaols in England are less secure 

 than the biidewell in Tothill Fields, 

 where fetters were long deemed abso- 

 lutely necessary, but even here they 

 are now altogether dispensed with; 

 and it is to be regretted that they are 

 not disused at several large prisons, 

 which in other respects are well- con- 

 ducted, and where their discontinu- 

 ance might reasonably have been ex- 

 pected. 



We were much delighted with the 

 following paragraph, the most worthy 

 in the Report: — "It is a sound and 

 established maxim of English juris- 

 prudi^nce, that every man shall be 

 regarded as innocent, until the law 

 pronounces him to be guilty. This is 

 a sacred principle which all are inte- 

 rested to preserve inviolate. A man 

 may abstain from crime, but no man 

 is secure from being charged with it. 

 The most innocent and respected mem- 

 ber of society may to-morrow become 

 the inmate of a prison. Here he may 

 remain for months the sirbject of its 

 discipline. Imprisonment alone, to 

 such an individual, is in itself an evil 

 of great magnitude. He is taken from 

 his home, his connexions, and pursuits. 

 His reputation suDFers injury, and his 

 family disgrace. His health may be 

 impaired, and his dependants beggar- 

 ed. These may be, and occasionally 

 are, the unavoidable consequences of 

 imprisonment before trial. They are 

 evils which, for the general safety and 

 protection of society, must be endured. 

 But shall these sufferings be aggra- 

 vated by the infliction of a punishment, 

 which the law not only doe.s not recog- 

 nize, but expressly forbids?" 



The Committee state, that further 

 exi)erieace has fully coufirined the 

 efficacy of the discipline tread-mill. 

 Some doubt has been expressed whe- 

 ther the exercise occasioned by this 

 description of labour might not prove 

 injurious to the healtii of the prisoner. 

 The Committee do not deny that it is 

 very possible to convert, by excessive 

 application, this, as well as every other 

 species of punishment, into an instru- 

 ment of cruelty ; but they do not be- 

 lieve that this has been the case witli 

 the tread-mill in any single instance ; 

 and they feci assured that the labour 

 which it ordinarily enforces, so far 

 from being injurious, is highly bene- 

 I licial 



