JSQ*.] Soc'hti/for iJie fmprovtme 



sreatCRt numlicr of prisoners atc><ic 

 ♦ idle (Iocs not •■xceed cit^ht, slioiild Uc 

 usi'd otily for the temporary reception of 

 persons charged on suspicion of crimes, 

 until tinRlly committed for trial ; when 

 tlie prisoners siioiild he confined in the 

 jtrisotis ijfiongiiip; to the county, and be 

 tlierc suhjected to the regulations and 

 reslriclioiis of the present statute. In 

 all these local prisons, iiowever. the 

 ^separa1ion of the sexes should invariably 

 be enforced. 



Notliins; can be more various tlian 

 the discipline at present observed in 

 different prisons. In fact, tiie severity 

 exercised on the untried in one gaol, 

 often exceeds that ol)scrved towards the 

 €or,victed in another. Two persons con- 

 victed of similar offences, but committed 

 to different jirisons in perhaps the same 

 «;(»utity, may undergo the most opposite 

 system of discipline. The daily ration 

 u( the one may bo nearly double that 

 allowed to the other: the one may be 

 subjected to solitary confinement, the 

 other pcrniitled to range the prison 

 nearly uncoiilrullcil: the one may be in 

 jierfett idleness, the other placed at the 

 eeverest description of hard labour. 

 Even the tread-wheel itself admits of 

 varied degrees of punishment. The 

 <;ommittee have recently ascertained the 

 rale of labour enforced by the wheel at 

 each prison, and the inequality is very 

 .striking. For instance, at Lewes each 

 prisoner works at the rale of CGOO feet 

 in ascent per dav; at Ipswich, 7450; 

 at St Albans, 8000 ; at Uury, 8950; at 

 Cambridge, 10,175; at Durham, 12,000; 

 Mbile at Brixton, Guildford, Reading, 

 and a few other |>risons, the rate of 

 labour, in summer, exceeds 13,000 feet 

 |)er day. Nor is the diet at such prisons 

 proportionately increased to the degree 

 of hard labour enforced. 



By an a<lherence, however, to the fol- 

 lownig regulations, and with the aid of 

 a scale, the tread-millsin various prisons, 

 even those on the most diversified prin- 

 ciples of construction, may be conducted 

 upon one uniibrm and certain system of 

 operation throughout the kingdom. 



1. Every tread-wheel should be |)ro- 

 vidcd with a " regulator," by whicii its 

 rale of revolution may at all limes be 

 restrained within safe limits. 



2. To the tread. wheel should also be 

 affixed "a dial-register," on reference 

 to which the rate of labour may at any 

 lime be accurately ascertained. 



3. The daily rate of labour shoulil in 

 noca.se exceed 12,000 feet in ascent. 



■4. Care siiould be taken li> apportion 

 3 



!}t oj Ih-ison Discipline. 531 



the diet to the degree of labour en- 

 forced. 



The committee are aware that the 

 observance of these rules will not 

 remove the objections which many re- 

 spectable persons enterta n against tiie 

 use of the tread-wheel : they regard the 

 punishment, imder any circumstances, 

 as too rigorous. In the opinion, how- 

 ever, of the committee, the primary fea- 

 ture in the character of "hard labour" 

 should be severity ; not equal, indeed, to 

 every description of criminals, not irre- 

 concilable with the feelings of humanity, 

 nor one degree beyond that w hich Iho 

 public interests justify and the rcforma-i 

 tion of the criminal demands ; yet a 

 severity that shall make those who have 

 violated justice, feel the penalties of law, 

 and the consequences of guilt. 



The practice of employing females at 

 the tread-wheel is, in the opinion of 

 many benevolent persons, in no case 

 justifiable. In this sentiment the com- 

 mittee do not concur. U|)oi) hardened 

 offenders committed to houses of cor- 

 rection — such as the law has truly desig- 

 nated " idle and disorderly" — the labour 

 is productive of excellent effects, and, if 

 superintended by a careful matron, may 

 be safely administered ; but the general 

 employment of females at the tread- 

 wheel is liable to serious objections; 

 and as there are, even in the absence of 

 prison-trades, other kinds of labour tobo 

 found for women in a gaol that are con- 

 genial to the habits of their sex, the 

 practice of thus employing this class of 

 offenders is not justified by necessitj'. 



Among the subjects which have occu- 

 pied the attention of the friends to the 

 improvement of prison discii)line, there 

 is one which has occasioned much differ- 

 ence of o))inion : — the committee allude 

 to the compulsory labour of untried 

 prisoners. The ancient law of Enijland 

 exhibits great tenderness for the liberty 

 of the subject, and the number of 

 offences is very considerable for whicli 

 bail is admitted. It is therefore the 

 nature of the security which the law 

 exacts, and not any distinction which it 

 draws between the privileges of the re- 

 spective parties, that gives rise to the 

 difference in their mode of treatment. 

 And Sir William Blackstonc, in tha 

 following passage, has only repealed Ilia 

 sentiments of Coke, Hale, and other of 

 the most eminent authorities who have 

 treated on this subject. " If (says he) 

 the offence be not bailable, or the parly 

 cannot find bail, he is to be commitled 

 to the county-gaol by the miliimus of 



ib9 



