PRISONS 



419 



demonstrated (see the Report of the Directors of 

 Convict Prisons, 1887-88, and the accompanying 

 report of an inquiry into the subject by the medical 

 inspector). The whole of the prisons in the United 

 Kingdom where sentences up to two years are 

 carried out have gradually been remodelled on the 

 separate system ; and laws enacted recently in 

 several foreign countries, after full investigation, 

 permit of the isolation of prisoners under proper 

 conditions for much longer periods. There is, 

 therefore, no reason why the separate stage of a 

 sentence of penal servitude should not endure for 

 a period equal to that which may be passed in that 

 condition under a sentence of imprisonment. 



The second or public works stage was carried out 

 in prisons like Portland, which was constructed for 

 the purpose in 1847. Dartmoor Convict Prison was 

 opened in 1850 for the same purpose, Portsmouth 

 Prison in 1852, Chatham in 1856, &c. In these 

 the convicts have been employed in large public 

 works, in fanning, &c. The breakwater at Fort- 

 land, the fortifications of that island, the large 

 extension of the dockyards at Chatham and Ports- 

 mouth, the forts which protect Chatham, and various 

 other military and naval works, besides the con- 

 struction of large prison establishments, attest the 

 advantages of the system, which also enables the 

 prisoners to gain a useful knowledge of trades by 

 whirli they can obtain employment on their release, 

 and affords a most useful reformatory influence in 

 accustoming the prisoners to habits of industry. 



From 1844, and more rapidly after!852, thenumber 

 of prisoners actually transported gradually dimin- 

 ished ; most of those who received that sentence 

 being discharged on free pardon in Britain after 

 serving from half to two-thirds of their sen- 

 tences. In the course of time the opposition of the 

 Australian colftnies to the continuance of trans- 

 portation led to the abandonment of the system 

 altogether, and since 1867 no convicts have been 

 sent to those colonies. The punishment of penal 

 servitude was by various acts passed between 1853 

 and 1864 substituted for transportation. These 

 acts introduced certain notable modifications in 

 regard to sentences of the next degree of gravity to 

 capital punishment. When transportation was 

 in force a prisoner on whom such a sentence 

 was passed might be treated in any of three 

 different ways. Commencing his sentence in the 

 local prison, where he remained until it was 

 thought proper to remove him, he might be trans- 

 ferred either ( 1 ) to Australia, from which in 

 all probability he never returned, whatever the 

 length of his sentence ; (2) to Gibraltar or Bermuda, 

 from which he was brought back to England when 

 he had served a certain portion of his sentence, and 

 there discharged; or (3) to the hulks, or to the 

 'public works 'prisons substituted for them. If 

 he went to Australia he was in the early days 

 assigned as a servant to some free settler, and so 

 at once ceased to be actually a prisoner ; but in 

 later years a system was established under which 

 all prisoners first passed a certain time in a con- 

 vict establishment and then were discharged con- 

 ditionally to find employers for themselves. It 

 also became the practice ultimately to retain all 

 prisoners sentenced to transportation for a cer- 

 tain time in a prison in England, conducted on the 

 separate system, from which they might be sent 

 either to the hulks or to the ' public works ' convict 

 prisons which replaced them, or to one of the con- 

 vict establishments abroad. If sent to the hulks 

 or ' public works ' prisons they might either 

 remain there till discharged, or be drafted off to 

 one of the convict establishments in the colonies. 

 Whichever of these modes of disposing of the 

 convicts was followed, in none of them did they 

 pass the whole of their sentences in the condition 



of prisoners, a most important consideration to 

 bear in mind. Those who were sent to Gibraltar 

 or Bermuda, as well as those who did not leave the 

 country at all, but were confined in the hulks, were 

 released on free pardon after they had passed about 

 half of their sentences or a little more. Those who 

 went to Australia were released even sooner, but in 

 their case only on certain conditions, by which a 

 hold over them was maintained. 



When the objections of the Australian colonies 

 to the continuance of transportation thither made 

 it necessary to adopt some other plan for disposing 

 of these prisoners, the Penal Servitude Act, 1853, 

 was passed in order to carry out a system founded 

 on that which had been followed with regard to 

 prisoners sentenced to transportation, but which pro- 

 vided for the large majority being retained at home. 

 Under this act a sentence of transportation could 

 not be passed for less than fourteen years, and a 

 sentence of penal servitude was substituted for all 

 lower terms. But the sentences of penal servitude 

 permitted by this act were shorter than the sen- 

 tences of transportation assigned to various crimes 

 under the old acts, because it was intended that 

 the whole of the sentences of penal servitude should 

 be passed in confinement ; the terms were therefore 

 fixed so as to correspond with the periods which 

 had actually been passed in prison by convicts who 

 had been sentenced to transportation but not actu- 

 ally sent out of the country. For seven years' trans- 

 portation or less was substituted four years' penal 

 servitude ; for over seven but not over ten years' 

 transportation was substituted not under four years 

 and not over six years ; for over ten but not over 

 fifteen years' transportation was substituted not 

 under six years and not over eight years ; for over 

 fifteen years' transportation was substituted not 

 under six years and not over teh years. No 

 difference was made in life sentences. Power 

 was taken in this act to release convicts in the 

 United Kingdom conditionally or on ticket-of- 

 leave, instead of releasing them as formerly on 

 free pardon. It was not intended that this power 

 should be exercised in the case of sentences of penal 

 servitude, as they had already been shortened to 

 the terms actually served in prison under the sen- 

 tence of transportation, but only in the case of 

 prisoners sentenced to transportation who were not 

 actually sent out of the country. The convict 

 prisons therefore contained inmates serving under 

 different conditions : those under sentence of trans- 

 portation might have a remission of part of their 

 sentences if well conducted, those under sentences 

 df penal servitude could get none. 



Before long it was found that great disadvantage 

 in training and reforming the convicts, and in man- 

 aging them by appealing to better feelings than 

 those of mere fear, arose from the absence in the 

 case of prisoners sentenced to penal servitude of the 

 hope of gaining a remission of sentence ; and the 

 comparison in this respect between these prisoners 

 and others in the prisons who were under sentence 

 of transportation gave rise to great discontent 

 among the prisoners. The consequence was that 

 in 1857 another act was passed which made the 

 length of sentences of penal servitude the same as 

 former sentences of transportation, and thus facili- 

 tated the application of the system of remission to 

 sentences of less than fourteen years as well as to 

 those above that term. The House of Commons 

 Committee (1856), on whose report this course 

 was adopted, also recommended the introduction 

 of a shorter term of penal servitude intermediate 

 between the highest term of imprisonment then 

 in ordinary use and the lowest term of trans- 

 portation or, as it had become, penal servitude. 

 Accordingly the Act of 1857 authorised a sentence 

 of not less than three years' penal servitude for any 



