PRISONS 



421 



to time to govern the various institutions thence- 

 forward placed under their management viz. 

 Millbank Penitentiary, Pentonville Model Prison, 

 Parkhurst Reformatory, the hulks, and the con- 

 vict prisons at Portland, &c. , by which the hulks 

 were superseded. A similar body was created for 

 Ireland in 1854, and there a system founded on 

 and closely resembling that which had been de- 

 veloped in England was created ; but until 1888 

 (when a convict prison was established at Peter- 

 head in connection with the convict labour at 

 the harbour- works) all male convicts sentenced 

 in Scotland served the greater part of their 

 I sentences in convict prisons in England. The 

 convict prisons are visited frequently by one or 

 more of tire directors, whose duty it is to see 

 that the governor and the other officers of the 

 prison ar doing their duty, to hear and deter- 

 mine reports of misconduct of prisoners of such 

 gravity that the governor cannot deal with them 

 under the powers vested in him, and to hear and 

 determine any reports against the prison officers. 

 To directors also the prisoners can complain or 

 appeal if they consider they are not fairly treated, 

 or bring forward any requests they have to make, 

 but which the governor has no power to comply 

 with. A body of gentlemen from among the magis- 

 trates is also appointed by the Secretary of .State 

 to act as independent visitors, and so form a further 

 guarantee against abuses in the prison, and a 

 channel by which any grievances felt by any 

 prisoner can be brought forward. 



Each day marks are awarded to every prisoner 

 according to his industry, and these marks measure 

 daily his progress towards attaining that remission 

 of about a quarter of his sentence which he is 

 allowed to earn, as well as towards his promotion 

 to a higher class, in which he may enjoy certain 

 privileges before referred to. The punishments 

 inflicted on those prisoners who misconduct them- 

 selves consist of close confinement, sometimes in a 

 semi-darkened cell, reduction of diet, and forfeiture 

 of the privileges already earned, such as gratuity to 

 be paid on discharge, periodical letters, visits 

 from friends, &c., and forfeiture of remission, 

 flogging with a 'cat' or a birch, which is awarded 

 only in the gravest cases, such as assaults on 

 warders, &c. 



The cessation of transportation in 1867, and the 

 consequent accumulation in the United Kingdom of 

 all prisoners discharged on expiration of their sen- 

 tences or on conditional license, instead of in a dis- 

 tant colony, might reasonably have been expected to 

 increase the amount of serious crime, by the return 

 of many of them to their former habits of life. 

 As a matter of fact no such result has followed. 

 On the contrary, the various influences which have 

 been at work to check and repress crime, among 

 which a well-regulated prison system may claim 

 its due share, have enormously reduced the number 

 of convicts under sentence. 



About the beginning of the reign of Queen Vic- 

 toria, when the population of England and Wales 

 was about fifteen millions, there were 43,000 con- 

 victs in New South Wales and Van Diemen's Land, 

 besides others in the colonial penal settlements, in 

 the hulks at home about 3000 or 4000, several 

 hundreds at Millbank, about 900 each at Bermuda 

 and Gibraltar, or about 50,000 in all. By 1869 this 

 large number was represented by 11,660 prisoners 

 under sentence of penal servitude, of whom 9900 

 were males and 1760 females, and this number had 

 been further reduced on March 31, 1891, to 4978 

 viz. 4654 males and 324 females. In Ireland there 

 were 922 males and 403 females in 1869, and 434 

 males and 26 females in 1891. 



The numberof persons who have received sentences 

 of transportation or penal servitude has diminished 



enormously. In the year 1837, 3785 persons were 

 sentenced to transportation, and 4068 actually 

 transported ; in 1842, 4481 were sentenced and 4166 

 transported. In 1869 the number of persons in 

 Great Britain whose crimes were so grave as to 

 justify their being sentenced to penal servitude 

 was 2219 ; this number has continuously fallen, 

 till in 1889 it was only 1039, and in 1890 only 828 ; 

 yet during the interval the population of Great 

 Britain has risen from 25,529, 184 to ( 1891 ) 37,740,283. 

 In Ireland, with a population of about 5,500,000, 

 in 1869 there were 191 sentences of penal servitude, 

 and in 1889, with a population of about 4,700,000, 

 there were 83 such sentences. Of the present 

 convict prison population in England and Wales, 

 515 have been placed on the Star class. These are 

 found practically to be of an entirely different 

 stamp from the habitual prisoners. They are more 

 easy to manage, more willing and industrious, and 

 experience shows that but few of them come back 

 to a convict prison on reconviction after their 

 discharge. 



As regards the health of the prisoners in convict 

 prisons, the statistics show that the favourable 

 conditions under which they are placed on account 

 of the great attention to sanitary requirements, 

 the regularity of their lives, and the constant 

 medical care taken of them result in a low 

 mortality of 10'Sper 1000 in an average of years; 

 and this result is brought about in spite of a large 

 proportion of the inmates of prisons being 

 persons of low type, who have led dissipated and 

 irregular lives. The conduct of the prisoners is, 

 as a rule, very good, the result of a steady system 

 of control under which exact discipline is enforced, 

 and, while good conduct and industry are encour- 

 aged, misconduct is surely punished. The greater 

 number of prisoners conform to the regulations so 

 readily that either they do not incur any report or 

 punishment of any kind, or at most commit some 

 trifling breach of regulations ; and in fact the great 

 bulk of the prison offences are committed by a few 

 habitual offenders against the rules. 



The prisons in which sentences of imprisonment 

 are carried put have a separate history from that 

 of those which have been described. There were 

 so far back as two centuries ago occasional pro- 

 tests against the abuses and cruelties practised in 

 prisons, and a notable parliamentary inquiry into 

 the misconduct of a gaoler named Bembridge was 

 held in 1730; but until the last quarter of the 

 18th century the idea that prisoners had any 

 claim for humane treatment had hardly made any 

 way beyond the circle of a few philanthropic 

 reformers ; any attempt to use the period of im- 

 prisonment to improve the nature of the criminal 

 was almost unknown. The way to better things 

 was undoubtedly opened by Howard's visits of 

 prison inspection about 1776, and in following 

 years, and by his reports on the condition of the 

 prisons he visited, followed as they were by pro- 

 posals for reform and improvements which were 

 enjoined and encouraged by acts of parliament. 

 Solitary confinement with labour and instruction 

 was approved by statute in 1774, and in 1784 

 general regulations were formed for the treat- 

 ment of prisoners, among which a proper classifica- 

 tion of prisoners according to the gravity of their 

 offences was enjoined. In 1791 justices were enjoined 

 to visit and inspect these prisons three times in each 

 quarter, and to report on them to quarter sessions. 

 In 1814 the appointment of chaplains was made 

 compulsory. But compliance with these statutory 

 reforms did not immediately follow, for indeed it 

 was a long time before they passed into the stage 

 of practical fact. In 1818 there still remained 518 

 prisons in the United Kingdom, to which more 

 than 100,000 prisoners were committed in the year, 



