ON PRISON DIET AND DISCIPLINE. 45 



GENERAL OBSERVATIONS. 

 The Management of County Gaols. 



The management of county prisons is placed almost exclusively in the 

 hands of the County Magistracy, and is therefore liable to as much diversity 

 as there are Boards of Visiting Justices. The Secretary of State must ap- 

 prove of any " rules" within the meaning of the Act, and he also approves 

 of the scale of dietary ; but hitherto he has not exercised his power to insist 

 upon uniformity in dietary ; and hence, within certain limits, the Visiting Jus- 

 tices regulate the dietary. There are also three* (nominally four) Inspectors 

 of Prisons for England, appointed by the Home Secretary, who visit the pri- 

 sons periodically, and report their condition to the Home Office, and also 

 suggest to the Visiting Justices from time to time such changes as they may 

 think to be desirable; but they have no power to interfere with the orders 

 of the Visiting Justices, if the orders are within the provisions of the law and 

 the " rules" of the prison. Hence the sole authority in county gaols under 

 normal conditions is the Board of Visiting Justices. There is a scheme of 

 dietary which was recommended by the Home Office, under the admini- 

 stration of Sir James Graham ; but it is not always adopted, and there is no 

 plan whereby uniformity is ensured. 



It thence follows that there is the greatest diversity in the gaols both as 

 to punishment and dietarj', and to a consideration of this your Committee 

 directed their first attention. 



A " Return of Dietary for Convicts, &c." was issued in 1857, which gives 

 the dietary in the various convict and county prisons, but there has not 

 been any general return obtained as to the nature of punishment inflicted, 

 and the plan pursued in carrying out hard-labour sentences. As it was 

 very desirable that some authorized information upon these points should be 

 introduced into tiiis report, Mr. Bazley, M.P., most readily and kindly un- 

 dertook to move for one in the form given in the Appendix (H.), but, alter 

 having it entered upon the "Orders for the day," he failed to obtain the sanc- 

 tion of the Government, and withdrew it. The Committee venture to hope 

 that the British Association may think this of sufficient importance to lend 

 their aid in obtaining it during the next Session of Parliament, and would 

 remark that, although the proposed return has a formidable appearance, its 

 tabulated character tends to reduce, and not to increase, the expense of print- 

 ing and the labour of writing. 



Punishments. 



In the absence of this authorized return, the Committee quote the results 

 of an inquiry previously made by Dr. Smith, who addressed a letter to the 

 governors of upwards of sixty county gaols, and was favoured with their re- 

 plies. The general expression of the results is as follows : — 



" In our county prisons some find no labour at all, others only that of 

 ordinary trades, others have crank-labour f alone, others treadwheel-labour 

 alone, whilst in many one of the two, or both of the two latter forms of hard 

 labour are conjoined with some kind of trade. In many the treadwheel and 

 crank are unprofitably employed, whilst in others they are used as mills or 

 pumps. In some, women even work some kind of crank and the treadwheel. 



* The number is now reduced to two. — Feb. 1862. 



f When the term " crank " is employed in this report, it is intended to indicate the in- 

 strument turned by hand, and technically known as the " hard-labour crank." This differs 

 from other hand cranks only in that it is purposely arranged for non-remunerative work, 

 and indicates the number of revolutions which have been made in a given period. 



