ON PRISON DIET AND DISCIPLINE. 67 



The Committee will cheerfully undertake to lend their aid in further 

 elucidating these matters, if it should be the pleasure of the Association to 

 reappoint them ; but they very respectfully represent the urgent necessity 

 which exists for the appointment, by the authority of Government, of one or 

 more Commissioners to reconsider the subject of dietaries, and to recom- 

 mend plans whereby uniformity in the nature and action of the instruments 

 used in prison punishments may be effected throughout the kingdom. 



APPENDIX I. 



On the Inequalities in the Dietary of County Prisons ; being an Analysis of 

 the "Return of Dietaries for Co7ivicts" S)C., issued in 1857*. 



Forty-three only of eighty-seven county prisons have adopted the scheme 

 of dietary recommended by the Government ; and in reference to the forty- 

 four prisons which dissent from that scheme, it will be evident, from the fol- 

 lowing statement, that much of the inequalities in their various dietaries is 

 attributable to the defects of the Government scheme, much to mere caprice, 

 something to very defective knowledge as to the requirements of the human 

 system, and something more to the absence of a desire to avoid injury to the 

 prisoner. We shall first give in a few words the dietary of the Government 

 scheme, and then describe the dietaries of all the prisons which have striking 

 peculiarities. 



There are five classes of dietaries recommended by the Government, ac- 

 cording to the duration of the sentence, and such that the quantity and 

 quality of food are increased from the beginning of the imprisonment as the 

 duration of the sentence is increased. 



Up to twenty-one days, only bread and gruel are given, but under seven 

 days the bread (1 lb.) is given at dinner only, whilst over that period twenty- 

 four ounces are distributed over the three meals. Under seven days, females 

 receive as much bread for dinner as the males ; but over that period they 

 receive but half the quantity. 



From twenty-one to forty-two days with hard labour, and to four months 

 without hard labour, three ounces of cooked meat with bread and potatoes 

 are given for dinner twice per week, one pint of soup (containing the same 

 quantity of meat) with bread twice, and simply bread and potatoes thrice 

 per week. 



From forty-two days to four months with hard labour, and beyond four 

 months without labour, three ounces of meat is given daily in soup or other- 

 wise. 



Beyond four months with hard labour, the quantity of meat is increased 

 four times per week to four ounces, and an increase of half a pound of pota- 

 toes is added, — soup, potatoes, and bread being supplied on the other days. 

 Sweetened cocoa for breakfast is also given thrice per week. 



The erroneous principles upon which this scheme is founded are, the ap- 

 portionment of food according to duration of sentence, the insufficiency for 

 short sentences and for hard labour, and the variation from day to day ; but 



* It is probable that some changes have been made in the dietaries of some of the County 

 Gaols, and particularly in those marked with an asterisk (*), since the return of 1857 was 

 issued, and since the following analysis was made ; but of this there is no authorized inform, 

 ttion. The analysis will, at least, show the state of the dietaries when the return was issued, 



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