Y2 REPORT — 1861. 



distinctive, viz. the absence of supper. The hours of meals are not given ; 

 but the fact is stated that onlj' breakfast and dinner are allowed, even to 

 those condemned to hard labour, both males and females. Surely this is 

 cruelty, and must result from gross ignorance of the wants of the system and 

 the responsibilities of those who devised and retain the plan. If there is no 

 excess of food left over from the previous day, in those prisons where a meal 

 is given at 6 p.m., upon what do the St. Albans prisoners sustain the exer- 

 tion of hard labour before the breakfast, when the previous meal was the 

 dinner on the previous day ? If sleeplessness results from both repletion 

 and want of food, we should like to know how deep is the repose of the 

 Hertfordshire felons. The unenviable refinement to which we have referred 

 is also further seen in the absence of division of the classes by time, so that 

 all the prisoners are fed alike during the first week of imprisonment, whether 

 they are sentenced to hard labour or not, and for whatever duration; and 

 after the first week the dietary is the same, except that it is varied in refer- 

 ence to labour, and further varied in reference to the sex condemned to hard 

 labour. Thus there is no increase in the dietary, and hence the nature of 

 that dietary is of vast importance. The breakfast uniformly consists of 

 twelve ounces of bread and a pint of gruel, except when associated with 

 hard labour, when there are sixteen ounces of bread for the men. The 

 dinner consists of twelve ounces of bread and one pint of soup (the ingre- 

 dients are not stated) four times, and twelve ounces of bread alone thrice 

 per week. To females condemned to hard labour, the soup is given daily, 

 and there is a further addition for males of four ounces of bread. There 

 are thus one pound and a half or two pounds of bread given daily as in 

 other schemes of dietary, but it is ill distributed, and whilst there are several 

 points in the dietary to be commended, the absence of supper deserves con- 

 demnation. As a contrast to this we may refer to the Welsh gaol at Car- 

 narvon, in which supper is not only allowed, but it is enriched by the addi- 

 tion of a pint to a pint and a half of broth ; but to this we shall again advert. 



We may now consider certain peculiarities in reference to the articles of 

 food supplied, which have a certain degree of interest, and in a few instances 

 affect an important principle. 



In the four Northumberland gaols the quantity of oatmeal is increased and 

 given as porridge where the Government has recommended simply gruel. 

 This contains six ounces of oatmeal, instead of two ounces, as ordered for 

 gruel, and milk or treacle water. There is also one pound of suet pudding 

 given in the third, fourth, and fifth classes in place of the meat, bread, and 

 potatoes recommended by Government. It may be questioned if one pound 

 of suet pudding is equal to three ounces of cooked meat without bone, half 

 a pound of bread, and half a pound of potatoes ; and as the quantities of the 

 component articles are not stated, we cannot determine such an inquiry. It 

 has, however, this merit, which involves a principle so much neglected in 

 prison dietary, viz. the administration of fat with the starch, and is therefore 

 so far to be commended. It is also to be noticed to the credit of these in- 

 stitutions, that the dietary of the first two classes is better than that recom- 

 mended by the Government, since in the first class each prisoner receives 

 eight ounces additional oatmeal, besides milk, and in the second class there 

 is an addition of eight ounces of potatoes to the dinner. In the return of 

 the Alnwick House of Correction there is no provision made for prisoners 

 sentenced to a larger term of imprisonment than six weeks, and there is spe- 

 cific mention of half a pint of milk in addition to one pint of porridge for the 

 breakfast and the supper, but no bread is allowed at those meals. 



