ON PRISON DIET AND DISCIPLINE. 75 



viz., scouse, which is composed of beef cut into small pieces, and potatoes, 

 in such proportion that one pound and a half of scouse contains 2*18 ounces 

 of meat. This has the very patent evil of inaccurate division to each pri- 

 soner. The whole dietary is very meagre, since, for all prisoners condemned 

 to an imprisonment exceeding a month, the dinner thrice per week is one and 

 a half pound of scouse, half a pound of bread, and one pound of potatoes 

 four times per week. When the term does not exceed one month, the din- 

 ner is composed of five and one-third ounces of bread and one pound of 

 potatoes, whilst for seven days five and one-third ounces of bread only con- 

 stitutes the dinner. 



In the Glamorgan Gaol at Swansea, the prisoner sentenced to more than 

 one month's imprisonment receives a bread-and-cheese dinner, as at some 

 other Welsh gaols; but in this one pound of potatoes is added. This is 

 given thrice per week, whilst half a pound of bread and a pint and a half of 

 soup, containing four ounces of coarse meat, are given four times per week. 

 No meat and cheese are allowed for a less period than one month. 



Space will not permit us to continue the analysis of these returns further ; 

 but we may remark that at the Bucks and some other county prisons no 

 extra food for hard labour is stated in the return ; at the Dorset Gaol, a bread- 

 and-cheese dinner is provided three times per week for the highest class ; at 

 Durham the dietary is reduced in value for periods up to six months ; at 

 Huntingdon there are some meaningless changes in reference to the quantity 

 of bread allowed; at the Southampton Gaol, three ounces of cheese are 

 considered an equivalent for one pint of soup containing four ounces of raw 

 meat without bone, four ounces of potatoes, one ounce of rice, &c. ; and at 

 Devon, the soup contains but two ounces of raw meat per pint. 



We have thus made it very evident that uniformity in dietary is not one 

 of the characteristics of our prisons, and that those who are condemned to 

 imprisonment receive very different treatment in different parts of the king- 

 dom. Indeed the diversity is so great, that it would be in vain to prepare a 

 tabular statement of the dietary of the forty-four prisons of such moderate 

 dimensions, and with so much approach to uniformity, that even the most 

 painstaking student could study it with the hope of understanding it; for it 

 would be impossible to reduce the return to more general forms, with a view 

 of comparing them and committing them to memory. 



Appendix II. 



Punishments and Dietaries of Prisoners, — Address for Returns of the punish- 

 ments inflicted under sentences to " hard labour" — 

 Of the working of the treadwheel ; 

 Of the pressure and working of the crank ; 



Of the weight of Prisoners, and the variations of it due to treadwheel 

 and crank labour ; 

 in the City, Borough, and County Gaols of the United Kingdom : 

 And, of the Dietaries sanctioned for Prisoners in the City and Borough Pri- 

 sons of the United Kingdom, and in those County Prisons of the United 

 Kingdom in which the Dietary has been changed since the Return of 

 " Dietaries for Convicts, &c." ordered by the House of Commons to be 

 printed, 21st day of March, 1857, or in which the Dietary is not correctly- 

 set forth in that Return : — 



