The Dorset County Express and Agricultural Gazette.
Dorchester, Dorset, England, 1862-09-02 00:00:00

PENAL SERVITUDE AND THE TICKET-
OF-LEAVE. •

Public attention is being directed to the im-
portant question of secondary punishments. In
the Times the question has been exceedingly well '
discussed, both editorially and by correspondents.
It is clearly shown that between the prison fare
and the ticket-of-leave such encouragement is
given to the ill-disposed, that the only wonder is '
that crime is not inure rife than it is; but its
extension is certain if our legislators and gaol
financiers do not retrace their steps. Their con- ;
dition, while undergoing the "punishment," '
as it is termed, of "penal servitude" is thus set
forth in the Times :—" Each man is accommo-
dated with a separate room, in which he is pro-
vided with a light and allowed to read of an
evening. It is called scull, but that is but a
name. The place itself is by no means uncom-
fortable. The utmost cleanliness is enforced.
His day is spent out of doors, in the very
healthiest situation and finest sir, in what judges
call "hard labour," but what is really only just
enough gentle exercise to give him a comfortable
appetite for the excellent and abundant meals
that await him. Let any one who doubts this
consider the diet upon which these men—every
one of whom has committed some very heinous
crime—subsist: twelves ounces of bread, a pint
of cocoa, with suitable proportions of milk and
molasses for breakfast. For dinner, three-
quarters of a pint of soup made from the shins
of beef, with carrots, onions, and barley six
ounces of bread, Biz ounces of beef free from
bone, and one pound of potatoes; three days a
week five ounces of meat. Supper, a pint of
gruel and nine ounces of bread. If any one
doubts the abundance of the dietary, let him
make the experiment himself. When we con-
sider how the labouring classes in this country
live, we may well believe the prisoner who said,
If it was not for the loss of liberty, I should be
better off in prison than at large;' and the other
who remarked that There is not more than one
in a thousand prisoners who was ever so well off
in his life.'" In every other respect, too, they
are most tenderly cared for. They have the best
medical attendance. The state of their health is
regularly inquired into; they are not permitted
to work in the open air in wet weather; and if,
perchance, they should be overtaken by a shower,
they are marched off home for a change of
clothes. Under these circumstances need we
wonder at the failure of the system of the ticket-
of-leave. And that it has failed there is abun-
dant proof. The true theory of punishment is
that it should punish and deter; but the treat-
ment which convicts in this country receive, is
punishment only so far as personal liberty is
concerned, and shich does not deter. This is
shown by our criminal statistics. It is now
ascertained that nearly 50 per cent, of the
convicts liberated on tickets-of-leave, relax into
t crime; and it is worthy of remark that felonies

with violence are almost always committed by
those who have again and again been convicted
of crime; and in the worst and most atrocious
cases, usually, by criminals who have been
released from penal servitude, in most cases
before their time. Reformation is, unquestion-
ably, the aim of the ticket-of-leave system, and
if the prisoner be reformed, it seems a hardship
almost amounting to cruelty to keep him a pri-
soner; but the "if" is a large condition, for if he
be not reformed he may be liberated before his
time, and commit a Fordingbridge murder. The
sentence of justice, moreover, is irrespective of
what the criminal may be after committal. The
punishment is due to an act not to be palliated
by subsequent conduct, even though it may be
compulsory good conduct, there being neither
temptation to nor opportunity for bad. The
theory of the system is that the liberty is pro-
bational, and that the uses made of it will be
under the supervision of the police, upon whose
unfavourable report of the convict's lapse into
any bad associations or practices the license is
to be withdrawn, and the man re-committed to
prison. But this is all sham and false pretence.
There is no supervision, no forfeiture of the
ticket, and many a rogue undergoes a subsequent
sentence of punishment with his ticket-of-leave
—leave to commit offence—in his pocket. The
system is pregnant with evil. Every convict at
large is an exemplar of crime, and an example of
its impunity. He is a living, walking proof of
the weakness of the law, and the folly of society.
Hardened himself, he serves to harden and en-
courage others to brave a career they see may be
braved so successfully, and with so little peril.
When a judge now passes sentence of penal ser-
vitude, he has not the slightest idea of what the
punishment will really be, and there is some
reason to apprehend that they, foreseeing the
tampering with their sentences, may resort to
awarding punishments exceeding what they
really think due, calculating en the ;:dispensing
powers and propensities of gaol authorities.
This would introduce still greater uncertainty in
the administration of justice, while it would be
promotive of other evils of which we need not
describe.