The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1874-03-14 00:00:00

A CONVICTS CONFLICT WITH A
PRISON WARDER.

At the Dorctiester Ass'zes, Charles Fenton, alias Bartholo-
mew, alias Gray, aged 27, a convict in the Portland Ps Iv.,
has been charged with wounding a warder named Brooks,
with Want to murder or to ktlict grevtous bodily harm.

The prisoner was oonvicted in the year 1869, and
senten ied to seven years' penal servitude. In August
last he was serving his time at Portland, and em-
ployed there on the works. The wardet Brooks had,
besides the prisoner, about 33 other convicts at a
quarry, where the prisoner's duty was to wheel a bar-
row, which was filled by two other convicts. The pd.
loner, In order to lighten his load, threw off a part of it.
This he did frequently, and at last the warder spoke to
him, and warned him not to do so again. The prisoner
thereupon declared that he would not wheel the
harrow at all, made use of violent language, and at
the same time began to move towards the party who
were working with tools. The warder, in consequence
of this mutinous behaviour, placed himself in front of
the prisoner and tried to put on the handcuffs. A
struggle ensued, and both fell to the ground. While
the warder was trying to put the handcuff on the
prisoner's left hand the latter tack a large stone in his
right, and, sm ing "I will kill you yet," struck the
warder a violent blow on the side of the head, causing
severe injury to the left temple, eye, and cheek-bone.
The warder thereupon used his staff, wnich is made of
ash and quite light, broke it over the prisoner's arm,
and then succeeded in putting on the handcuff.. The
warders are armed with swords, but use them only in
case they are attacked with dangerous weapons. The
Governor came to the spot shortly after, on making bin
rounds, took the prisoner to the prison, and relieved
the warder, who was sent to the infirmary, where he
remained two months. He was still suffering from the
effect of the blow.

The account given by Brooks of the assanlt WM con-
firmed by the evidence of one of the convicts of the
party. The prisoner called two more of the convicts,
but their et:count did not differ from that given by the
prosecution, except that it appeared f..0ul it that the
prisoner complained to the inen wim were loading his
barrow that they were jutting in too much. It was,
however, shown that the barrows are to constructed as
to hold a, light load only. .

The 'rummer, who had crose examined the witnesses
minutely, addreesed the learned Judge at great length,
denying any intention of inflicting seri me injury on the
warder.
Af er the case had been summed up by the learned
Judge, the jury returned • verdict of Gadtp of unlaw-
fully wounding, and the prisoner was sentenced to 18
mouths' imprisonment, with herd labour, the sentence
to begin at the expiration of the subsisting term of
penal servitude.
It reference to this case, the Grand Jury made •
presentment calling attention to the large number of
convicts left under the charge of only one warder.

The Daily Telegroph, in noticing the above cue,
says :
_ . .

It still remain. questlor able whether the entire system
of discipline prevailing In our great convict establish-
ments does not dame in urgent need oi remodelling. At Mill-
batik or at Peli 69n$111e the most desperate of prisoners are, as
a rule, tractable enough. Their diet is low, their (maple
Dons are sedentary : they me kept in almost entire solitude;
and, shut up in their cells they know that an overpowering
foron of prison authority can at any moment be brought
against them. Now and again, it Is true, they misbehave
themselves to the extent of assaulting their guardians with
their meas-pmniklus or their mattress-hooks, and for such
outbreaks they are duly visited wish short commons, with the
dark cell, or with the cat. 11, 00 the other hand, a convict
emplobed on putoPe works be a fellow of -brutal instincts, be
Is ten times a more dangerous animal than his interned
brother he guilt. Ile may have been confined for • year
or more in one of the great metropolitan penmen-
Cute.. and it Is popularly supposed, among penal coon,-
cuists, that the d ci iplitie be has undergone will have made
him a comparatively mild and docile character. The
contrary would generally seem to be the case. The
convict may emerge from retirement In a partially
suboued state m. rally and physically speaking , hut
he soon picks up Ma strensito in • remarkable degree.
Ile ha* bracing air, and plenty of it; his diet I.
lucre:teed ; he labours fn aasociation ; and it would
be strange indeed it, among thirty-four criminals over-
looked by a sincle warder, some means of Intercom-
munication between the prisoners were ne t speedily found.
roe result of this Is that the convict waxes, G not
fat, at least sturdy, and kirks. We do not hear, per
haps of one tithe of the assaults committed on the
warders at Portland or Chatham. Usually the affair
is a ttled by the Governor or the Director of
Convict Prisons : the guilty omelet he II .gged or
thrust into the black bole, and there is an end of
the matter. It is only when he absolutely kills
or maims his keeper that Me crime is heard of to the Ass'es
Court. It Is distracting to know that these absentia
have largely increased, hlth its number and in ferocity,
since, through very commendable feelings of humanity, the
authoritle. have relinquished the practice of working con-
victs in heavy chains, and of overlooking them by warder.
armed with rattens and with the power to use them, and by a
'winery guard with loaded muskets and fixed bayonets. The
civilian gaolers at present employed are, it is true, armed ,
but the convicts; are crafty wouell to know that as drillers
their ettarilw. are naturally reluctant to uee leth sl weapons.
A Soldier, who has only the word of command to obey, knows
no such scruples and where a wholesome dread of being
Immediately shut through the head or run through the body
in case of overt violence impressed on the convict mind, the
murderous assaults would soon cease."