The Sun.
London, England, 1837-11-11 00:00:00

POLICE OF THE METROPOLIS.

The following letter from John Ward, Esq., one of the
Prison Ini;peotors, to fienimin Hawes, Esq., AI.P., is ex-
tracted from the Report of the Committee or last Session :
London, June 26, 1837.
DEAR SIII,—In comp!ianea with the desire expressed by
you, I beg to state in writing my answers to the questions
put to me..
I.—AS TO THE POLICE VANS.

Ha !ately inspected a number of prisons in the
HomevAg istriet, under a special authority from Lord John

Russell, I have bad occasion to visit officially the New
Prison, Clerkenwell, and the Westminster Bridewell. I
have seen the vans which bring the prisoners from the police
offices, usually twice-a-day. Those which bring the pri-
soners committed at the morning sittings of the magistrates,
arrive about four or five o'clock in the afternoon ; those
From the evening sittings arrive so late as ten and eleven
o'clock at night. The vans also come to the prisons in the
morning, to convey remanded prisoners back for re-exsmi-
nation. The dimensions of the vans are eight feet four
inches long, four feet five inches wide, and five feet six
inches high. They will not hold conveniently more than
twenty persons, but as one van calls at several police offices
to take up, they sometimes bring twenty-five and even
thirty prisoners and more. The eastern van, for instance.
calls at the Thames Police-office, Lambeth-street, and
Worship-street, so that it is perhaps three hours before it
reaches Clerkenwell prison. Those who go back to the
police-office for re-examination arc handcuffed, at the dis-
cretion of the turnkeys, in batches of two, three, or four.
Men and women sit indiscriminately in the van when it is
very crowded ; they are obliged to stand, or sit on each
other's knees. Women sometimes sit on the men's knees.
There is no light in the vans, although the Lae vans, and,
in the winter, also the early vans, also travel in the dark.
This leads to many irregularities ; for instance, I have heard
of a man taking indecent liberties with a woman in the
van, and giving her half a sovereign in consequence ; also
of a prisoner being robbed of his watch, and of another
prisoner being robbed of his pocket-book and gloves in the
van, when there were thirty-four prisoners in it, and they
were found upon the person of the prisoner who sat next
him. Such things are very possible now. The prisoners
in the van are many of them drunk, sometimes so drunk
that they cannot walk to the receiving-room without assis-
tance. The women are often so drunk, that when put to
bed they are sick over the bedsteads. Some prisoners are
not only filthy with vermin, but ragged to an indecent de-
gree. Prisoners of the more respectable kind naturally
complain of the vans ; and I think they ought to be fitted
with several compartments, in order to separate the more
decent from the filthy and Erunken prisoners ; at all events,
male prisoners ought to be entirely separated from females.

2.-POLICE CHAINS.

Prisoners are not invariably removed from the police-
office in vans. Between Hatton-garden office and Clerken-
well prison they walk handcuffed, and fastened to a chain.
Five or six men, and probably the same number of women,
are thus fastened together, and exposed to the public gaze,
in a manner which must be most painful to any decent
prisoner. It has been stated to me, that persons have been
known to give the prisoners drink as they passed along with
the chain, which is the more likely, as there are a number
of public-houses in the way. I understand that prisoners
have been brought to Clerkenwell in this way from still
greater distances, even from Kensington.