The Sun.
London, England, 1865-01-17 00:00:00

Sir John Bowring and Remunerative Prison

Labour.

Sir John Bowring is preparing a pamphlet on this im-
portant subject. On Friday a local paper gave an outline

of Sir John's address to the county magistrates at the
Exeter Sessions, and we now publish a few other facts

mentioned by him in support of his arguments.
Prison labour, said Sir Joim, could never be so remune-
ative as that resulting from the energies and appliances of
freedom, but he would call attention to statistics of the

good done and profit attained by prison labour, all of the

statistics being of an official character, supplied to him by
favour of foreign Governments, or individuals who were
amongst the best informed upon the topics. In France the
plan of the absolute isolation of prisoners by day was aban-

doned in 1848, and a classified system of employment was
introduced. In all the central and departmental prisons
areas were turned into workshops, and with some modifica-

tions the arrangements which had been successfully carried

out in the United States prisons—and in which the recom-
mittals were not 6 per cent.—were adopted and the system

gradually extended to the sale of the productions of the

prisoners to contractors, under the prison regulations.
Upon the introduction of the contract system the yearly
receipts from that source derived from the 19 central
prisons was 12,0001. per annum ; in 1862 it was 47,0004 and
the profit from the whole of that year amounted to no less
a sum than 121,0001. (Applause.) Of this sum pro-

portions varying from one-tenth to six-tenths were

allowed to d'fferent classes of prisoners, a por-

tion of the sum having been distributed amongst them

during their confinement; and the rest having been allowed

to accumulate, was handed to them at the time of their
liberation. As far as practicable the convicts were em-

ployed at the trades to which they had been brought up.

Saddlers returned the greatest profit ; the next most pro-
fitable were the shoemaker,s, then the tailors, basketmakers,

mat-makers, and the stone-cutters and weavers. In a re.

port lately made to the French Legislature by M. Jules
Simon, it was stated that under the beneficent influences
of the new system the number of prisoners had diminished
one-half, and that in one of the departments the prison had
twice been without a single occupant. (Hear, hear.) He
had received from the Belgian authorities official statistics

directly bearing on the question of productive prison la-
bour, and which furnished models worthy of imitation.
The tariff of wages allowed to prisoners on work done in
the central prisons showed that of the allowance the State
received five-tenths of the profits from prisoners subjected
to correctional or minor punishments; six-tenths from
soldiers condemned to solitary confinement; and seven-
tenths from convicts condemned to hard labour for long
periods. A portion not exceeding two-tenths of the value
of their daily labour might be paid to them weekly, and
the balance went to a fund to be handed to them on re-
lease, so that if they knew a trade they were put to it ; if
not, they were taught a trade, and no person, therefore,
need leave a prison without means of support. (Applause.)
As regarded the importance of remunerative prison labour,
a body of commissioners who reported upon it to the Bel-
gian House of Representatives expressed a most decided
opinion that it was a powerful and needful agent in reform-
ing criminals, that it checked recommittals, and provided
against misery, and they quoted approvingly the words of
M. Berenger to the French Chamber of Peers, that what-
ever be the character of the imprisonment to which a cri-
minal is condemned, labour must be the basis of all moral
improvement, and its employment a necessity from which
it is impossible to escape. The report stated that the pro-
duce of the labour on an average of three years was 16, 3501.
of which more than three-fourths was work for the army,
or for the use of the prisons. The six central prisons of
nalgium left a profit from labour of 20,0001., of which 1,6001.
was distributed in rewards. (Hear.) The maximum term
required for learning the trade of shoemaking was twelve
months, weaving six months, tailoring three months. (Hear.)
In a return to the Minister of Justice, giving the receipts
and expenditure of the Antwerp prison, in which all the
convicts were employed in manufacturing stuffs for expor-
tation, it was shown that in twelve years the quantity pro-
duced was to the value of 400,0001.—the greater part of

the productions were made of raw materials, the growth
of Belgium, and of which the native agricultural industry
had the benefit ; and the report prided itself on the fact
that the capital of remote nations had thus contributed to
the reform of Belgium criminals and to the finances of the
Belgian State. The return for the period named exhibited
a net profit of 29,4001., being an annual average of 2,4501.

For the last year it had been 3,2401. The number of pr
soners was 1,295. This remarkable document stated tha
the improvements introduced into the Antwerp prison had
been of the greatest service to the linen manufacture of the
whole country, leading to new arrangements which had
been most beneficial to the labouring people, and that the
reputation which the prison manufacturers had obtained
in foreign countries had been reflected over other Belgian
producers of the same articles, added to which every con-
vict before leaving the prison had acquired the means of
maintaining himself respectably and honourably when his
term of imprisonment expired. The learned knight then
spoke of the prisons of Switzerland and Spain, which gave
a profit par head, and furnished an instance of 2,355
prisoners having been taught in a Spanish gaol to earn an
honest livelihood 40 workshops had been erected there
without cost to the Government by the labour of the
prisoners. An English traveller, Mr. Hoskins, called the
result "a miracle," and inquired why similar experiments
were not carried out in this country. The want was co-
operation on the part of the Government. Then as to
Scotland, the general report of the managers of Scotch
prisons in 1864 showed that there were 2,176 prisoners
maintained at a cost of 241. 6s. par head, whose earnings
were 2/. 19s. 9d., reducing the net cost to 211. Cs. 3d. The
evidence given before the Parliamentary Committee of 1850
was then referred to as having shown that useful and
productive labour had been pronounced to bo "the main
element of any sound reformatory system," an opinion
"in which every writer of consequence concurred.'
Millbank Penitentiary and Pentonville were also cited
as illustrations of the advisability of extending the pro-
ductive labour system throughout the gaols of the kingdom.
At Millbank, with 770 prisoners, there was a net annual
profit of 3,760/. Some of those who worked at trades gained
an average of ls. 7d. a day, while those who picked oakum
only averaged a halfpenny per day in their gains. Before
the Parliamentary Committee a project was brought up by
Mr. C. Pearson, solicitor to the Corporation of London, a
man of great ability and of long practical experience in the
field of prison discipline, recommending agricultural labour
as one of the most efficient means of reform for the crimi-
nal. He showed that 1,000 acres might be made to support
1,000 convicts, and to leave a considerable margin of profit.
Capt. Chesterton, who was for 25 years governor of the
great prison at Coldbath-fields, said "Mr. Pearson proves
step by step the practicability of furnishing all that the
entire establishment would require to consume, to defray
the totality of the expense and yield a good profit to the State.
There was not a proposition in the scheme which was not
sustained by the testimony of competent witnesses." (Hear.)
Mr. Recorder Hill had also said in one of his charges " We
cannot but think that whoever will read the evidence ad-
duced before the committee must, even if not perfectly con-
vinced, come to the conclusion that sufficient proof had
been given to justify, if not to demand, such an experiment
as would place the controversy at rest. (Hear.) The general
results of European experience was that convict agricul-
tural labour in the field was on the whole more profitable
than manufacturing. The farm of the Dartmoor prison
(although the year was an unfavourable one) paid 1,8821.
2s. Bd. to the general fund. The Bavarian Government had
established five agricultural and industrial prisons, whose
working was spoken of as most satisfactory and as having
produced a considerable diminution of recommittals.
(Hear.) The prison of Katchvain, in Thurgovia, received
the vagabonds of most of the adjacent Swiss cantons and
paid all its expens2s by the produce of labour, without any
State assistance ; and in the canton of Friburg the profits
of labour amounted to 1,2001. from 110 prisoners, that is
101. per head, more than nine-tenths of which were pro-
duced by labour in the open air. He would now contrast
the expenditure in various prisons. In the Devon county
gaol an average of 216 prisoners produced earnings amount-
ing to 47/. 13s. 3d. In Belgium the same number of pri-
soners would have produced 805/. ; in France (Metray),
1,728/. ; general returns, 2,072/. ; in Switzerland, 2,700/. ;
Scotland (Perth), 673/. ; (Dundee) 808/. ; at Millbank 216
prisoners would have produced 1,053/. ; at Pentonville,
1,086/. ; in Ireland (Smithfield), 3,673/. ; in the United
States of America, where labour is more valuable (Penn-
sylvania), 3,780/. ; in New Hampshire no less than 5,8321.
would have been produced by the 216 persons who in the
Devon county gaol produced but 471. 13s. 3d. He did not
introduce this contrast with the view of pointing specially
to the local prison, but to show the pecuniary, moral, and
social advantage that would arise from the adoption of a
productive prison labour system.

THE REPRESENTATION OF PRESTON.—The next
Parliamentary election at Preston promises to be a
rather severe one. The Conservatives appear to be more
active than the Liberals, but both are on the alert, and
seem determined to spare no exertions in the furtherance
of party plans. The present members are Mr. C. P. Gren-
fell and Sir T. G. Hesketh. When the dissolution of Par-
liament takes place Mr. Grenfell intends to retire. The
Liberals intend bringing forward, in his -stead, Mr. G.
Melly, of Liverpool, who has expressed his willingness to
go to the poll. The Conservatives will again bring for-
ward Sir T. G. Hesketh, and at a meeting they have just
held it was decided to ask the Hon. F. A. Stanley, second
son of the Earl of Derby, to " stand " as a second candi-
date. Yesterday a requisition to the hon. gentleman was
in course of signature in the town, and it will shortly be
presented. Should the hon. gentleman consent to be put
up for the representation of the borough, it is affirmed in
quarters likely to know that he will be elected. The in-
fluence and association of the Derby family are very strong
in Preston. The main contest at the election will be
between Mr. Melly and Sir T. G. Hesketh. The Liberals
are pretty united in their support of Mr. Melly, and it will
require a good deal of electioneering stratagem and more
voting force to keep him from getting ahead of his Con-
servative compeer.