The Sun.
London, England, 1853-08-29 00:00:00

RESULTS OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM.

As regards the results of the discipline and industrial
training at Portland, which, as before stated, has been
more or less dependent upon the means of instruction
afforded to the men during their probationary discipline
in separate confinement, they may, I trust, be considered
to be highly satisfactory.
As a body, the men show a spirit of willing and cheerful
obedience. The strictest discipline is maintained, with a
very small proportion of punishment. The industry of the
working parties is remarkable ; and the fact that they ex-
ert themselves at their laborious occupation is manifested
by the circumstance that those who are employed, consti-
tuting only about four-fifths of the whole body, execute
work of a value nearly equal to the entire cost of the esta-
blishment.

Of their moral condition, the chaplain, and those who
have the best opportunities of forming an opinion, speak in
very favourable terms.

6n the whole, though I felt very hopeful of success when
Portland Prison was first occupied, the results have far ex-
ceeded my expectations ; and as I have frequently stated
before, I would now repeat that, under Providence, it is due
to the principle of encouragement held out in the ules and
regulations sanctioned by the Secretary of State, and to
the judicious and admirable manner in which they have
been carried out by Captain Whitby and the governors and
chaplains who have had the immediate responsibility of
administering the discipline.
The foregoing observation will, I trust, have given your
lordship a comprehensive view of the present system ; and
I trust it will also appear that, taken as a whole, it may
claim to be founded upon bread and intelligible principles,
and on past experience of much that has to be avoided, and
much that affords encouragement to follow.
The records of Parliament may be appealed to in proof
of the fact, that there have been periods in the history of
the convict system of this country when, speaking humanly,
the demorialisation of every individual sentenced to trans-
portation was certain. No matter what might have been
his previous character, what the amount of his contrition,
or what the sincerity of his efforts and resolutions to
retrace his steps, he was placed within the influence of a
moral pestilence, from which, like death itself, there was
no escape.

Any candid and dispassionate inquiry into the condition
and prospects of the convicts who have passed through
periods of penal and reformatory discipline at Pentonville
and Portland, will prove beyond doubt that, to say the
least of it, the majority of those now serving are likely, on
their release, to be respectable in their station of life, and
useful to those who engage their services, and thus realising
the anticipations of the Pentonville commissioners, that
" a large proportion of our convicts would be qualified on
their discharge to occupy an honest position in their own
or any other country."

THE CONVICT QUESTION.
The importance at the present moment of the different
questions connected with " transportation," and the diffi-
culties which will have to be provided for in consequence
of its more limited application, imposes upon me the duty
of laying-before your lordship such statistics and details as
will be required in the consideration of the subject.
I propose to notice the various points in the following
order .

1. Present system of convict discipline, and its expense.
2. A modification of the present system by the estab-
lishment of district prisons and the estimated expense.
3. Discontinuance of transportation, and substitution of
imprisonment at home, and in certain of the colonies, with
the estimated expense.
4. Additional prisons, and their probable cost.
5. Probable effect on the annual estimates of carrying
out a general system of imprisonment.
8. Females.
7. Disposal of convicts.
8. Measures for assisting discharged prisoners.
1. PRESENT SYSTEM OF DISCIPLINE AND EXPENSE.
As regards the general routine of the management,
on extract from the notice which is placed in the cell of
each prisoner received into the Government prison is an-
nexed in appendix, page 112, and will give a brief but com-
prehensive view of the system, which, at least up to the
end of 1852, was in operation.
It may be observed that it consists of three probationary
periods of discipline, viz.:-
Ist. Twelve months' separate confinement.
2d. Labour in association on public works for a period
proportionate to the sentence.
3d. A ticket of leave in one of the colonies, followed by
a pardon, conditional or otherwise.
Pentonville and Portland prisons may be taken as ex-
amples of the first and second periods of probation. The
third is a revocable pardon, and it will be observed that the
holder of it is subject to certain very salutary restrictions,
calculated to deter him from erime, and thus protect the
interests of others.
The system, though not yet fully developed, may fairly
be assumed to have fulfilled, both at home and abroad, the
different objects which require to be provided for. It has
been a punishment severe in its aspect, but mild in its
tphr
ea c t i
menca
hoapveer abtei
eo
nn ,ch• a.
supdo
sthere c
greatlya can b e n
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awd hitvalns
tage, the imperial interests have gained some benefits,
without materially prejudicing those of the colonies.

EXPENSE OF THE PRESENT SYSTEM.

Abstract of the Estimates for the Convict Service for

1852-3.

The total number of convicts provided for in the annual
estimates is 21,932, and the expense of all the services, as
detailed under the separate heads, may be thus stated ?
Gross estimates for the convict prisons in Great
Britain, for 7,824 prisoners
Gross estimates for the convict prisons in Ire-
land, for 5,246 prisoners
Estimate for the removal of prisoners
Gross estimates for convict service at Gibraltar,
and Bermuda, for 2,650 prisoners 48,842
Estimates for transport services to the Austra-
EsitiiamnaTe for
lon
tiesransport services to Bermuda and
Gibraltar
Estimates for the Australian colonies, &c.

". 53,912
... 12,424

95,000

6,041
188,744

Total gross cost to be laid before Parliament £587,294
Assuming, however, that the labour of the
convicts is judiciously and profitably applied, the
real cost
value of their work home, which may be thus
Deduct earnings of 15,729 prisoners as follows :
7,824 in Great Britain,
at 121. per head. ..293,888
5,246 in Ireland at 51. per head
2,650 in Bermuda and Gibraltar, at 181. 26,930
per head ..................................... 47,700

167,818