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

THE SUN, LONDON, MONDAY EVENING, AUGUST 29, 185 3.

the substitution of an organised and improved system of
discipline, on public works, at home and abroad.
With regard to the general results of the combined sys-
tem, sufficient experience has now been gained of the great
advantages of separate confinement, as a preparation for
the subsequent stage in association. The details of the
discipline, though described in the reports, can, however,
only be understood by an inspection of the prisons at Pen-
tonville and Wakefield, and of other prisons where the
separate system is enforced.
A. careful study of the whole discipline and management
at Portland, Portsmouth, or Dartmoor, would, in like
manner, enable any one to form an opinion, as to whether
the arrangements for combining the reformation of the
prisoners with the punishment due to crime, are calculated
to promote the objects which the Government have in view.
Should any alterations appear desirable, there exists
every facility for making them. So far, however, as my
experience goes, I do not see that any change, either in
principle or routine, could be made without creating some
evil or difficulty which requires to be guarded against.
As regards the present system of subjecting every pri-
soner to 12 months' separate confinement and subsequent
association on public works, Mr. Gray, the author before
quoted, remarks in a work published at the time when the
present plan was first settled :--
" The British Government, enlightened by experience,
has determined to make an important change in its whole
system of secondary punishments, and, last June, a plan
was submitted to Parliament for this purpose, which will
undoubtedly be definitively acted on at the next session.* *
" It appears that the new system now proposed to be
established there provides for one year of Pentonville disci-
pline, followed by a term of social labour. During this
latter period, we are told that the prisoners are to receive
moral and religious instruction, and to be entirely sepa-
rated from each other by night. This is well. And if it
is designed also to furnish them, during the intervals of
labour, with the means and opportunity of such intellec-
tual culture as they are capable of receiving ; to guard
carefully their intercourse by day ; and to prevent their
having free and uncontrolled conversation by night, it is a
design worthy of the greatness, the wisdom, and the be-
nevoence of England."

Total estimated net cost to the country for the
current year, deductirg the prospective value
of labour £419,476
2. A MODIFICATION 031 THE PRESENT SYSTEM BY THE
ESTABLISHMENT OF DISTRICT PRISONS, WITH A VIEW
TO A REDUCTION IN THE NUMBER OF CONVICTS TO BE
SENT ABROAD.
The probable effect of acting on the recommendations of
the committee of the House of Commons in regard to the
establishment of district prisons is thus adverted to in my
fifth report :
" Few persons beyoni those whose duties bring them
into immediate connect-on with prisons, are aware of the
great inequality of sentences passed in the different courts
for similar offences ; nor is it generally known that so few
are sentenced to long terms of imprisonment, and so large
a proportionate number to short terms of transportation,
thus omittinc, altogether such an intermediate and length-
ened term of imprisonment as would give a more just and
and proper gradation of punishment for different offences.
" It will appear by rderence to the criminal tables, that
taken on the last ten years, the average number of pri-
soners sentenced to 7 and 10 years' transportation has been
2,626, and that the average number sentenced to impri-
sonment has only been as follows : - three years, and above
two years, 5 ; two years, and above one, 473 ; one year,
and above six months, 2,380. There are now so many
country prisons, &c., in which separate confinement for 12
months might be enforced, that I believe if district pri-
sons for carrying out tie remainder of long sentences were
established, a sentence of two or three years' imprisonment
would have a sufficiently deterring effect, and the difficul-
ties arising from the great number sentenced to transpor-
tation would be materially diminished.
"As regards sentences passed in court, it would appear
proper that imprisonment should be carried to its fullest
extent before recourse were had to transportation ; but,
practically, neitherthe deterring nor the reformatory effects
of imprisonment have ever had a trial on a sufficient scale
to test their efficiency, excepting in the case of convicts
under sentence of transportation. The experience, how-
ever, of the last few years carries with it the most conclu-
sive evidence in favour of such a system ; and if it were
only to avid the inconvenience and expense of transporta-
tion, it is well deserving of attention, especially in an econo-
mical point of view.
" Lengthened periods of imprisonment have not hitherto
been resorted to, partly from there being no existing prison
where sentences exceeding 12 months could be properly
carried into effect, and partly from a sentence of transpor-
tation up to a recent period affording so easy a solution
of all difficulty both as regards expense to counties and
final disposal.
" With a view, however, of providing a remedy for this
defect, and, at the same time, the means of reducing the
number of convicts sentenced to transportation, it appears
to have been the object of the select committee of the House
of Commons in 1850 to press on the attention of the Go-
vernment the importance of erecting district prisons ex-
pressly for the reception of all prisoners sentenced to pe-
riods exceeding 12 months. The resolutions of the com-
mittee are as follows :
" 14. That after prisoners under long sentences have un-
dergone a period of separate confinement, the remainder of
their sentences ought to be passed under a system of com-
bined labour, with effectual precautions against inter-
course.
" 15. That this object would be greatly facilitated by
erection of district prisons, at the national cost, for the re-
ception of prisoners under long sentences after they had
undergone such previous separate confinement.
" 16. That such district prisons should be maintained at
the national cost, and the government of such prisons and
all appointments and salaries of officers ought to be under
the control of her Majesty's Government."
The measures necessary to give effect to these important
recommendations were under the consideratian of Sir
George Grey, and by his direction I prepared a memoran-
dum on the necessary details. The following is an ex-
tract :
" With regard to the additional accommodation which
may be required, it may be assumed that if facilities ex-
isted for carrying into effect sentences of imprisonment
extending from 18 months to three years, without expense
to the counties and boroughs, a large proportion of the pre-
sent sentences to seven years' transportation would be
changed to imprisonment.
" The following statistics may serve as data for calcula-
tion :
In the year 1850 there were sentenced to
seven years' transportation 1,369
To imprisonment of 3 years, and above 2 4
To imprisonment of 2 years, and above 1 551
" If of these we take 1,000 of the sentences for 7 years,
and allow 640 to cover the sentences of imprisonment, the
number to be provided for in district prisons will amount
to 1,600.
" The average sentences on this number might probably
be assumed at two and a half to three years.
" It is recommended by the committee, and it is an im-
portant condition to enforce, that all prisoners, previously
to being sent to a district prison, shall have undergone a
probationary period of separate confinement in the county
prison. This period would probably vary from six to 12
months, and might be taken at an average of nine months,
leaving from 21 to 27 months of the entire sentence to be
passed in a district prison. From this period there would
be deducted a small proportion to be remitted as an encou-
ragement to good conduct, leaving from 18 to 24 months as
the actual period of confinement.
" On these data the entire accommodation required in
the district prisons would amount to one and a half or
twice the number annually sentenced, that is, from 2,400
to 3,200,"

EXPENSE OF A MODIFIED SYSTEM.
The estimates for a modification of the present system,
in substituting imprisonment for a proportion of the sen-
tences of transportation, may be taken as follows :
Gross estimates for convict prisons in Great Bri-
tain 8,524
Ditto in Ireland, 5,246 ditto 53,912
Ditto for the removal of prisoners 13,006
Ditto for transport services
Ditto for the Australian Colonies 152,600
Ditto for convict service at Gibraltar and Ber-
muda, 2,300 prisoners
Ditto for voyage to Bermuda and Gibraltar

Gross estimated cost of 16,073 prisoners £507,284
Deduct earnings—
Great Britain, 8,524 prisoners, at an average
of 121. per head £102,288
Ireland, 5,246, at 51. per head 26,230
Gibraltar and Bermuda, 2,300, at 181
per head 41,400

169,018

Total estimated net cost of 16,070 prisoners,
under the present system, modified as pro-
posed

3. DISCONTINUANCE OF TRANSPORTATION, AND SUB-
STITUTION OF IMPRISONMENT AT HOME AND IN CER-
TAIN OF THE COLONIES.

The diminution in the number of the convicts to be re-
moved from Great Britain and Ireland, if imprisonment to
the extent contemplated by establishing district prisons
were adopted, would still leave perhaps 1,500 men to be
annually transported. These would be men under the
longest sentences, and assumed to be the worst class of
criminals. _

In the consideration of the details a difficulty presents
itself. The opponents of transportation make use of two
arguments ; one, that the mother country has no right to
pollute a colony with her worst and most dangerous cha-
racters ; another, that she is rewarding crime, instead of
.
punishing it. There much force in both these argu-
ments ; and any modification of the present system which
is calculated rather to increase than remove these objec-
tions, will not, I fear, enlist the cordial co-operation of
any colony, and will thus fail in being a permanent settle-
ment of this vexed and important question.
For these reasons I am led to the conclusion that some
more extended changes than a reduction in the number
sentenced to transportation will be found to bo absolutely
necessary.
With this view, it appears deserving of consideration
whether it would not be expedient to alter the terms of
the sentence, abolishing transportation, and substituting
long terms of imprisonment, to be carried out chiefly in
this country, but with power to enforce them at Gibraltar,
Bermuda, Western Australia, or other colony where suit-
able arrangements for the purpose may have been pre-
viously made.
This, at first sight, may appear to be a very sweeping
change, and to be open to the most serious objection. Trans-
portation has for a long period been looked upon as the
most severe of the secondary punishments of the country,
that great importance is attached to it. This, however, I
am persuaded, is more from the force of habit and old as-
sociations, and from forgetfulness of the progressive changes
that have been going on, than from any more substantial
considerations.

As regards the majority of convicts, there is little doubt
that the change of circumstances in the colonies, together
with the public mind becoming familiarised with emigra-
tion, has deprived this main element of the sentence of
much of the deterring effect it may formerly have pos-
sessed, and hence its value in that light can no longer be
relied upon.
If a clear practical view of the present mode of carrying
into effect such a sentence be also taken, it will be seen
that it entails, or is commuted into, a longterm of imprison-
ment, extending from two to three years, in the caso of a
seven years' man, to six to twelve years, in the case of a
life sentence (the time being prolonged in case of necessity
to the full period of the original sentence), to which is
added such a mode of subsequently disposing of a prisoner
as will place him in a favourable position for earning his
livelihood.

To obtain the last object, it will be seen, on reference to
the estimates, that the mother-country incurs a large addi-
tional expense, from which she only derives the advantage
arising from the ultimate removal of a proportion of the
men.

From these considerations it appears that in substitut-
ing sentences of imprisonment for sentences of transporta-
tion, the only change that will be required is a modifica-
tionin the means of subsequently disposing of the convicts
on the expiration of their sentences, which, as already ob-
served, is the only point of difficulty in the convict ques-
tion.

To provide for this, I would venture to submit that,
with a view to relieve the Secretary of State from responsi-
bility in the exercise of his power, the practice of his de-
termining, according to his discretion, the place of his im-
prisonment, and granting conditional pardons to prison-
ers, should be fully recognised by Parliament. Beyond
this, I conceive there would be no necessity to make the
least change in the present mode of dealing with convicts,
under the first and second probationary periods of dis-
cipline, excepting, perhaps, an alteration in the scales for
regulating the sentences and periods of detention.
At a certain minimum pertod of the sentence, a con-
vict, whether imprisoned in this country or in a colony,
would become eligible to be recommended to the Secretary
of State for a pardon, to which might be affixed such con-
ditions appeared expedient.
It may be urged that it would appear necessary that a
convict should be a party to the conditions on which he
receives a pardon. This may be provided for by the periods
of imprisonment being such, that the minimum, which
it may be expedient to enforce, shall be sufficient, when
taken in connection with the conditions of the pardon, as
a punishment for the offence.
The remission of the remaining period of the imprison-
ment will ensure, as a general rule, the consent of a con-
vict to any reasonable conditions, or powers may be taken
in any alteration of the law, which will give the Secretary
of State greater facilities for exercising his discretiot..

appear desirable that it should be introduced as part of the
system.
It would relieve the Secretary of State from much re-
sponsibility if a classification of criminals were made by
the judge iu passing sentence, who would exercise his dis-
cretion according to the character of the individual and
the attendant circumstances, in the same manner as is now
done in the case of the different classes of debtors and
misdemeanants. Under such an arrangement, it might be
necessary to send certain classes direct to the severest kind
of penal discipline, and from thence remove them, to com-
mence the ordinary routine in separate confinement and
public works, so as to preserve in their cases, as in all
others, a due gradation of punishment.
In connection with this subject, I would again press the
importance of the Secretary of State's receiving more ac-
curate information, than at present, concerning the cha-
racters of convicts, and the crimes of which they might
have been convicted.

SENTENCES OF IMPRISONMENT, COMPARED WITH SEN-