The Sun.
London, England, 1823-10-23 00:00:00

PARLIAMENTARY PAPERS.

PENITENTIARY AT MILBANK.
lIRFOIST OF THE SELECT COMMTTEL OF Till 10US$

01? COMMONS.

The following is an Official Copy of the Re.
itort of the Select Committee appointed to in-'
suils lat.° the present State of the Penitentiary
at Milbank :
Your 'Committee wish, in the first instance, to plies before
iiiiiideration of the House the history of the Establish-
miens, into the state and management of which they have been
APP9inted to inquire. As early es the 19th of she late King,
apian was laid down in .a statute, c. 74, passed in that year,
!Or the 'adoption of a system of penitentiary imprisonment,
-"Mai ehould be calculated to reform offenders. The pream.
We oe-that statute sets forth, " That whereas, if many of
convicted of crimes for which transportation has been
wsually inflicted, were erdereil to solitary imprisonment, ac-
eouipanisd by well-regulated labour and religious instruction,
it might be the means, under Providence, not only of deter-
sing others from the commission of the like crimes, but also of
reforming the individuals, and inuring them to habits of indus-
try." This Act was drawn up under the direction of Sir Wm.
Blackstone, with the advice and concurrence of Mr. Howard.
WV Measures vete, however, taken to carry this plan into ex.
seeetion till the year 1794, when an Act passed (34 Geo.
. 74.) for the building of a Penitentiary House for the con-
Inetnent and employment of convicts ; and a contract 'was
Intend Into with Mr. Jeremy Bentham for that purpose. So
many difficulties, however, arose in the mode of carrying this
measure into execution, that the contract was re-purchased,
and the plan abondoned. A Committee of the House of Com-
nions sat in 1811, which entered fully into the merits of this
iiiportant question, and they concluded their report by To:0m"
making that'an arrangement should he made with Mr. Ben-
thain this purpose, which, in, fact, afterweide took place.
Parliament, however, did not' lose sight of this momentous
subject, and loud after the publication of this report, snd the
inel settlement with Mr. Bentham, the foundation of the pre-
sot establishment WAS laid ; and a part of the building was
epenedfor the reception of convicts in June; 1816. This esta-
blishment maybe considered RS now coMpleted, and contained;
*hen your Committee visited 4t, eight hAndred and sixty:nine
crisaneii, 666 males, and 303 females. Your Committee
examined,' with the greatest attention, into the details of the
institirti?ai they saw every prisoner, and visited each person
twice in the-Infirmary. arid sick wards. They made themselves
acquainted with the Internal discipline and arrangement of the
Wastitation, and they wish to impresi upan the house thOr con.
viatica, that on the whole it may fairly be considered ai being

ably and successfully conducted. The attention of the Managing
Committee appears to them to he sedulous and unremitting; the
visitors and officers, diligent and attentive, and the whole arrange-
clients to have been contrived with great skill, and executed
with regularity and 'attention. As might have been naturally
expected., a system so novel in its nature, and to be applied
to so many persons, varying. in character, age, and sex, could
not obtain complete success at once; and those who had the
teen tepid-and management of this great ciperiment on the penal
law of the country, had not only something to learn from •exe
• • .
perience themselves, but also much to teach to °theta, who
,under them, were to carry their arrangement, into execitiom—:
.
Difficulties have thus arisen from the choice of offieers
the change of persons who had the direction of 'the Establish,
menet from the altetations that have necessarily keen mails
in the management of the prisoners ; from the nature of the
labour to be introduced; snd from a variety ofOther causes, to
• . .
which the best managed institutions sire" at all exposed ;
but your Committeeetre eit opinion, 'that these difficulties are
almost all of them itutmounted, and that theEiteblishrnent bids
fair to equal the expectations of its friends and supporters.—
Among the improvements in the system lately adopted, your
Committee think it not. 'the least important, that it has been
thought proper to place at the head. of the Establishment in the
prison as Governor a person of education and superior con-
dition of life; and they are of opinion that this office should
always, in future, be held by a person of that description.—
Steps-are now taken to remedy any defects which experience
has found to exist in the rules and regulations of the Establish-
ment,. a better system of labour, both as to its productive and
useful nature, is about to be established, and exercise ie to be
more generally extended than heretofore to all classes of the
prisoners.
Your Committee, however, wish to express an opinion, that
the 'monotony of a life of bodily labour, unaccompanied with
any mental recreation, may have the effect, in some instances,
of. injuring the faculties of persons of a highei order of intel-
lect than that which is generally possessed by the prisoners
who are confined there. It is in evidence' before them that the
chaplain alone has the power: of placing only those books in
the handx of. prisoners, which- are its the collection of the
Society for promoting Christian Knowledge: that list contaius
few books that are otherwise then of'a serious and religious
cast; and though your Committee are of opinion that ell the
books placed in the hands of prisoners should hive,' even while
they amused and ipetructed. a direct tendency to better the
morals and correct the vices .or those•who read them, yet they,
feel confident that, in some cases, a scleetien could be made of
books not in the above-mentioned list, which might be read
with the greatest advantage by prisoners.
In the summer season, the prisoners have two or three hours
daylight to employ in reading, after they retire to their cells;
and there doss not appear any rational objection to thus occupy-,
ing the time of the prisoners who are .in a condition to benefit
by instruction ; to whatever class of life they belong, they will
not be the worse on their discharge from prison, by having,
whilst in Confinement, acquired the disposition to find amuse.
merit in the occupation of their minds; they will, of course, be
lees liable to those feelings of despair and weariness of thought,
which imprieonMent for a long term of years is so calculated to
produce, and when discharged, there may be every reason to
hope, that along with the .recollection of the punishment to
which they have been subjected, will attach the habit of seeking
for amusement and mental relief, by other means than those
which arise from the vises and passions of mankind.
There is another subject which your Committee wish to press
upon the consideration of the House, via. the species of labour
which is taught is the Penitentiary. They called for a return
upon that subject, by which it appears, that the principal trades
Of
there were those of tailor, shoemaker, and wearer t,
Of the first, there were 90 operative workmen, not including
-9 cutters and 13 instructors; 34 weavers and 18 winders; and
317 shoemakers ; and out of 462 male prisoners in the Peniten-
tiary, between the 30th of October and the 4th of June, 1823,
31.16 were employed in manufactures. It is in evidence, that
the best class of work is not there taught, and that those who
are brought up as tailors, can hardly hope to gain their daily
bread at their discharge. Thus it may happen that persons
who may have passed from ten to five years in the Penitentiary
may be discharged from it without any means of gaining their
subsistence, and may be thus exposed to temptations by which
poverty and want are assailed, and which, perhaps, originally
induced them to commit the crimes which had subjected them
to punishment.
In consequence of the extent of sickness which has, during
the last winter and spring, prevailed in the ,Penitentiary, your
Committee felt it their duty to examine minutely into the
causes of the malady which has been so prevalent among the
prisoners, and the medical treatment to which they have been
subjected.: In the spring of 1822 it app4ars to have been the
opinion of the principal inedicel officer, Dr. Hutchinson, as
Well as of the Committee of the Penitentiary, that the dietary
of the prisoners was greater than was conducive to their beside
Symptoms of plethora were constantly showing themselves,
though, principally among the female prisoners, and a general
fullness of habit appeared to prevail among all the inmates of
the Penitentiary. Accordingly, under the advice and upon the
suggestion of Air. Morton Pitt, one• of the Committee, (in
which the Committee concurred), 'll more reduced scale of food
wits adopted. This recoinniendatioa was, founded upon the
success of a similar system at Dorchester Gaol. The Manag-
ing Committee, however, felt it to be their duty .to submit the
question to the consideration of Sir James Ill'Origor, who is at
the •head of the Army Medical. Board. Sir James M‘Grigor
was of opinion, that the old system of diet was too full, and he
approved of the plan proposed. Accordingly, in July 1822,
the old dietary, which was as follows, was abandoned, and the
new one, which is here also eubjoimel, was substituted in its
room.