The Sun.
London, England, 1869-02-17 00:00:00

IRISH CONVICTS.

The directors of the convict prisons in Ireland report
;hat in the year 1867 296 convicts were sentenced to penal
ervitude in Ireland, 216 males and 80 females, and at the
end of the year there were 1,340 convicts in custody in
Ireland, 920 males and 420 females ; 330 convicts were
discharged in the year, 123 unconditionally on completion
of sentence, commutation, or pardon, and 207 on orders
of license ; in England, among an equal number of con-
victs disposed of in 1866, the number discharged on ter-
mination of sentence was only 40 (instead of 112 as in
Ireland in 1867), and on ticket of leave 320. Convicts in
Ireland are sent first to Mountjoy Prison, and at the expi-
ration of their probationary time are either transferred to
the associated trades' division, or removed to association
an the public works at Spike Island, whence in due time
they pass on to Smithfield or Lusk intermediate prisons—
the one with its trades and the other with its farm work.
The Roman Catholic chaplain of Mountjoy submits that
eight months are too long a time to keep a prisoner in
separate confinement, locked in his cell about twenty-one
hours a day, with work which is little better than absolute
idleness, the man being generally without mental culture
and of strong animal passions and vicious habits. This
gentleman is of opinion that after three or four
months the tendency is to enfeeble the mind and
render the prisoner less able to resist temptation here.
after, thus perhaps partly causing the increase in the pro-
portion of returned convicts, while crime and convictions
generally have been so greatly diminishing. The directors
do not concur in this view, but adhere to the general opinion
that lengthened separation is a necessary part of the refor-
matory treatment of prisoners. Every effort is made
to exercise the most complete supervision over the conduct
of those who are released on ticket of license, the Royal
Irish constabulary taking this duty in the country, while
in Dublin it is done by Mr. Organ, inspector of released
convicts. This gentleman states that the employers of the
men released from the intermediate prisons very seldom
indeed have cause to complain of their industry or conduct.
As lecturer at the little agricultural colony of Lusk, he says
that the great majority of the men have, by their conduct
beyond the prison walls, won back the character they had
forfeited by their crimes, and have become absorbed among
thehonestindustrial classes of society. As lecturer at Smith-
field he states that his great object is to teach men to think,
and to cultivate among them a manly spirit ; and he says
that his confidence that they may become honest mem-
bers of society is justified by the growing confidence of
employers in his men, and the increasing demand for
their labour. He writes under date of the Ist of January,
1867 (a mistake for 1868) this result of his labours :
" I can say, after a period of thirteen years' practical and
by no means unimportant experience, that the prejudices
of the public against the convict are every day diminish-
ing ; and it is a source of gratifying pride to me to say
that no well-disposed released prisoner, no matter what
gaol or county he hails from, can plead want of honest
employment as an excuse for the pursuit of a life of
crime.