The Sun.
London, England, 1867-12-09 00:00:00

ROMAN CATHOLIC! PRISONERS.

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A Catholic magistrate, in a letter to the Times,
says :—" Four years ago an act was passed called
the ' Prison Ministers Act,' having for its object,
as its title expresses, ' the amendment of the Jaw
relating to the religious instruction of prisoners in
county and borough prisons.' It had become well
known that, however perfect the na-magement of
our prisons might be in temporal matters, they
were, especially as regarded the means of reforming
Roman Catholic prisoners, very deficient. They
were, in fact, debarred from those rdigious influ-
ei:ces which were carefully and liberally accorded
to Protestant prisoners.
"This Act prescribed (1) that where the number of
prisoners not of the Established Church confined in
any prison was so great as, in the opinon of the
justices, to require a minister of their own persua-
sion the justices might appoint a minister to attend
them, and might, if they thought fit, pay him. The
Act also prescribed (2) that, if no appointment
should be made, the visiting justices of any prison,
might, if they thought fit, permit such minister to
visit any prisoner of his own persuasion, without
his special request, who did not object to it.
" Both sections, it will be seen, were optional with
the justices, but many thought at the time that this
was a mistake, and that it would have been more
prudent if the Act had been compulsory upon the
Justices ; some, indeed, ventured to prognosticate
that leaving it to the discretion of the Justices
would cause religious differences among the magis-
tracy, where, as yet, there was no occasion for them;
but there was, on the other hand, an indisposition to
interfere with existing authority.
" Unhappily there are many Roman Catholic
prisoners in many prisons in England, and among
others especially in those of the metropolis, and
there are, and have been for some time past, as
appears by Parliamentary returns, as large an annual
average as 2,000 Roman Catholic prisoners in the
Coldbath-fields Prison, the male prison of the
county, and a similar average in the Westminster
House of Correction, the female prison. The actual
numbers in the former prism at one time are gene-
rally upwards of 300, and in the latter prison 200.
" Attempts were made after the passing of the
Prisbn Ministers Act to induce the justices in
Quarter Sessions at Clerkenwell to make appoint-
ments to the above prisons of a minister to attend
to the Roman Catholic prisoners, but the proposal
was negatived by a large majority.
" Applications were then made to the visiting
justices of all the Middlesex prisons to permit the
unpaid visits of a minister to the Roman Catholic
prisoners generally, but these applications were
only partially granted.
" Shortly after this the Prisons Act, 1865, was
passed, and it was made compulsory upon the
visiting justices to permit a minister (unpaid)
to attend prisoners not of the Established Church,
whether they had requested to see a minister or not,
sinless they objected. But under this Act and the
Prison Ministers Act before-mentioned, Roman
Catholic prisoners are still left without the advan-
tages intended for them by the Legislature, as
although many of the Protestant magistrates have
shown themselves most ready to carry out the acts,
the majority, withheld, as I am willing to believe,
by conscientious scruples, say they cannot be parties
to the teaching of a religion they do not approve,
and so, after scenes of unseemly theological discus-
sion, nothing effectual has been done.
"Now, sir, what we ask is that Roman Catholic
prisoners shall not be placed at a disadvantage by
following the dictates of their conscience—that is,
that although deprived of their actual liberty, they
may yet retain their religious liberty.
" Observe the difference (1 speak of Middlesex).
The Protestant minister has divine service for the
prisoners twice every Sunday; he has daily prayers
in the chapel; he spends six hours every day in
visiting them individually, and he has the power of
assembling them from time to time for simultaneous
instruction ; moreover, he is exclusively engaged in
his work, and is properly salaried.
"The Roman Catholic minister, with an exception
I will presently mention, is not allowed to have
Divine service; there are no daily prayers for those
under his care, he has no power of effectually as-
setnbling them for instruction, and all his services
are gratuitous. In the Coldbath-fields Prison Divine
service has been lately permitted by leave of the
visiting justices, but the arrangements are not such,
as yet, as allow of all the Roman Catholic prisoners
attending, while, at the other prisons, as I have
said, it is not allowed at all ; and in one of them,
the Westminster Prison, an application on the part
of the minister to be at liberty to have Divine ser-
vice, or to assemble the prisoners for instruction,
has been lately deliberately refused, the visiting
justices giving for answer that they see no reason
why.'

" The result of the existing legislation is, I be-
lieve, as follows : —ln some few prisons, seven or
eiit perhaps, among which arc Manchester, Wake-
field, Winchester, Kirkdale (Lancashire), Liver-
pool borough, Stafford, and Kuutsford, a Roman
Catholic minister has been appointed and salaried by
the justices. In others, as at Wandsworth (Sur-
rey), the Roman Catholic minister is salaried, but
he is not allowed to have Divine service or to as-
semble the prisoners. In others no facilities at all
are afforded, while in Middlesex there is no rule ; in
one prison Divine service is allowed, in the others
not; in Coldbath-fields the minister is allowed to
assemble 20 at a time for instruction, while at West-
minster, with its 200 Roman Catholic prisoners, the
minister is precluded from giving instruction to more
than one at a time.
gi Now, the real object of all of us is—must be—
the reformation of our prisoners. The period of
imprisonment, rightly used, may be made of essen-
tial service to them if they are allowed to have those
influences brought to bear upon them which alone
are likely to touch them—and these are Divine ser-
vice, religious exercises, and opportunities for resus-
citating forgotten feelings and sympathies.
" That there. is some defect in the reformatory
process in our prisons is plain from the last returns
made by the visiting justices of the two great Mid-
dlesex prisons. By them it appears that out of
8,821 prisoners, Protestants and Catholics, who
entered the Coldbath-fields Prison last year, 3,668
had been there before, and of that number 147 had
been there more than ten times ; it also appears
that out of 4,845 prisoners who entered the West-
minster Prison last year, 2,743 had been there be-
fore, of whom 645 had been there, more than ten
times.

" What we ask for on behalf of our poor Roman
Catholic brethren in prison is, I say again, religious
liberty—that is, full equal advantages for reforma-
tion with those possessed by the Protestant pri-
soners; that is to say, where the numbers are such
as to require it, an appointed minister, Divine ser-
vice, daily prayer, as ready access for him to the
prisoners under his care individually as is possessed
by the Protestant minister to those under his ;
and I am sure that the result will not be slow to ex-
hibit itself, not only in the reclamation of criminals,
but iu the diminution of rates.

"Again, how can it be justified that there should
be one rule for condemned prisoners in the Govern-
ment prisons and another for those under the con-
trol of magistrates? Everything we ask for has
been already accorded in all the prisons under Go-
vernment control, whether military or convict pri-
sons, and it is acknowedged that the results are
satisfactory. Colonel Ilenderson, in his Report on
Convict Prisons for 1864, speaks in strong terms of
the benefits which have arisen from the appoint-
ment by the Secretary of State of visiting Roman
Catholic priests to the prisons at Millbank, Park-
hurst, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, and Fulham. Ile
says :—" The effect on the convicts had been
marked, and the recognition by the State of their
claim to the ministration of clergymen of their own
persuasion has been the source of a great improve-
ment iu their outward conduct.' Again :--
We believe this measure has been one at-
tended with unmixed good results.' Lastly,
we only claim for R. man Catholic prisoners
what is accorded without cineA:on to Protestant
prisoners iu irci:,nd, where the nutnlATs of the
latter aie quite insignificant; for instance, it ap-
pears by the Return of ltiz-h Prisons, printed by
order of the ',louse of Commons ill 1&3, that in