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

ROMAN CATHOLIC PRISONERS.

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 law
relating to the religious instruction of prisoners in
county and borough prisons.' It had become well
known that, however perfect the management 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 religious influ-
ences 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 opinou 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 iu many prisons in England, and among
others especially in those of the metropolis, and
there are, and have been for same 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 prison at one time are gene-
rally upwards of 300, and in the latter prison 200.
" Attempts were made after the passing of the
Prison Ministers Act to induce the justices in
Quarter Sessions at Clerken well to make appoint-
tnents 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,
unless 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
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
imitruction ; mioreover, he is exclusively eng iged 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 fur those
under his care, ho has no power of effectually as-
sembling 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
eight perhaps, among which are Manchester, Wake-
field, Winchester, Kirkdale (Lancashire), Liver-
pool borough, Stafford, and Knutsford, 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.

" 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 contrcl, whether military or convict pri-
sons, awl it is acknowedged that the results are
satisfactory. Colonel Henderson, in Lis P,2port 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. He
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 in their outward conduct.' Again
We believe this measure has been one at-
tended with unmixed good results.' Lastly,
we only claim for Roman Catholic prisoners
what is accorded without question to Protestant
prisoners in Ireland, where the numbers of the
latter are quite insignificant ; for instance, it ap-
pears by the Return of Irish Prisons, printed by
order of the House of Commons in 1853, that in

Carlow Prison there were 89 Catholic and four
Protestant prisoners ; in Clare, 179 Catholics and
two Protestants ; in Galway, 148 Catholics and
two Protestants ; in Tipperary, 344 Catholics and
one Protestant ; and that, in all these places, then)
were regularly appointed Protestant chaplains as
well as Catholic, with the same amount of salary.
" I perceive that this subject has been mentioned
i❑ the House of Commons within these few days,
and not unfavourably received, and this it is which
induces me to ask whether it is not time to have done
with these irregularities, and to bring all the prisons
in the kingdom under the successful regulations of
the Government ; and if, from any conscientious
reasons, Protestant magistrates cannot bring thew'
selves to act voluntarily in the appointment of
ministers of a different faith from their own,
whether a remedy may not be found either in
making these appointments compulsory on the Ps"
tices (i❑ which case they would be merely acting
ministerially), or in placing the whole management
of the religious instruction of prisoners in other
hands. .

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