The Sun.
London, England, 1859-12-03 00:00:00

PRISON DISCIPLINE IN NEWGATE.

The Rev. J. Davis, ordinary of her Majesty's Gaol
of Nowgate, has just presented his 21st annual re-
port to the Lord Mayor and aldermen as the visit-
ing justices. The following extracts present its
principal features :

" On the last occasion I had to remark on the
great improvements that had been effected on the
male side of this establishment, but the increased
experience which an entire year gives of the genu-
ine effects of separation in criminals of various
grades has vastly added to the convictions I then
expressed. I cannot more forcibly sum up the entire
results of this alteration than in words recently sent
me from Freemantle in Western Australia, in which
a well-informed convict, of great public notoriety,
declares that, having passed through every kind of
imprisonment, associated, silent, and separate, he is
convinced that the only mode of confinement that
gives an offender a hope of reformation, and at the
same time most severely punishes him, is that in
which, both by day and night, he is kept entirely by
himself.' All other kinds of imprisonment have
enormous disadvantages, and there are evils in a
distant land far greater than at home, and which no
one can get to know but those unhappy enough to
have to endure them. The depravity of a mass of
incorrigible convicts is beyond all conception, and
revelations are frequently made that startle even us
who have for years been accustomed to the habits of
criminals. How little do many flimsy and flippant
writers and talkers about the criminal population
know of their real propensities, and yet these are
the persons that too often get listened to, and their
advice,is adopted. It requires greater knowledge
and greater wisdom to legislate for criminals than
the bulk of mankind imagine.
" Old convicts-and all habitual thieves, as a body,
dislike separate confinement more than any other
kind of imprisonment whatever. During, the last
year, among the 12 different sets of convicts that
have passed through-Me-gaol, we have had a num-
ber of men who have been two, three, and four
times sent into penal servitude or transportation.
Such persons have obviously made up their minds
either to lead a life of crime or suffer the usual
punishment, yet they detest most heartily being
kept where they cannot talk to others, and where
there are no opportunities of boasting, seducing, con-
tending, quarrelling, or fighting,—for all these oc-
cupations supply them with a degraded kind of
pleasure; and yet such men as these yield submis-
sively to regular, mild, and firm discipline. About
three:hours in a dark'cell will tame almost any one
of them, and the horror, not only of silence and

separation, but of total darkness, seems quite
punishment enough for anything we have yet had
to deal with.
" The dislike to separation is not, however, con-
fined to old convicts, the large mass of prisoners
entertain similar objections. To boys it is singularly
distasteful. Young men who have been leading a
life of dissipation and vice complain very much of
its irksomeness, and all persons of active habits and
accustomed to exercise find this a terrible restraint.
Nothing has yet been discovered that works so well
on the whole as this plan. To say that it has no
defects, or that it cannot be continued too long,
would be to say that it is not a human institution,
for every plan and every prison has its defects
greater or less. Studious, sedate, and literary per-
sons do not feel it so severely as others.
" But I entertain a hope, my lord and gentlemen,
not the result of theory, but founded on many facts,
that good prisons are places where a considerable
number of criminals are not only punished for their
offences, but reformed in their sentiments and man-
ner of life. lam not here speaking of the old case-
hardened child of guilt who has been brought up a
thief, is still a thief in prison and out of it, who has
made up his mind to endure all you can by law
impose on a thief, and to whom indulgence and
severity are both hurtful. We know this class well,
and their ways, habits, and principles, and are sure
that the only judicious way of treating such
offenders is to give them perpetual imprisonment
until they are reformed, aed make the most and the
best of them in that miserable condition.
"There are men just as much addicted to vices as
others are to crimes, and they commit crimes to
enable them to indulge in their vices; among this
class reformations are rare. But I- speak of the
mass of prisoners not belonging to either of these
classes. Out of all committed to Newgate about
one-eighth, as nearly as we can ascertain, are re-
commitments. As far as we can trace any other
prisoners, about another eighth have been in other
prisons. Making, then, a large allowance for those
who escape detection of having been in prison be-
fore, more than one half at the least never return to
any prison, and it is among this large class that the
good I speak of is done. Many receive a real sound
religious impression, which endures and keeps them
out of harm. It does not do to make such persons
known ; they would be destroyed if known ; but as
far as words can express right feelings, or letters
describe the state of the mind, and a consistent life
confirm the truth of both, hundreds and thousands
demonstrate the happy effects of religious teachings
in prisons.
"The custom practised for many years in New-
gate of having a small portion of scripture read
daily and explained, for the prisoners to meditate
upon, was always attended with good results, but
since the prisoners have been kept separately I find
the influence of it far greater. They express them-
selves with greater indications of thought and re-
flection, and, by giving them a good basis for
thought, all is done that it is possible to do to lead
them to the right sentiments.
" If then, my lord and gentlemen, the benefits of
separate discipline be so great, how strongly does
it urge every consistently benevolent mind to hope
that the day is not distant when these advantages
will be extended to the female side of the prison,
and the unhappy fallen members of so many families
will be afforded the opportunity of escaping, while
in Newgate, the polluting conversation of old
offenders, and have the means of reformation within
their reach, if they should be really sincere.
" The female side of Newgate is the only prison
in London for the confinement of prisoners committed
for trial, that is not on the separate system. The
magistrates of Middlesex have years ago so pro-
vided for theirs in the House of Detention ; Horse-
monger-lane prison has been entirely remodelled by
the Surrey justices; while the female side of New-
gate remains unaltered, unimproved, and, as the
light of other days, solitary and dim.
" It is easy for any one to perceive in the coun-
tenances of prisoners the different system on the
one side and on the other. There is a lightness of
manner and apparent absence of reflection which
indicate the usual state of mind in which habitual
offenders live, and this shuts out all reasonable
hope of reformation. When women become de-
graded they sink faster and deeper than others,
but, on the other hand, they are more susceptible
of kindness and attention, and, judging by what
we have seen of the effects on the male offenders, I
think results highly favourable will emanate from
the long projected alterations on the female side.
" As I wish distinctly to state that the sceti-
ments in this report are my own, and I desire to
involve no one else in the responsibility that be-
longs to them, I venture a general remark upon a
class of prisoners a good deal overlooked. Among
th© many committed to Newgate in the course of
years, by far the most saucy and impudent, and
disposed to insubordination, are those who have
formerly been inmates of workhouses. It may seem
singular that persons who have for years been fed
on the public bounty provided for the needy, and
have not supported themselves by their own labour,
should share in such a peculiar and objectionable
habit. Having been for many years occupied in
workhouses as well as prisons, this general feature
has always indicated to me that there roust be some-
thing defective in the operation of tho Poor Law to
produce such a result. I have thought a good deal
upon the subject, and compared other institutions,
such as refuges for' the .destitute poor and other
houseless outcasts; the same feature is not found

there, the applicants.receive the bounty with thank-
fulness and behave as other pople do. A poor man
now, however indolent and disinclined to labour,
has a right to parochial relief, if he be in necessity.
I believe it is this right that makes them so inso-
lent and unblushingly saucy. Were the power
given to boards of guardians to declare that such
impertinence and intemperate display of insubor-
dination disqualified them from becoming the re-

cipients of iublic alms, I think this curious feature
would at once cease. The knowledge that you must
relieve them makes them trespass on the forbear-
ance of their examiners. An appeal to a magis-
trate might prevent the abuse of such principle,
but my conviction is that something to this effect
would be conducive to great good. . •

"I may, in conclusion,. observe that there seems
a diminution of crime that has continued for the

laSt two or three years. The demands of the army
have contributed a good deal towards this, and a
growing dislike for imprisonment now that it is
carried out earnestly. I have shown that the mass
of commitments are what arc called first offenders.
The'infirtuilics of human nature, and the common
temptations of life produce these. Such will always
arise. ' No poker that mortal possesses can put an
end to. such things. The point to aim at is the les-
sening, and, if possible; the' extinction of habitual
crime. Many in their conduct approaching these
habits get into the Army and Navy ; the labour is
not hard, and they. like it. I have seen a number
of letters written from such.persons to their rela-
tives, speaking in raptures of the life of a soldier or
sailor. I must say that I sharp in the satisfaction
they feel, and cannot but think such conduct
a happy. change from a life that promised much
less hopefully."