Star.
London, England, 1818-08-27 00:00:00

REPORT FROM THE COMMITTEE

ON TIM -
STATE OF PRISONS lY THE METROPOLIS.

(Couthmed from our Paper of yesterday.)
TOTHIL.FIELDS PRISON'
Is a place of confinement within the City and Li-
batty of Westminster, and prisoners are committed
there from the neighbouring Police Offices. These
prisoners are of various descriptions, and comprehend
those who have committed nearly all the different va-
riety of crime. They were, when your Committee'
inspected it, persons who had been committed for
felonies, fines, or felons working out their term of
imprisonment, misdemeanants, disorderly- persons,
vagrants, and debtors, as well as prisoners commit-
ted-for re-examination.
The average number of persons daily in this pri-
son may be taken at 97 ; wher your Committee vi-
sited it, 76 were there confined; but the greatest
number that the present jailer has ever had at one
time was 158; 121 males, and 57 females. Ia the
rear 1315, there passed through this prison, 1,i;35
Wons; in 1818, 1,835 ; ...tad in 181?, 2,652. •
Officers Of the Prison.—;The jailer (Mr. Nodder) is
appointed by the Magistrates for the City and Liberty
of Westminster at a salary of £490 per annum ; he
has a house to live in free of taxes, but no other per-
quisites. He has under him five turnkeys and a
watchman; the head turnkey has one guinea and a
half per week; the second, who afficiates as clerk,
£1 Ils.; the other three and the watchman, 255. per
week each.
The C.iaplain.—The Rev. John Shelton has a sa-
lary of £5O a year; his duties are to attend once on
a Sunday for prayers, and a sermon : this is the only
time he is required to be Mere, but he visits the
pri-
soners two or three times a week. The surgeon (Mr.
Hanbury) enjoys a salary of 4;80 a year, and he prc-
.vides the medicines for the sick; he visits the prison
almost daily ; he has filled the situation 52 years.
Classification of Prisoner;.—The prison is divijed
into several small courts, separated by an iron railing;
but hardly any separation can substantially be said
to exist, and persons committed for almost all species
of offences associate together. On the day the Com-
mittee visited the prison, they found in the felons',
yard on the male side, felons for trial, fines, or fe-
lons working out their terms of imprisonment, and
several individuals committed for re-examination on
felonious charges. The misdemeanants and assaults
were confined together, and the yard in which they
I were opened into that where the vagrants were de-
I mined, In that yard were two children, one of 11
and the other 12 years of age, who were laced there
out of compassion, to keep them out oldie felons'
' yard. The debtors too were confined with the mis-
demeanants and assaults. On the female side, felons,
fines, women for disorderly conduct, and those for
reexamination, are all intermingled with each other;
all live in the same day-room, and sleep in the same
apartment ; the yard communicates with that which
is appropriated to the use of the debtors ; and as the'
door can be opened at the pleasure of any one, the
two classes of prisoners may be considered as asso-
ciated with each other ; these yards are very spacious
and roomy.
Sleeping-rooms.—On the male felons side there are
two small wards, each containing about 16 feet of I
barrack bedstead, in each of these 14 persons have
slept ; the bed-rooms on the male side are all con-
fined as to space when the prison is full, or has even I
its ordinary average of inhabitants. On the female
side, the lodging-rooms are more spacious, and both
the debtors and the other prisoners are less incom-
moded from want of room than those on the male
side of the prison; besides these apartments, and the
cells for the apprentices, there is a room containing
four beds for the felons; for the use of which they
pay a shilling a night, if they sleep singly, but if
two in a bed, 6d. each ; this indulgence depends al-
together upon the person seeking is having it in his
power to pay the sum demanded: these payments are
carried to the County account, and i the last quar-
ter they amounted to £26. The be.'.: consi-t of a
mattress, blankets, sheets, and a bolster ; ail the
other prisoners are provided with blankets, in the
proportion of five tlankets to seven men ; and straw
is furnished in the winter.
Feed.--One pound of the best wheaten bread is