Wood County reporter. [volume] (Grand Rapids [i.e. Wisconsin Rapids], Wis.) 1857-1923, 1886-07-01
THE ENGLISH PRISON.
A System that Has Been Greatly Improved
During The Present Century.
London Spectator.


It is an old saying, though probably not
older than the era of Howard, and as &C
curatelv true one, that the worst use you
can put man to is to hang him. It is
becoming more and more evident that
the worst way to crush crime is to crush
the criminal. Yet exactly hundred years
ago 242 persons were sentenced to death
and 103 were actually executed in single
year, out of population of 8,500,O0O and
two centuries before that 800 persons were
hanged in single year out of a popula
ton of less than 100000. Since the
abolition of capital punishment except
for the crime of murder, which was one
of the effects of the reform bill of 1882,
the number of executions has averaged
twelve year, and has once fallen as low
as four. Yet we do not hear that crimes
against person or property have increased.
But in old days capital punishment was
inflicted only by execution in due course
of law. In those days the phrase ''rotting
IN JAIL was no empty form of words, but
was merely terrible expression of terri
BILE truth. Every town which has bought
up its right of Iordship has its own jail,
and every jail was a hot-bed of disease
and crime. The state of things tolerated
by the great lords IS illustrated by the
duke of POrtland's prison, reported on by
Howard. 1t was farmed out to the laller
for Is guineas year; it consisted of one
room, with a cellar under it, which at the
time of Howard's visit had not been
cleaned for months, nor had the door been
omen for weeks. The bishop of Ely kept
prison in which the prisoners were
chained down on their backs to the floor,
across which were several iron bars, with
l. k,,rT-
necks, and a heavy iron bar on their legs.
The prisoners were more than half starved,
half clothed, unshod, unwashed, and they
lived perforce in poisonous air and
drank poisonous water.
The system of transportation, with all
its horrors, was some sort of an attempt
to lessen the pressure of the two systems,
if systems they could be called, of indis-
eliminate capital punishment. Trans
pOrtatiOn an alternative to capital
punishment, introduced in Charles IFS
time, and extended to nOn-capital crimes
in 1918 by way of relieving prisons at
home and giving cheap labor to the col
onies. 1T was" says Sir Edmond, "a
kind of slave trade, and offenders were
put up to auction and sold for the period
of their sentences by the person who had
contracted to transport them. The con-
tractor released them on payment of a
sum of money, and it was said that some
contractors who shipped their cOnvicts
at Bristol landed some of them on Luddy
island, few miles down the channel"
The transport ships reproduced all the
horrors OF the middle passage" of the
slave trade. Literal rOtting of the feet
was common, and extracts are given
from some Bristol convict contractor to
a iailor. saying: 'SOre feet prove very
fatal. The mortality we met with in our
last ship, if repeated in this, will so sur
felt Us that we shall nevea take another"
The American War of Independence pnt
an end to transportation to America. The
"hulk'' system" was invented as tenn
porary expedient till the penitentiary
system could be adopted. This temper
airy expedient' lasted till 1857. This was
even worse than the prison system. The
mortality of prisoners was at diffenent
times 30 and % per cent per annum.
Hulk fever took the place of ''iail few
En-" The mortality in the modern peni-
tertiary systems of prisons is Ii per
1000.
With the discovery of Australia the
transportation system was renewed. The
Botany bay settlement was founded in
1877, and from first to last 1874 ,3OS persons
were transported to Australia. The state
of things which existed then is fairly
shown by two quotations. In 1884 the
number of cOnvicts in Van Dieman's land
was about $4,000, the summary convictions
amounted to about $4,000, and the num-
Der of Iashes inflicted was about $4,000
From the formation of the establishment
at Macquarie harbOr, Jan. 3, 1922, to May
IS, 1927. there were 116 attempts at es-
cape. OF these rs were supposed to have
persisted in the woods, s are known to
have been murdered, and eaten by their
companions; "a escaped to the settled
districts. II of whom have been hanged
for bush ranging and for murder: in all.
1Ol of the 116, came to "a untimely end.
After 1647, transportation ceased to any
other colony than western Australia, and
was then conducted more on the peniten
tiary system. and in 1868 it ceased alto
gether, and the present penal servitude
convict system was established in its
place. The system is absolutely uniform
so far as rRles can make it so. During
the first nine months the prisoner passes
his whole time-exceptiOn the period al
lated to prayers and exercises-in his
cell, apart from all other prisoners. work
ing at some employment of an industrial
or remuneratIve character. During the
second stage he sleeps and has his meals
IN separative cell, but works in associa
ton, under a close and strict supervision,
at employment suited to him. The third
period is that of the ticket of leave. The
second stage is divided into three classes,
and on promotion from one class to an
other the prisoner gains certain privileges
such as more frequent communication
with friends, more freedom for exercise
on Sundays, and earning more money to
be paid on discharge. CORES ponding
punishments are inflicted, but corporal
punishment only by the directors of pri-
sons, and after full trial with evidence
taken on Gather. 1t is significant of the
improvement which is taking place in the
convict prisons that, while in 1871, of 49,
800 prisoners, nearly half received pun
ishments, in 1884-5, out of prisoners num-
j bering nearly one hundred more, under
five thousand were punished. 1t is
satisfactory, also, to know that the average
number of prisoners under sentence of
penal servitude is gradually decreasing.