, 1888-04-04
CUSTOMS IN ENGLISH PRISONS.
The Difference Between tho Treatment of
tho Convict There and in America.

Inc blHCiclEs tbttweeh Ile treatment Oh
the Convict There and In America.
An interesting and instructive descrip-
ton of the English prisons, as they arc
today, has been given by Mr.. c. K. Fay,
an American. who has recently visited
them, and has beer officially connected
with our own prison system.
According to this authority, not only
do better methods prevail in English
prisons Than formerly, but crime in Eng
land has been gradually decreasing in re-
cent years. English prisons are divided
into two kinds-''convict prisons and
''local prisons" Convict prisons are
used for combining persons who have been
sentenced to a term of five years or
more; local prisons for those whose SEN
tenCe is shorter. OF convict prisons there
are now ten in Great Britain, and of local
prisons fifty-five.
In all these places there are two feat
ures which do not exist in the American
prisons. These are the treadmill and the
hogging of prisoners.
The trcadmill is a curious surviving
relic of old fashioned English methods of
prison discipline. ''The large wheels of
the headmill, " says our authority, 'are
surrounded by wooden steps running the
length of the wheel. The men are sep
arated from each other by partitions. and
each one catches hold of a horizontal bar
and continues n slow read from one step
to another: all, of course, stepping to-
gether, and. as it We're, kicking away the
steps from under their feet" BY this
process wheat is made into flour, which
in due time is baked into the bread which
is used in the prisons.
Flogging is resorted to in the English
prisons when it forms part of the SEN
tence of the judge, or when it is applied
to a prisoner who has proved obstinate.
OF who has flagrantly ~disobeyed the
prison rules. The crimes for which men
are usually sentenced to be fogged, as
well as confined, are assaults upon an
officer while in discharge of his duty,
and robbery with personal violence (com-
mitted by garroters or h~ighwaymen)-
Such criminals receive from twenty to
fifty lashes, half at the beginning and
half at the end of the term of imprison-
ment.
A careful account is kept of the pris-
oner's conduct and industry throughout
his term. For the first nine months of
his imprisonment he is kept in solitary
confinement, working by himself, and
not allowed to speak to any one. After
that he works with his fellow prisoners,
and under certain restrictions is per
mitted to talk and associate with them.
If the prisoner gets 224 good marks
for "A month for two years he is placed in
what is called the third grade; and if his
record is equally good for the next two
years he reaches the second and then the
first grade. He then becomes entitled to
a shortening of his term and is set free
on what is called n ''ticket of leave" by
which is meant that, while he is at large,
he is under the eye of the police and
must behave himself, and report himself
regularly at stated times until the ex-
piration of his ticket of leave.
THE cells in the English prisons, -"
says Mr.. Fay, 'are constructed on quite
different principles from ours. They are
much larger, are rooted with n brick
arch and are well lighted and ventilated.
The light comes from n window seven or
eight feet from the floor, which is three
feet wide by thirteen inches high. The
doors are solid and about two inches
thick, instead of being grated like ours,
so that II who walks along the corridor
outside n only view the interior of the
cell by moving a slide and looking
through n small peep hole"
The English prisons are far more
strictly guarded from the intrusion of
the public than our own. 1t is hard for
any one. who has not some special bust
ness in them, to gain admittance. So
stringent, indeed, is the rule that even
the governor of the male department of
a prison is not allowed to put a foot in
the female department of his own insti-
tuition. Over all the British prisons a
single official is placed, called the
surveyor general. Not being governed,
as our prisons are, by a multitude of com
missioners and other officials, greater
unity and consistency is preserved in the
management of criminals. Youths
Companion.