NOTES ON PRISONS,

&c.

DONCASTER JAIL. '

THIS jail consists of a small court-yard, two rooms on the ground floor, and two others above them; the rooms severally furnished with a small bed, and measuring thirteen feet square. Of the lower rooms, one is for male criminals of all descriptions, the other for male vagrants: of the upper rooms, one for females, whether debtors, vagrants, or criminals; the other for male debtors.

Fifteen persons have at times been locked up together for the night in the apartment allotted to male criminals, that apartment measuring, as before stated, thirteen feet square. The state of these poor wretches, when thus situated, must have been in a very high degree miserable and unhealthy. In the male vagrants' room there is no light when the door is shut, except through a hole in the door, and of course no ventilation. The criminals in this jail are ironed; they are allowed eightpence per day and firing, but neither clothing nor soap. They are totally unemployed, and receive no instruction whatever. Forty persons have been confined in this jail at once; but at this time there were only five prisoners here. The doors of the four rooms being necessarily kept open during the day, the prisoners of all descriptions, debtors and criminals, male and female, associate freely together. Who can wonder that crimes increase? Who does not perceive the tendency of such an association to convert into felons, the vagrant, misdemeanant, the debtor? One of the vagrants at this time in the prison was a Scotch woman, who having lost her husband, and

' Visited eighth month 20th, 1818, in company with several members of the Society of Friends, and two magistrates of the town.

having herself just recovered from a serious illness, was travelling homewards in company with her little child. She complained bitterly of her situation. "What could I do?" she said "I dared not steal; I liked not to beg: destitute and afflicted, what could I do, but apply to the magistrates for a pass? The consequence is, that I am shut up for a week in prison, and exposed, perhaps, to the worst and most vicious of men." The case speaks for itself.

We were much gratified by observing that the intelligent magistrates of Doncaster are anxious to correct these lamentable abuses. We were informed of their intention to erect a new prison. May they be encouraged to do this justice to themselves and to the public!

I

By 17 Geo. II. cap. 5, it is enacted, that rogues, vagabonds, and beggars, who are found in any parish to which they do not legally belong, should be apprehended, and committed to the house of correction for any term not exceeding a month, and should afterwards receive a pass from a magistrate. This pass obliges the constable to convey them to the next parish, and entitles the travellers to support from the officers of the parishes, which lie on the direct way in succession, until they arrive at their homes. By 32 Geo. III. ch. 45, it is further enacted, that such passes shall not be given, until the parties for whom they are required have been either privately whipped, or imprisoned in the house of correction for not less than seven days.

It often happens that innocent but distressed persons, journeying homeward, are under the necessity of applying for passes. These they cannot receive, except on the ground of being considered rogues and vagabonds, nor until they have suffered a punishment always disgraceful, and sometimes, in consequence of the bad state of our prisons, not a little terrible. This is a manifest injustice, and ought to be remedied. There is, however, a still greater abuse, which prevails in connection with these Acts of Parliament.

When poor persons, residing in a parish to which they do not belong, become chargeable to that parish, they are to be conveyed by the officers of the parish, under 13 and 14 Car. II. ch. 12, or an order signed by two justices of the peace, to the place of their legal settlement. In order to avoid the expense of this removal-an expense which in most cases devolves on the removing parish-it is a very common practice to entice such distressed persons into an act of public begging; and after punishing them as rogues and vagabonds, to send them home to their parishes on a common vagrant's pass.

This flagrant but prevalent abuse demands the early attention of the British legislature; for it is not only totally at variance from the principles of common justice, but it strikes at the root of those moral and independent feelings in the minds of the lower orders of the people, which are the best security to society at large. Vid. Nolan on the Poor Laws.

YORK CASTLE, THE COUNTY JAIL. !

On your entry into this handsome and extensive building, you are introduced to a very spacious court-yard, in which the debtors walk and expose various articles for sale, and into which the public are admitted with little or no reserve. On the right hand as you enter, are the court-houses; on the left the several buildings in which are imprisoned the misdemeanants and others confined for a limited term, part of the debtors, and the women; in front, the governor's house, apartments over it for most of the debtors, and the prison for male felons, both before and after conviction-the tried being kept apart from the untried. There is no inspection from the governor's house over any part of the castle, except the great court and one of the felons' yards.

The chaplain attends this prison three times in the week to read prayers, and preaches twice. The prisoners are allowed one pound and a half of wheaten bread daily, and one shilling per week; but there is one particular class of them who have one shilling and sixpence per week. From the squalid appearance of some of the men, it seemed to us questionable whether the allowance of food was sufficient to maintain them in health: the apothecary of the prison, whom we saw, expressed an opinion that it was not. Firing is now allowed to the prisoners, and soap; but no clothing, except in cases of emergency. Several of them were extremely ill clad; two men without shirts. The felons, whether tried or untried, are heavily ironed.

That part of the prison in which the women are confined, is kept in a state of cleanliness and order. The women,-of whom one was for trial, and the others convicts, about seven in number,appeared very decent; and some of them were busily employed in washing for the debtors. Their day-room does not admit sufficient light, but is otherwise comfortable; so are their sleepingcells, and the bedding quite sufficient. The rest of the prison, except the debtors' rooms, which we did not see, but more especially the felons' day-room, appeared to us very far from cleanly. Every yard, however, is supplied with water; the means of warm and cold bathing are provided in the felons' prison; and we were informed that the whole jail is white-washed twice in the year. The men who are sentenced to a temporary confinement are kept apart from the other prisoners, and are employed in making laces, caps, garters, &c. which are sold in the great court. By this means they earn from threepence to sixpence per day, the whole of which

Visited eighth month 22d, in company with Benjamin Hornor of the Grange, near York.

they are allowed to take for themselves. The male felons, whether tried or untried, are totally without employment. There were at this time about forty of them in the prison. Of these, the greater number were walking up and down a small yard, separated from the great court by a double iron palisade, or grating, the outer being divided from the inner grate by a space measuring ten feet in breadth. Through this grating they keep up a free and easy communication not only with the debtors but with the public. At this very time a great number of persons were standing at the outside, holding conversation with the prisoners. Men and women, grownup persons and children, have an equal access to this scene of depravity and distress. It is evident, that so free a communication must give every facility to the introduction of improper articles into the prison, and probably to the pawning of the prisoners' clothes, which we understood to be a prevalent custom here: it must also afford an easy opportunity of corruption to the inhabitants of York and its neighbourhood. The day-room for these felons, opens into the yard in which they walk, and measures twenty-four feet by fifteen. The turnkey remembers the time when there were eighty felons confined in it. The night-cells connected with this part of the prison are ill ventilated; three or four of them are totally dark, and admit no external air. The prisoners generally sleep two in a bed. Those who are unable to read, receive for the most part no instruction whatever.

On

'This has not at all times been the case, as will be evinced by the following interesting statement received from William Richardson of York, a most respectable minister of the established church.

"York, November 24, 1818. “About three years ago some boys from Sheffield were tried and condemned at York, for robbing a watchmaker's or silversmith's shop, and left for transportation. One of the magistrates, who was of the grand jury, struck with compassion for the youth and the miserable appearance of these poor culprits, spoke to them after their conviction, and, on his return to his own seat in the country, wrote to the governor of York castle, expressing a wish that some useful instruction might be afforded them while they remained there, promising to be at the expense of it, and desiring him to consult with me on the subject, It occurred to me that the best thing to be done was to establish a school in which the boys might be regularly taught. The governor was kind enough to furnish a proper room; a decent young man (a prisoner for debt) who had been master of a cheap school in the north of Yorkshire, was hired to teach this little school; and I undertook that my curate or myself would inspect it. The project succeeded beyond our expectations. The master soon grew fond of his pupils, on account of their rapid improvement in reading, writing, &c. The boys were diligent and attentive to instruction, happy, and orderly; their behaviour at the chapel, and their whole conduct at other times, gave us

the whole, although this prison has some excellencies and great capacities, its evils are very conspicuous. They are as follow:Easy access of the debtors and of the public to the felons; insufficient clothing, and scarcely sufficient food; heavy irons; want of cleanliness, want of further classification, want of inspection, want of instruction, want of employment. It is most earnestly to be desired, that suitable accommodations may ere long be provided, to supply the last and most important of these defects. Were the prisoners employed, they would not be occupied, as has hitherto been the case, by various devices for effecting their escape. Their chains might be knocked off with safety. They would not cut even their iron bedsteads to pieces, as they have done in their present state. They would have no time to corrupt either one another or the public. They would leave the prison with the habits of industry and comparative virtue, instead of being confirmed in idleness and deepened in crime. All the evils of York castle are, with some expense and trouble, capable of being remedied;-and shall they not be remedied by the inhabitants of so extensive and so opulent a county as Yorkshire ?-Our visit to this castle was re

pleasure. This continued till the time of their departure from the castle, when they were visited by their benevolent patron, who had wished to see and examine them before they left the country. He was highly satisfied with the result of his experiment; and furnished them with useful religious books and tracts to take with them. He also made each of them a present of a guinea, saying at the same time, I give you this to dispose of just as you please; but I cannot help observing that the man whom you robbed is now in the castle, a prisoner for debt; and if I were in your case, I should think it right to make him some compensation for the wrong I had done him. But you are quite at liberty to do what you like.' He then left them and returned home. When he was gone, and the boys were left to themselves, they unanimously agreed to send all that their benefactor had given them (I think to the amount of five or six guineas) to the man they had robbed, desiring only that he would return them each a shilling for pocket money. The poor man, surprised and affected by this unexpected act of restitution, did more than they requested.-Care was taken to keep them separate from the other convicts during their journey to the ship, and a charge given to the master of the transport to watch over them during their voyage. I also gave them a letter to Mr. Marsden, the senior chaplain of New South Wales, recommending them to his pastoral care. successful experiment has excited in my mind a strong wish that schools could be formed in all our larger prisons, where juvenile offenders are so often to be found. This measure, together with occupation for all, and a proper classification, seem to me, after forty years' acquaintance with the inmates of a prison, to be the most promising means of producing reformation.-William Richardson, preacher at York castle."

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