Page:EB1911 - Volume 22.djvu/382

Rh are classed in three categories, viz. (A) the Ordinary division; (B) the Habitual Offenders' division; and (C) the Long Sentence division.

The “A” or Ordinary division comprises all ordinary convicts under old rules who are still separated into the three classes of “star,” intermediate and recidivist, as provided by the act of 1898. The qualifications for each class are clearly laid down. Only those never previously convicted, or known as of not habitually criminal or corrupt habits, are eligible for the “star” class. 'The intermediate class takes those not previously convicted but deemed unsuitable as “stars” from antecedents and generally unsatisfactory character. The recidivist class is for those previously sentenced to penal servitude or whose record shows them to have been guilty of grave and persistent crime.

These three classes begin with cellular confinement, but for varying-periods; the first for three months, the second six months and the third for nine months, in all cases subject to a medical. report upon mental and physical condition. Female convicts pass the first three months of their sentence in separate cells.

The “B” division indicates the worst penalties to be inflicted upon habitual criminals. There is no recognition whatever of the principle of the indeterminate sentence. The law merely prescribes the forfeiture of all remission. The convict is not eligible for release or licence, but when the time of conditional liberation would have formerly arrived the case is submitted to the authorities and dealt with on its merits. Early release depends upon the reports on industry and conduct, and the prospect of his keeping straight if set free. He may have to “do” his whole time but not an hour beyond it.

Certain privileges are conceded to the “B” division to compensate those in it for the loss of remission. They wear a special dress, a band of blue cloth on the left arm; they may earn an extra gratuity and spend a part of it in buying extra food or articles of comfort and relaxation; they may take their meals in association, converse at them or at exercise, but not at labour. .

The “C” division has been designed for convicts serving long sentences, who have gained all possible privileges in the early years of sentence and have little or nothing to expect further until the last year of their sentence, when they may earn an additional gratuity. But after ten years they may enter the “C” division, earn a special gratuity therein, and enjoy the various privileges accorded to the “B” or habitual criminals division with the additional advantage that there is no interference with their remission.

Still milder and more humanitarian prison treatment was that put forward by the home secretary in 1910 in his speech already referred to. In it he suggested that the following reforms should be carried out, some by administrative order and some by future legislation: (1) time for the payment of fines inflicted for minor offences; (2) disciplinary treatment outside prison for all offenders under 21 years of age; (3) punishment of those guilty of offences not involving moral turpitude to be relieved of all degrading features; (4) the reduction of the period of solitary confinement to a maximum of one month; (5) and the abolition of the ticket-of-leave system. It was also proposed to give four lectures or concerts a year in convict prisons.

Prisons in other Countries.—The general progress made in prison treatment will be best realized by a brief survey of penal institutions in the principal countries of the world. It will be convenient to take them alphabetically.

1. Austria-Hungary.—The régime of cellular confinement has not been universally adopted; only six prisons are built on that principle and no more than 15% of the whole number of prisoners can be subjected to the system. Cellular separation is not inflicted for long periods, the minimum being six months and the maximum three years. The bulk of the prisoners live and labour in common. A great feature has been the execution of public works by prisoners in a state of semi-liberty beyond prison walls—the practical adoption of the so-called “Irish” or, intermediate prison—and good results are seen in road-making and the improvement of river courses.

2. Belgium.—This country has spared neither pains nor money in carrying out penal processes, and the Belgian prisons are examples of the cellular system prolonged to the utmost limits of human endurance. There is a minimum of ten years, but the individual may elect to continue in separation, or be transferred to partial association. A new school of Belgian criminologists has been headed by M. Prins, the chief of the prison department, who has protested that to hope the vicious, hardened offender, after a long detention, “surrounded with every attention, soaked with good counsel, will leave his cell regenerated,” is a Utopian dream.

3. British Dominions beyond the Sea.—The principle of cellular separation was accepted as far back as 1836 and the model prison of Pentonville, o ened in 1842, has since been copied throughout the civilized world? The cellular system has been adopted in all British colonies with various modifications, and prisons built on modern principles are to be found in Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Cape of Good Hope. India retains association as the system most suitable for its criminal classes, with other methods generally abandoned in Great Britain, such as the employment of well-conducted prisoners as auxiliaries in prison discipline and service; deportation is still the penalty for the worst offences and is carried out on a large scale and with satisfactory results in the Andaman Islands. In Egypt since the establishment of British control a very marked change has been introduced in prison affairs.

4. Denmark.—In Denmark all convicted prisoners pass through several stages, from cellular treatment to the intermediate prison and conditional liberty. Two new prisons on the latest model have been erected at Co enhagen, one for males and the other for females. The smaller gaols for short terms are mostly on the cellular plan.

5. France.—France has devoted very considerable attention to prison matters and is now practising the two extremes of treatment, the strict cellular isolation of the Belgian system and the penal exile or transportation which was long the English rule.

6. Germany.—The unified German Empire has not as yet adopted one system of prison treatment, and its various component kingdoms still retain independence in views and practice.

Baden has a well-known cellular prison at Bruchsal, but separation is not imposed for more than four years and associated labour is carried out in another quarter of the prison.

Bavaria has four cellular prisons, the chief being at Munich and Nuremberg, but the collective system also obtains.

Prussia having declared for the cellular system constructed the well-known Moabit prison in Berlin, also those of Ratibor in Silesia. and of Herford in Westphalia, while those of Graudenz, Breslau, Werden and Cologne have been added since. The total number of separate cells to-day is 11,04I against 3247 in 1869. Two new cellular prisons, Luttringhausen and Saarbruck, have recently been added. Frankfurt has a good prison on the Pentonville (London) plan; so has Hamburg; and new buildings have been erected at Wohlan, Siegburg, Breslau and Munster. Separate cells in Prussia had increased in 1896 from 3247 to 6573. The cellular régime is applicable to prisoners between 18 and 30, and to first offenders of 50 years of age, the term being fixed by the governor of the gaol, but never exceeding three years.

Saxony established a penitentiary at Zwickau in 1850 and in its earlier management exhibited exaggerated kindness to its inmates. Both the cellular and the associated systems obtain.

Württemberg has accepted the cellular system. There are prisons for females at Heilbronn, and for males at Ludwigsburg and Stuttgart; in Württemberg itself the régime is collective.

7. Holland has followed her nearest neighbour Belgium and has now at command separate cells sufficient to receive the whole number of her prison population. The system of unbroken seclusion, prolonged to five years, is maintained with strictness.

8. Italy.—Although accepting the principle of cellular imprisonment, Italy has not adopted it largely, partly from want of funds and not a little because the current of thought has set against it. The really penal establishments are 77 in number, the great ergastolo of San Stefano being one. Agricultural labour for convicts has been tried in colonies of coatti (or those provisionally released) planted out in the islands of the Italian archipelago.

9. Norway.—The separation of Norway, as an independent state, from Sweden has produced no great change in its prison institutions, which still follow the lines of the neighbouring country.

10. Portugal.—There are three or more cellular prisons at Lisbon, Coimbra and Santarem, and the system of strict separation when first adopted in 1884 was expected both to amend and deter.

11. Sweden.—Prince Oscar of Sweden was one of the earliest adherents of cellular imprisonment, and at his urgent representation penitentiary reform was warmly espoused in 1841. His influence is still felt, and the systemin force in Norway and Sweden is progressive from strict separation to working outside the cell. Sweden, which adopted the cellular system in 1842, has now cells sufficient for prisoners sentenced to two years and less. There are three principal central prisons, one at Langholm near Stockholm, a second at Malmo and a third at Mya Varfet near Gothenburg.

12. United States.—The penal system of the United States varies between being the most advanced and the most backward in the civilized world. At one end of the scale are the numerous bad