Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/780

Rh 756 PKISON DISCIPLINE hardened from the old offenders in the manner already pointed out. There is no reason to suppose that any great evils result from this association, and without it the execution of the many important national public works which now attest its value would have been impossible. Among these may be mentioned the following : the quarrying of stone for the great Portland breakwater, which is nearly 2 miles in length, and between 50 and 60 feet deep in the sea, with the defensive works on the Verne, batteries, casemates, and barracks intended to render the island of Portland impregnable, and the enlarge ment and extension of the dockyards at Chatham and Portsmouth; at the former three grand basins 20, 21, and 28 acres respectively in extent have been completed on the marshy lands and reaches of the Medway, and at the latter extensive operations of the same kind have long been in progress. At Borstal a line of forts intended to protect Chatham on the southern and western side are being erected by convicts ; they are also building maga zines at Chattenden on the left bank of the Medway ; they will soon be at work at Dover on the vast improve ments for the enlargement of the harbour and port. Be sides this, convict labour has been usefully employed in the erection of prison buildings at new points or in exten sion cf those at the old; at Borstal cells for five hundred, and at Wormwood Scrubs for ten hundred and fifty-two have been built, with chapel, quarters, hospitals, and so forth ; large additions have been made to the prisons of Woking, Pentonville, Chatham, Portsmouth, Dartmoor, Parkhurst, and Brixton. In all cases the bricks have been made, the stone quarried and dressed, the timber sawn, the iron cast, forged, and wrought by the prisoners ; only one article was bought ready made, and that was the locks. The great merit of this system is the skill acquired in handicrafts by so many otherwise idle and useless hands. Convict mechanics are rarely found ready made. A return dated July 1882 shows that 82 per cent, of the total number employed at trades had learnt them in prison. These results are no doubt greatly aided by the judicious stimulus given to the highest effort by the mark system. The chief objection to enforced labour has been the difficulty in ensuring this ; but the convict nowadays eagerly tries his best, because only thus can he win privi leges while in prison and an earlier release from it. Every day s work is gauged, and marks recorded according to its value ; upon the total earned depend his passage through the stages or classes which regulate his diet and general treatment, and more especially his interviews and com munications with his relations and friends. Yet more; steady willing labour continuously performed will earn a remission of a fourth of the sentence, less the time spent in separate confinement. It must be borne in mind that the marks thus earned may be forfeited at any time by misconduct, but only to this extent does conduct affect remission, and the latter is really directly dependent upon industry. The full remission in a five years sentence is one year and twenty-three days ; in seven years, one year two hundred and seventy-three days; in fourteen, three years one hundred and eighty-one days ; in twenty, four years eighty-six days. &quot; Lifers &quot; cannot claim any remis sion, but their cases are brought forward at the end of twenty years, and then considered on their merits. (3) Having earned his remission, the convict enters upon the third stage of his punishment. He is released, but only conditionally, on licence or ticket-of-leave. This permis sion to be at large may easily be forfeited. Stringent conditions are endorsed upon the licence, and well known to every licence holder. He has to produce the licence when called upon ; he must not break the law, nor asso ciate with notoriously bad characters, nor lead an idle dissolute life, without visible means of obtaining an honest livelihood. The observance of these rules is enforced by the police, to whom Acts known as the Prevention of Crimes Acts give large powers. The licence holder is ordered to report himself at intervals to the police, to whom also he must notify any change in his place of residence ; he must take care that he is not found in any suspicious locality under suspicious circumstances. A breach of the regulations may entail the forfeiture of the licence, with imprisonment and the obligation to return to a convict prison to serve out the unexpired term of penal servitude. Police supervision by special sentence of a court may be extended in the case of habitual criminals to longer periods than that of the original sentence. An elaborate machinery also exists for the registration of these habitual criminals, and voluminous official records are regularly published and circulated giving detailed in formation, distinctive marks, and previous history, to enable the police in all parts of the country to identify habitual criminals. A system so rigorous towards offenders who have already expiated their crimes may be deemed to bear heavily on any who have repented of their evil w T ays and are anxious to turn over a new leaf. To be ever sub jected to the intrusive watchfulness of the myrmidons of the law must often increase the licence holder s difficulty of leading an honest life. The struggle is often severe ; employers of labour are not too ready to accept the services of &quot;jail birds,&quot; and free workmen often resent the admission of an old convict amongst their number. Private charity has happily come forward to diminish or remove this hardship, and many societies have been called into existence for the special purpose of assisting dis charged prisoners. The first of these, now honoured with the title of &quot;Royal,&quot; was organized in 1856, and had assisted, up to 1879, some eleven thousand prisoners. This society labours chiefly in the metropolis ; it is sup ported by private subscriptions, but it has control also over the gratuities of the licensees who accept its aid. The prisoners on release are first examined at the society s office as to their prospects and wishes ; they are given some pocket money out of their own gratuities ; and their &quot; liberty clothing,&quot; a present from the prison, is changed for more suitable clothes. They are then placed in respectable lodging-houses until in due course employ ment is obtained for them, after which the society under takes the reporting to the police, and by its own agents exercises a watchful care over its proteges. There are now upwards of twenty societies established in various parts of the country, and the number is rapidly increasing. The foregoing system is applicable more particularly to adult males ; but for females the rules are much the same as regards imprisonment and penal servitude. But the remission a female convict can earn is greater, and amounts to a third of the sentence, less the separate con finement. Moreover, female convicts whose conduct and character warrant a hope of complete amendment are admitted into &quot; refuges &quot; nine months before the date of their conditional release on leave. There are two of these refuges, which are more like &quot; homes &quot; than prisons, the Westminster Memorial Refuge at Streatham for Protest ants, and the East End House, Finchley, for Roman Catholics. The training of these refuges is calculated to fit the licensee for more complete freedom, and many of the women who go from them into the world do well. The aid societies also help effectually in obtaining situations, often very good ones, for the released female convicts. Juvenile criminals are now subjected to special treat ment. Young offenders, although liable to be treated as adults by the court before which they are brought, are generally dealt with summarily under various powers,