Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/784

Rh 760 PRISON DISCIPLINE larger many and various industries are carried on. Among the more ordinary trades the manufacture of &quot;articles de Paris,&quot; toys, neat bonbon boxes, hosiery, and cabinet-making produce good finan cial returns. The labour of the prisoners in Corsican settlements has been usefully directed upon the reclamation of marshy lands, the clearing of forests, and the tilling of the less fertile districts. The agricultural results have been good as regards the cultivation of the orange, olive, and vine ; mulberry trees nave been planted for the silk-worm, and the wheat fields have returned rich harvests of grain, much esteemed in Italy and the south of France. Good roads and many canals have been made, to open up the interior. These Corsican prisons have long suffered from the unhealthiness of their neighbourhood, but the draining of the marshes, the develop ment of Irrigation, and the plantation of trees have all combined to improve their sanitary conditions. The efforts made in France, more particularly by private bene volence, to cope with juvenile delinquency have been very praise- worth}. French reformatories are of two classes those that are punitive or correctional, and those that are simply reformatory. To the first, where the discipline is severe, are sent all youths con victed of offences committed with full knowledge of their crimi nality, and these relegated from the reformatories as insubordinate ; to the second, children proved guilty but not responsible for their acts, or the ill-conducted whose parents cannot manage them. The first-named are public institutions maintained by the state ; the latter are private, and may be supported entirely by subscriptions. There are in all thirty-eight of the former, as well as five penal colonies, and five juvenile quarters attached to various departmental prisons ; of the latter there arc twenty-eight. All these are for males. For females there are twenty-three private establishments and one public. The most important of the public reformatories for boys is that of La Petite Roquette in Paris, immediately opposite the convict prison of the same name, in front of which executions are carried out. Of the private institutions that of Mettray near Tours, started by the benevolent enterprise of M. de Metz, has a world-wide reputation. A very successful female re formatory is that of Darnetal near Rouen, where the women are employed in farming and field operations. As regards the most heinous offenders, France not only clings to deportation, but is disposed to enlarge and multiply her penal settlements. In 1884 the Government had under consideration the necessity for sending out all &quot;recidivists&quot; to the Polynesian islands. This, however, has been hindered for the moment by the energetic protest of the Australian colonies, and, instead of the number sent to New Caledonia being increased, French Guiana will probably be more largely utilized. In the former islands most of the evils which attended the early days of transportation to Australia have been apparent. The French convicts either remain in the hands of the Government incarcerated in badly constructed prisons, where discipline and supervision are unsatis factory or incomplete, or they pass into a state of semi-freedom to work for free settlers on their own account. There are not enough of the latter to afford much employment, and the conditions of the soil of New Caledonia are not such as to encourage the convicts to work for themselves. It is extremely improbable that the penal settlement will ever grow into a prosperous self- supporting colony, and thus the chief end of deportation remains unachieved. At present the French penal settlements beyond sea are merely badly-built indifferently-managed prisons at a long dis tance from home. Germany. There is a similarity in the prison discipline of the various units of the German empire. In the grand-duchy of Baden there are four kinds of prisons district prisons, fortresses, houses of correction, and central prisons. The punishment in the two first named is simply detention or privation of liberty, the district prisons being for persons under examination and waiting trial, or those sentenced to less than six weeks imprisonment. Sentences above that time are endured in the central prisons. The principle of cellular imprisonment is the general rule, but it is not extended, unless at a prisoner s wish, beyond three years. For youths between twelve and eighteen the limit is six months. Prisoners unfit for solitary confinement and those who have en dured three years detention are kept together, but they are not associated during working hours. Both systems are supposed to be attended with good results in Padcn. Both have their merits, but popular feeling inclines most to the cellular plan as conducing to reform while it keeps the prisoners from mutual contamination. The chief cellular prison is at Bruchsal, where there is accommoda tion for five hundred, but there are a certain number of separate cells attached to many other prisons. The labour in the prisons is industrial as opposed to penal ; contractors are not encouraged ; and in most prisons the administration itself keeps the employment of the prison in its own hands. Forty per cent, of the prisoners on admission are ignorant of any trade, but they do not leave prison without learning one. Prisoners aid societies exist in twenty-nine out of fifty-nine districts, and they achieve good results, although their aid is not too frequently invoked. The bulk of the prisons in Bai-aria, mostly converted castles and convents, are on the collective system, but there are four cellular prisons one at Nuremberg, and three other district prisons for those awaiting trial. The prisons are much the same as in Baden. There are police prisons for first arrests ; district prisons mentioned above, which also take short sentences ; prisons for three months sentences and upwards, and for juveniles ; and houses of correction. There are also special prisons set apart for persons convicted of theft, fraud, robbery, receiving, whose sentences exceed three months ; and a system of classification exists which separates all likely by their previous character to exercise a baneful influence on their fellows. For the long-term prisoners the labour may be upon public works beyond the walls of the jail, and prisoners may de mand to be so employed, or in work for which they are fit. Industry and good conduct will secure a remission of sentence. After three months of the sentence have been served there is no purely penal labour. Industrial labour is conducted by the prison authorities, who are not in favour of the employment of contractors, which is thought to jeopardize discipline. Secular education is not over looked ; there are hospitals, chapels, libraries, and the administra tion generally is humane. There are numerous societies to assist discharged prisoners, which, however, are said to be much hampered in action by the ignorance and prejudice of the public. One at Munich has nevertheless done great good. There are but few prisons in Prussia in which isolation is exclu sively carried out. But in forty-six cellular and associated im prisonment exist side by side ; the total number of cells is, however, small when compared with the total population in prison. The advantage of introducing the system of &quot;progressive stages,&quot; of passing from strict separation to labour in association, is anxiously discussed, but nothing yet has been done. Prussian prisons may be classed as (1) those exclusively for hard labour, (2) those for im prisonment and simple detention, and (3) those of a mixed character. Hard-labour sentences may be for any term from one year to life ; the labour is compulsory, without restriction, both inside and be yond the walls. The maximum of simple imprisonment or deten tion is for five years, during which time a prisoner is not compelled to work except in accordance with his capacity and the position he occupied in social life ; nor need he work outside the prison against his will. Imprisonment in a fortress, which may be for life and the minimum of which is for one day, means simple deprivation of liberty. There is also a detention on summary conviction for vag rants and beggars limited to six weeks. These may be made to work inside or outside the prison. There is no penal labour ; but much variety and enterprise exist as regards the prison industrial employ ments, which, in addition to the ordinary kinds, include feather- scraping, leather-dressing, turning, carving, illuminating, &c. The males also farm ; the women make gloves, cigars, and tapestry, embroider, knit, weave, and spin. The work is carried on through contractors, who pay a certain sum on the amount produced. A portion of their earnings goes to the prisoners, half of it to be expended in buying extra food, half accumulated against release. To reduce evils of association it is ordered that first sentences shall be separated from hardened offenders, but this classification is not always possible ; juvenile prisoners are, however, kept apart in cells. Release, provisionally, may take place after three-fourths of the sentence has been endured with good conduct, but the licence to be abroad may be revoked for a breach of law. There are many prisoners aid societies, the best being in Rhenish Prussia and Westphalia, but the results obtained have not been very satis factory. Employers and free workmen will not receive liberated prisoners freely, and the aid societies would effect more if they were more centralized and worked more together. Prussian prisons are on the whole well organized ; the discipline is severe yet just ; order reigns everywhere ; secular instruction and religious minis trations are ample, and the employment of prisoners according to their capacities is carefully attended to. But ninny of the prisons require rebuilding or reconstruction ; isolation at night should be the universal rule ; and more cells are needed to ensure the separa tion of the trial prisoners and short sentences. Administrative centralization is much needed in Prussia. Prison discipline has attracted close attention in the kingdom of Saxony since 1850, when the penitentiary at Zwickau was first opened and conducted with satisfactory results. In 1854 it was decreed that all Saxon prisons should follow the same system, which is that of treatment either solitary or associated according to individual wants ; neither rule obtains exclusively, and the prisons have facilities for both. Work, education, and diet are supposed to be carefully allotted to prisoners. The prisons follow the usual classification of German prisons ; there are those for severe punishment, two in number, three for less severe punish ment, and two for the older offenders. Besides these there are the fortresses and the prisons of detention. The labour is purely industrial, not penal ; Saxony is a very industrial country, and its prisons produce nearly every article of manufacture. Work is carried out in them partly by contractors and partly by the authorities. In the five reformatories agriculture is the principal