Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 19.djvu/785

Rh PRISON DISCIPLINE 761 occupation. A graduated system of remission of sentences is in force, dependent on industry and conduct. In Wurtembcrg the cellular system was adopted for women in 1865, and a prison on that plan erected at Heilbronn, which has since been utilized exclusively for men. The bulk of the Wiirtem- berg prisons are, however, still on the collective system ; but at all prisons there are places for the isolated detention of a certain number of prisoners. The classification of prisons is much the same as in other parts of the German empire under the penal code of the empire. There is no distinction between penal and industrial labour ; the latter is of the varied character followed in other German prisons, and is partly in the hands of contractors, partly in that of the administration. An aid society has existed in Wiirtemberg since 1831, and it has numerous ramifications through the country. It does good service in obtaining work, providing tools, and assisting emigration. Italy. There is a want of uniformity in the prison system of the Italian kingdom, which is not strange, having regard to the recent unification of the country. The various units which were till recently independent of each other had each its own views. Many varieties of prison discipline, therefore, still remain in force. There are some prisons in which complete isolation is the rule, others where the labour is associated with cellular separa tion at night. But the largest number are on the collective system. All new prisons of detention are built on the principle of isolation, and this rule is as far as possible strictly observed for all prisoners awaiting trial. This period of detention may be spent in a provincial (carcere centralc), district (drcondarale), or communal (mandamentale) jail. Sentences are carried out accord ing to their character in different prisons. There are prisons for those condemned to simple confinement and detention ; others for &quot;relegates&quot;; others again for reclusion accompanied with hard labour ; and twenty are bagnios or hard-labour prisons for those sentenced for long periods (up to life), to undergo the punish ment of the ergastolo or galera. The discipline is progressive. In the ordinary prisons a gradual amelioration of condition may be secured by good conduct ; in the bagnios, besides the exemption from fetters, convicts may gain the privilege of completing the last half of their sentences in one or other of the agricultural colonies. These have been established in various islands of the Tuscan archipelago, as at Pianosa and Gorgona ; and an intermediate prison has been established on the island of Capraia for well-conducted prisoners in a last stage of semi-liberty. Associated convict labour has produced good results in Italy. By it all necessary prison buildings have been erected at the penal colonies and at various points on the mainland ; it has also been applied to agriculture, the reclamation of land, the construction of storehouses, docks, salt works, and on the improvement of various ports. In the prisons or penitentiaries the labour is industrial, and follows the usual lines. Contractors have generally the control of this labour, receiving the results after deductions for prisoners earnings to be spent in the usual way and with the obligation to teach trades. On the latter condition contractors are granted the exclusive right to the labour of juveniles in houses of correction ; and there are a number of reformatory schools, mostly on a charitable basis, into which are drafted all juveniles, vagrants, and idlers sentenced to compulsory detention. Mexico. In Mexico the rule of constant separation for all pris oners has been accepted, but not yet carried out entirely. The old prisons were on the associated system ; but new cellular prisons have recently been built, or are in process of construction at Jalisco, Durango, Puebla, and Mexico. These will receive trial prisoners and those sentenced. There is an &quot; hospicio de pobres&quot; for young children ; also a special reformatory establishment for children between nine and eighteen. Political offenders are kept apart from ordinary offenders. All convicted prisoners may earn conditional release on completion of half their whole sen tence. This form of release is called preparatory liberty, and for a short time preceding it they are allowed to leave the jails to run errands or seek work. The labour in Mexican prisons is indus trial, not penal, and in theory at least the advantages of learning a trade in prison are fully understood. Contracts for prison labour are forbidden. A portion of the proceeds goes to the prisoners, and may be spent in purchasing food or furniture or articles of comfort. There are &quot;protective boards &quot; who visit and seek to improve the prisoners, and independent philanthropists are also admitted. Prisoners on release go to the protective boards, who assist in obtaining them an honest livelihood. The Netherlands. Here the treatment a condemned prisoner undergoes depends mainly upon the sentence awarded. The judge at his discretion may direct the imprisonment to be on the solitary or the associated system. This power as regards the first is, however, limited to half the whole term of sentence, and in 1851 it could only be applied to sentences of one year ; this was extended in 1864 to two years, and in 1871 to four years, so that now the maxirmim of cellular imprisonment to be inflicted is actually limited to two years. There are several prisons on the cellular plan ; but in most the two kinds of imprisonment exist side by side. There are four classes of prisons : (1) the central prisons for persons sentenced to eighteen months and upwards ; (2) detention prisons for less than eighteen months ; (3) prisons of arrest for those sen tenced to three months or less ; and (4) police or central prisons for those condemned to one month and under. In the three last named are also kept prisoners awaiting trial. As regards classifica tion nothing more is attempted where association is the rule than the separation of the most hardened and previously convicted offenders from other prisoners. Imprisonment is either simple detention or accompanied by hard labour. The latter is industrial only, never penal, and embraces a great variety of handicrafts, most of which are carried out under contractors. But work is also done on account of the state, with the advantage that it is not subject to the fluctuations of supply and demand. All prisoners, except those for short terms, are, if possible, taught a trade. The earnings go in part to the prisoners, to be expended by them in the usual way. Remissions of sentence not exceeding six months may be accorded to all originally condemned to not less than three years, and who have undergone at least half. There is a society for the moral amelioration of prisoners in the Netherlands, which has numerous ramifications, and is devoted to prison visiting and the welfare of prisoners generally. This extends to efforts to obtain employment for them on release, which are praiseworthy, and on the whole eminently successful. Norway. Prisons in Norway may be divided into two princi pal classes, the Strcifarbcidcsanstalter, or penal institutions where prisoners are compelled to labour, and the district prisons estab lished in 1857 for detention and simple imprisonment. (1) The first may be further subdivided into fortress prisons, houses of correction, and the cellular prison or penitentiary of Christiania. This last takes the first convicted for short terms between the ages of eighteen and thirty, the fortresses the longer sentences, and the houses of correction the intermediate terms. All these prisons except that of Christiania are on the associated system, with no attempt at classification beyond the separation of the worst from the least corrupt in workshops or dormitories. The hours of labour are long fourteen in summer and ten in winter. The labour, conducted solely by the authorities, is industrial ; at Christiania cloth manufacture is a principal trade, at Akershuus it is stonecutting. Most prisoners learn a trade if they are ignorant of one on reception. No portion of the proceeds of their labour goes to the prisoners. There is no regular system of granting remis sions. All the penal institutions have chaplains, schools, libraries, and hospitals. Released prisoners are, as far as possible, preserved from relapse by the care taken to provide them with work when free. There are a few aid societies, but their operations are somewhat circumscribed from want of means. (2) The district prisons, fifty-six in number, take summary convictions from four to two hundred and forty days. Imprisonment may be endured on bread and water with regulated intervals, or on the jail allowance. Prisoners in these prisons are not compelled to work, but they can have employment if they wish it. These district jails are also used for the detention of all persons apprehended and awaiting trial, and as debtors prisons. They are mostly on the cellular plan, especially in the cases of those sentenced to solitary confine ment on bread and water and those committed for trial. Portugal is still behindhand as regards its prison administra tion. The jails are extremely defective in construction ; the disci pline is lax and the management careless. All prisons are on the associated plan ; they stand mostly in the market places of the large towns, with the first-floor windows upon the public thorough fares, so that the inmates are at liberty to talk and communicate with the passers by, whom they importune constantly for alms. Little less lamentable than the neglect of prison discipline is the practice of indefinitely postponing jail deliveries, with the inevit able consequence of frequent failures of justice. Juries often will not convict, alleging that the accused have been sufficiently pun ished by long detention awaiting trial. Russia. Prison discipline was much discussed in Russia as far back as the commencement of the present century, and in the year 1819 a society, now known as the Imperial Society, was established to watch over the administration of prisons. This society still exists, and is affiliated to the ministry of the interior. Its central committee and the provincial committees working under it select the staff of the prisons, and exercise a general surveillance over them. Various classes of prisons have existed in European Russia. As at present organized they consist of (1) the fortresses, for grave offenders, especially the political and revolutionary, in these the discipline is very severe ; (2) the military prisons, in which the discipline is noteless strict; (3) the house of detention, the ancient ostrog or stronghold which every town has always had for the safe keeping of prisoners charged with offences, in these were detained also prisoners awaiting corporal punishment or deporta tion to a penal colony; (4) the hard-labour prisons, in which were located the labour parties or correctional corps instituted by the emperor Nicholas, organized and disciplined on a military basis ; XIX. 96