Page:Our habitual criminals.pdf/5

 Mrs. Gibson and Miss Pomfrey, the Lady Superintendents of Woking and Winchester convict refuges, give similar evidence as to the deterioration of female criminals—the latter lady assenting to Lord Kiniberley's summary of her evidence in Q 7,439:

"'That in the prisons we are gradually getting down to the residuum, as it were, of the criminal population.'"

Turning to Ireland, Capt. Barlow, Vice-Chairman of our present Prison Board, speaking of Irish convicts, says in Q. 9,658-60:—

"'There are very few indeed against whom no previous convictions have been recorded, chiefly agrarian offenders or manslaughter cases.'"

And asked as to the deterioration in the physique of criminals and causes of it, he says (in Q. 9,964-65):—

"'It is very marked since twenty years ago. The remains of the people convicted in the famine year, were in the prisons when I got into the service: these were strong and healthy countrymen. Now the people we get are the dregs of the towns, a different class of men altogether.'"

Mr. Hay, Governor of Spike Island, speaking of the convicts there, says:—

"'They are a very different class from what they were when I went to Spike Island: they are now of the habitual criminal class from the large towns—Dublin, Belfast, Cork, and Limerick, a very bad class indeed.'"

And Rev. J. F. Lyons, the Roman Catholic Chaplain at Spike, testifying similarly, says (in Q. 13,227-8):—

"'In fact they are the refuse of the population of the town; these come backwards and forwards, some of them as many as five times. I have heard of some having come back as many as seven times.'"

Remember the rev. gentlemen is speaking of penal servitude only.

Thus I think I may say this difficulty of our habitual city criminals, is not a mere provincial one to be solved by a local judicial or official personage, but is one of imperial magnitude, requiring the ingenious thought of statesmen of first class, and the co-operation of all executive departments—on the bench, of the prisons, of the police—to carry out a scheme which must be at once comprehensive in scope and very minutely detailed in its execution.

Towards resolving the complex difficulty I have tried to formulate a few principles as to which I would look for general agreement, afterwards essaying some proposals for giving these effect. I cannot here exhaust the grounds or the qualifications of the four axioms which follow—well if we were sure of their practical resolution as of their intrinsic soundness as general rules.

1. Each city prisoner sentenced for a year or more, should be secured an industrial training suited to his capabilities, with a view to obtaining employment when discharged.

2. On discharge he should, as a rule, be removed to a rural district beyond the seas.

3. Saving special aptitudes, and prisoners already tradesmen, the selected industries should be those for which previous good character is least essential, in which there is least danger from trade jealousy outside, and for which hands are most welcomed in the Colonies and United States.