Page:Report of the Commission Appointed to inquire into the Penal System of the Colony.pdf/22

20 From the evidence of the prisoners themselves, supported by the result of our personal investigations, we have come to the conclusion that there is absolutely no ground for complaint as to the quality or the quantity of the food now supplied to the prisoners. There evidently was in the latter part of the year 1897 a strong feeling on the part of some of the prisoners that the diet was not all that it should be, but this grievance, whether ill or well founded, no longer exists, and we do not feel that it calls for any further comment.

—In our opinion the dietary scale is altogether too generous, both in quantity and quality, for the requirements of any but long-sentence prisoners. On the other hand, it is not varied enough in character. Of the many suggestions thrown out to us, that of Mr. Townsend, the prison storekeeper, appears to be the most practicable, and that is to improve the quality of the soup by the addition of any vegetables in season, but to remove the provision for any particular amount of vegetables, potatoes or otherwise, from the dietary scale.

Potatoes, whether good or bad, have usually been very dear in this colony for quite three-fourths of the year, and at certain times have been almost unprocurable. Yet the prisoners seem always to have felt it to be an especial grievance that they could not be regularly supplied with potatoes of a quality far superior to those ordinarily served at the table of the honest artisan. Other vegetables, such as cabbages, pumpkins, and the like, are in season obtainable at very reasonable prices, but a hard-and-fast dietary scale, whereby each prisoner can demand his exact and full weight of vegetables, is more easily complied with by the supply of potatoes than by more watery vegetables, the substance and weight of which disappear in the cooking.

This is the reason assigned to us for the retention of potatoes on the prison dietary scale at a season of the year when poor private families must either dispense with their consumption altogether or supplement them with cheaper forms of vegetable food.

When fish, salted or fresh, is obtainable cheaply in large quantities at Fremantle, we think that fish might be, at the discretion of the authorities, substituted occasionally for meat, as is now done in some parts of Queensland.

—So far as animal food is concerned, the amount of meat allowed to prisoners generally averages throughout the Australasian colonies about 70 ozs. per week, whereas in England convicts "on industrial employment" only receive 31 ozs.

It is claimed for England that a relatively very low scale of meat diet is rendered possible by the great variety, which is the distinguishing feature of English prison diet. Thus we find that in England on no two days in succession is the same kind of food given for the principal meal, dinner. Convicts on "industrial employment" there have for dinner on Sundays, bread and cheese; on Mondays, mutton soup, with bread and potatoes; on Tuesdays, beef broth, bread and potatoes; Wednesdays, mutton soup, bread and potatoes; Thursdays, suet pudding, bread and potatoes; Fridays, beef broth, bread and potatoes; on Saturdays, beef, bread and potatoes. Tea is not allowed.

It will thus be seen that only on one day in the week does the English convict on "industrial employment" get meat at all, except in the form of broth or soup.

At Fremantle, the same class of prisoner would receive daily 18 ozs. of bread, 10 ozs. of meat, 16 ozs. of potatoes, 2 ozs. of porridge, besides a little rice.

Some allowance must of course be made for the different and higher standard of living generally obtaining in Australasia as compared with Great Britain; but we agree with the Queensland Commissioners that a gaol diet should be "not more than sufficient to maintain health and strength," and the dietary scale of Fremantle appears to us to be far in excess of this requirement.

It is most unjust to the taxpayer that he should be called upon to feed the criminal classes on a higher dietary scale than the honest day laborer can afford to provide for himself and family, but such is at present undoubtedly the case.

DIETARY SCALES RECOMMENDED.

After very careful consideration of the dietary scales of the prisons of West Australia and of the other Australian colonies we recommend the following daily dietary scales, which are those now in force in Queensland, as being the best adapted to the conditions of our own colony. In this scale we recommend only the following modification—that tea should be allowed after three months to all good conduct prisoners, and should be stopped in cases of misconduct.

—To be issued to prisoners serving sentences not exceeding three months—

—To be issued to prisoners serving sentences of over three and under twelve months, after three months' service on No. 1, also to debtors, prisoners under civil process, awaiting trial, under remand, and detained as witnesses for want of bail—