Page:Report of the Commission Appointed to inquire into the Penal System of the Colony.pdf/4



No attempt has hitherto been made at Fremantle to classify these different kinds of prisoners. Without some kind of classification, discipline is impossible, and it is therefore not surprising to learn that the only code of rules and regulations which is supposed to guide the officers and prisoners is systematically disregarded by both, for the simple reason that it is wholly inapplicable to existing circumstances. It was originally framed to meet conditions which no longer exist, so far as Fremantle Gaol is concerned.

For the purpose of actual classification, regard must be had not merely to these sub-divisions but to various gradations in the nature of the offences for which prisoners have been convicted.

It is a moot point whether the classification of prisoners should, as in some countries, follow strictly the period of incarceration, and the number of previous convictions, or, as in other countries, be determined by the nature of the offence.

On the whole, the Commissioners are of opinion that classification should follow the nature of the offence rather than the term of the sentence, thus grouping together for the purpose of prison treatment, criminals who commit the same class of crime, rather than those who have been sentenced for similar periods. This subject it is proposed to deal with more fully in a subsequent report, when your Commissioners are in possession of more detailed information as to the actual procedure in other countries, which have endeavored to bring themselves into line with the latest teachings of criminology.

The first six months of imprisonment in every case should be strictly on the separate system. Whilst undergoing separate treatment, no prisoner should be allowed any communication whatever with his fellow inmates. After six months separate treatment, prisoners whose conduct has been good should be classified in such associated groups as, in the circumstances of the prison, and the character of the work to be done, may be deemed convenient.

Of course the effect of the separate system being greatly to increase the severity of the punishment inflicted, regard must be had to this fact in the sentence awarded. The result must inevitably be to decrease the burden thrown upon taxpayers for the maintenance of prisoners.

There is a very common prejudice against the employment of prisoners on remunerative work, on the ground of the supposed conflict of interests between prison and free labor. Your Commissioners are, however, of opinion that with a little attention to the class of industries selected for the occupation of prisoners, there need be no apprehension whatever on this score, so far as Western Australia is concerned.

The labor of the prisoners should, in the first place, be almost, if not entirely, directed to the supply of the wants of the various Government departments. For instance, it is not at all probable that the exertions of the whole of our prisoners would be sufficient to meet the wants of the different Government departments in the matter of mats alone for offices and railway carriages. It may be interesting here to note that while many people theoretically object to the manufacture of such articles as mats and brooms by our prison labor, they view, with complacency, the importation of these articles, although they are notoriously the product of the prison labor of other countries.

A certain number of prisoners might also be profitably employed in gardening, and growing vegetables for prison use. At the present time a number of prisoners are always kept employed in the pump yard, turning a crank for the purpose of raising water. This work could be very much more economically done by means of the available steam plant of the prison. Each prisoner in the pump yard only does a few minutes actual work in each hour, the rest of his time being filled up by playing draughts, or by engagement in other forms of recreation.

This want of proper employment is one of the greatest evils of the prison system at Fremantle Gaol. It is inevitable that where men are not kept fully employed, they become demoralised, and on their release from Gaol, are less than ever fitted to become decent members of society.

Where the separate system obtains in other countries no practical difficulty is found in teaching the prisoners in their own cells the work which they will be required to perform in those cells. For this purpose some of the warders have to act as instructors, and your Commissioners are glad to note that some of the officials now employed at Fremantle have the necessary qualification in this direction.

The separate system had its origin in a report of a Select Committee of the House of Commons, dated as far back as the year 1832. That committee expressed the opinion that a prison "should offer the prospect of diminishing the amount of crime, either by the severity of its discipline or by reforming the morals of those committed to it. In both of these essential particulars many of the prisons are lamentably deficient. They hold out scarcely any terrors to criminals, while, from the impossibility of separating the most hardened malefactors from those who for the first time find themselves inmates of a Gaol, they tend to demoralise rather than to correct, all who are admitted within their walls Your Committee see no alternative but that of the separation of prisoners, both before and after trial. They therefore recommend that prisoners, when committed for trial, should be placed in light solitary sleeping cells, and provided with employment when practicable If your Committee felt any difficulty in a treatment approaching solitary confinement in the case of untried prisoners, they have none whatever in urging its adoption with reference to those hitherto sentenced to imprisonment, with or without hard labor."

Every prisoner should be placed in a position to earn something by his own industry in Gaol, to prevent his leaving the prison in a destitute condition, as is now too often the case. Your Commissioners recommend that for the labor of each month in Gaol each prisoner should be credited with a definite and fixed amount of money, to be placed at his disposal on his discharge. With the approval of the authorities