Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 01.pdf/114

 A Visit to some English Prisons. Mass., a person standing in the guard-room under the dome can see all the cells, with the tiers, or iron platforms, in front of them, which are exposed to view, a large open air space being left outside of the tiers and be tween them and the wall of the cell building. It is like standing on the hub of a large wheel and looking along three spokes radi ating from it. Of course, the Millbank plan is too antiquated, inconvenient, and expen sive to be of value at the present day. In order to inspect the whole prison, one must walk about two and one half miles, and this involves the locking and unlocking of over one hundred doors. Millbank was formerly one of the prisons to which convicts sentenced for more than five years were committed, and herice was known as a "convict" prison. In England there are two kinds of prisons, — the "local" prisons, the maximum term of imprisonment in which is two years, and "convict" prisons, in which the minimum term of imprisonment is five years. There are no sentences between two and five years. The English prison system is now, and has been for the past few years, in a transition state. Of course some leading features are, and are likely to be, un changed; but the number of convict and local prisons has been reduced, and there has been also a marked reduction in the number of crimes and criminals within that time. Millbank and Pentonville, originally built as convict prisons, have been changed into local prisons, and Wormwood Scrubs is about to be. Millbank is to be given up entirely, partly on account of its architectural defects, but chiefly because of the great value of the several acres of land which it covers. It is surrounded by a high brick wall, which used to have a moat round it, but which has been filled up. Pentonville, which is in the north of London, had 1,071 male prisoners when I inspected it. There, for the first time, I saw men walking on the treadmills. These large wheels are sur rounded by wooden steps running the length of the wheel. The men are separated from one

93

another by partitions, and each one catches hold of a horizontal bar and continues a slow tread from one step to another, all of course stepping together, and as it were kicking away the steps from under their feet. The wheels, like the " mills of the gods, grind slowly," making wheat into flour, from which the bread is baked for use in Pentonville and Millbank. The prisoners tread for fifteen minutes and rest five minutes, for several hours at a time. When I went there, there were 84 at work on the treadmills, although there were accommodations for over 200. Wormwood Scrubs, the most modern of the London prisons, is in the northwestern part of London, and is a fine collection of build ings, erected entirely by convicts. Even the bricks were made by them. Printing, stonecutting, and carving, carpenter work, matmaking, brickmaking, and other industries, all for the government, are carried on there, and entirely without steam power; and in all three of these prisons the practice is to utilize the labor of the prisoners for the public works and institutions and by the sole exercise of hand power. I was told that the contract system of convict labor is very little used in England, the work being almost entirely upon what we call the " State account" plan. At Wormwood Scrubs the convicts print the "Habitual Criminals' Register," which is of vast benefit in the detection and identifica tion of criminals. This record is published and distributed to all the prisons and police stations in the country annually. Flogging is still in vogue in English prisons, but it is only applied in obedience to the direction of the court in passing sen tence upon criminals of a certain kind; or sometimes, though rarely, as a last resort to punish a refractory prisoner who has per sisted, after previous punishments, in defy ing the authority of the prison officials. A criminal who has assaulted an official while in the discharge of his duty, or who has committed robbery with violence from the person, — a garroter or highwayman, — may, in addition to a term of penal servitude, be