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Page 56
Male convicts on their release from penal servitude are, if they
desire it, assisted to obtain employment by Discharged Prisoners' Aid
Societies. The way in which assistance is rendered by the Royal
Society, Charing Cross, which may be considered as a type of most of
these societies, is as follows:--
"The convicts on their discharge are accompanied to the office of the
Society by a warder in plain clothes. They are there received by the
Secretary and the member of the Committee who, according to a fixed
rota, attends daily for this purpose. The first step is to give them a
plentiful breakfast of white bread, bacon and hot coffee. When this is
finished they are invited to come forward and state their hopes and
intentions as to the future. Full particulars of the nature of the
crime, the sentence, and the antecedents of the convict have been
previously received from the prison, and this information is, of
course, of the greatest value as a guide to dealing with the
particular case. After friendly discussion with the convict at one or
more interviews, and further inquiry, if need be, by the officers of
the Society, the course to be taken in each case is decided upon and
carried out as soon as possible, either by the officers of the Society
or through other agency. In cases of emigration and other cases where
it is advisable, the gratuities received from Government are
supplemented by donations from the funds of the Society; and, if not
already supplied by the prison authorities, a respectable suit of
clothes of a character fitted for the work on which the recipient is
to be employed is provided.
"The cases of men or women who elect to remain in or near the
Metropolis are usually dealt with directly by members of the Committee
and officers of the Society; others prefer to seek work for
themselves; but, meanwhile, respectable lodgings are provided till
work is obtained. Others who prefer a sea life are sent to the care of
agents until ships can be found for them--a few selected cases are
sent abroad." In the case of persons proceeding to seek work at a
distance from London, the Royal Society communicates with Discharged
Prisoners' Aid Societies in the country, and these Societies take such
cases in hand.
Another admirable Society for dealing with discharged convicts is the
St Giles' Mission, Brook St. Holborn. This Society provides a home for
the person whose sentence has expired; it is managed by a man (Mr.
Wheatley) possessed of an unsurpassed knowledge of the work; and it is
year by year rendering effective service to the convict population.
Some idea of the work accomplished by Societies such as those just
mentioned may be gathered from the fact that about two thirds of the
discharged convicts are annually passing through their hands; the
other third declining or not requiring assistance by such methods.
What is wanted to perfect the working of the institutions we are now
describing is increased public support; even now the Royal Society was
able to state in one of its reports, "that no discharged convict, who
is physically capable and willing to work, has any excuse for
relapsing into crime."
This brief sketch of the manner in which a sentence of penal servitude
is carried into effect will afford some idea of the nature of this
method of punishment. We shall now proceed to describe another mode of
dealing with offenders against the fundamental order of society. In
addition to convict establishments there exists throughout the United
Kingdom a large number of places of confinement called Local Prisons.
In England and Wales there are about sixty Local Prisons; in Scotland
there are about twenty; in Ireland there are about eighteen. In
Scotland and Ireland persons sentenced to a few days' imprisonment are
often confined in police cells, in England all convicted offenders
serve their sentence, however short, in a regular Local Prison.
Before 1877 the Local Prisons of England and Scotland were under the
control and administration of the County Magistrates, and almost every
county had then its own prison. One of the chief defects of this
system was the multiplication of prisons; one of its chief virtues was
that local power kept alive local interest in a way which is
impossible with highly centralised machinery. Where prisons are small
and numerous, as was to some extent the case under the old system, it
is difficult to conduct them so economically; on the other hand, the
herding of great masses of criminals together in huge establishments
is not without corresponding evils. It is now being pointed out by
specialists on the Continent and in America that huge prisons destroy
the individuality of the prisoner; his own personality is lost amid
the hundreds who surround him; he sinks into the position of a mere
unit, and is obliged to be treated as such by the officials in charge
of him. Under such a system it becomes almost impossible to
individualise prisoners; there is no time for it; as a result, the
influence of reformative agencies descends to a minimum and only the
punitive side of justice comes home to the offender. At one time the
value of Reformatory Schools was seriously impaired by herding too
many lads together under one roof; it is now seen that the success of
these institutions is marred by making them too large; it is accepted
as an established maxim that the smaller the school the better the
results. The same principle holds true with respect to prisons.
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