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Page 57
When the County Magistrates were deprived of their powers by the last
government of Lord Beaconsfield, these powers were in England vested
in the Home Secretary; in Scotland they were latterly vested in the
Secretary for Scotland; in Ireland they are vested in the Chief
Secretary. Under each of these Parliamentary heads there is a body
called the Prison Commissioners or Prison Board. These Commissioners
are centred in London for England; in Edinburgh for Scotland; in
Dublin for Ireland. Under them is a body of Prison Inspectors, and
last of all there comes the actual working staff of the Local Prisons,
consisting of warders, schoolmasters, clerks, governors, chaplains,
and doctors.
Wherein does the Local Prison system as worked by this staff differ
from the system in operation in convict prisons? Perhaps the
difference will be best expressed by saying that work in association
is the centre of the convict system, while work in solitude is the
central idea of the Local Prison system. This definition is not
absolutely correct, for convicts, as we have seen, are subjected to
nine months' solitary confinement at the outset of their sentence, and
in some Local Prisons a certain amount of work in common is performed,
but, taken as a whole, work in common is the central principle of the
one; work in solitude the central principle of the other.
Work in solitude means that the prisoner is shut up in an apartment by
himself which is called his cell. Each cell is provided with an
adequate supply of air and light, and is heated in the winter up to a
sufficiently high temperature for health and comfort. The cell
contains a bed and other personal requisites; it also contains a copy
of the prison rules. Before the prisoner is finally allocated to a
certain cell he is seen by all the superior officers of the prison.
His state of health is inquired into, so as to determine the nature of
his work, and if he is not too old to learn, and has received a
sentence of sufficient length to make it worth while instructing him,
his educational capabilities are specially tested. The seclusion of
the cell is varied by a short service in the prison chapel every
morning and an hour's exercise in the forenoon. It is further varied
in the case of young boys by daily attendance at the prison school.
The cellular system is an application of the old monastic system to
the treatment of criminals. The first cellular prison was built in
Rome by Pope Clement XI. at the commencement of the eighteenth
century; its design was taken from a monastery. The idea passed from
Rome to the Puritans of Pennsylvania; and it has now taken root in all
parts of the civilised world. The believers in the cellular system say
that it prevents prisoners from contaminating each other; it prevents
the hardened criminal from getting hold of the comparative novice;
according to this system, although the offender is in a prison, the
only persons he is permitted to speak to are those whose lives are
free from crime. A prison system which has the negative value of
hindering men from becoming worse is worthy of high consideration, and
if the chief object of imprisonment is the punishment of criminals the
cellular system will not be easily surpassed. On the other hand, if
the purpose of imprisonment is not only to punish but also to prepare
the offender for the duties of society, the system of solitary
confinement will not effectually accomplish this task. On this point
let me refer to the words of M. Prins, the eminent Director General of
Belgian prisons: "Can we teach a man sociability," he says, "by giving
him a cell only, that is to say, the opposite of social life, by
taking away from him the very appearance of moral discipline; by
regulating from morning till night the smallest details of his day,
all his movements and all his thoughts? Is not this to place him
outside the conditions of existence, and to unteach him that liberty
for which we pretend he is being prepared?... Assuredly, let us not
forget that prisons contain incorrigible and corrupt recidivists, the
residuum of large towns who must undoubtedly be isolated from other
men; but they also contain offenders resembling in great part men of
their own class living outside.... If it was a question of making
these men good scholars, good workmen, good soldiers, should we accept
the method of prolonged cellular isolation? And how can that which is
condemned by the experience of ordinary life become useful on the day
some tribunal pronounces a sentence of imprisonment? The physiological
and moral inconveniences of prolonged solitude are evident in other
ways; and attempts are made to combat them by great humanity in
external things. So much is this the case, that for fear of being
cruel to the good, the bad are also pampered by an exaggerated
philanthropy which reaches absurd heights."
A compromise between the absolute seclusion of the cellular system,
and the system of free association, is now being advocated by some
students of prison discipline. Prisoners, it is contended, should be
carefully classified according to their previous character and the
nature of their offence, and also according to the disposition they
manifest in prison. Prisoners sentenced to a term of imprisonment
ranging from three months to two years should during the first three
months remain in solitary confinement for purposes of observation as
to diligence and character. At the end of that period a man, if he
showed fitness for it, would be placed in association during his
working hours, and in his cell during the remainder of the day. In
this way his social instincts would not be so completely stifled as
they are at present; he would not be so entirely left to the vacuity
of his own mind; he would not be so readily led to the indulgence of
disgusting vices ruinous to body and mind. In countries where prisons
are on a large scale such a system as this might easily be adopted,
and it would, if properly managed, be productive of beneficial
results. In small prisons it would be applicable on a limited scale,
the smallness of the prison population preventing proper
classification.
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