Should the probationer commit fresh offences, or evade the supervision of the probation officer, or otherwise break any of the conditions of his recognisance, he is tobe brought again before the court and sentenced for his original offence.
The Probation Act, therefore, provides a method by which a person who has offended against the law, instead of being punished by imprisonment or fine, or, in the case of a child, being sent for a prolonged period to a reformatory or an industrial school, may be brought under the direct personal influence of a man or woman chosen for excellence of character and for strength of personal influence; and, lending authority to that supervision, and securing that it shall not be treated as a thing of little account, the Act keeps suspended over the offender the penalties of the law, to be inflicted or to be withdrawn according as his conduct during the specified period is bad or good.
The new procedure, under the Act of 1907, marks a great advance. The formality of the Probation Order, regular visits and reports, and the knowledge that the supervision is that of a duly appointed officer of the Court,—all these things combine to secure a much stronger hold over the offender than the simple recognizance, which was previously the rule. Again, the Act provides for the appointment of officers at a number of Courts which had not previously been provided with the means of securing supervision in cases where the Courts desired not to resort to the penalty of imprisonment. The appointment of at least one paid Probation Officer at every Court may now be regarded as indispensable for the proper administration of justice. Their appointment, however, is not compulsory, and it is only in the Metropolis that they are appointed by the Secretary of State. It is within the discretion of other Courts whether or not they shall avail themselves of the services of a Probation Officer. In fact, many Courts of Summary Jurisdiction throughout the Country are still unprovided for.
The extent to which Probation Orders are applied varies to a great extent in different parts of the country. In the Metropolis, not more than one in seventy-eight out of the total number of persons proceeded against summarily was so dealt with in 1913. At Liverpool andManchester, it is less than this, while in Hull and Birmingham, it is greater. Though many years have elapsed since the passing of the Act, there is still a comparative inactivity on the part of many of the Courts to give effect to its provisions, and many do not yet appear to have fully realized that the Act may be applied to all classes of offenders, and not only to first offenders, as was formerly the case. Moreover, the fact that the Probation System has been actively advocated by those specially interested in the treatment of Juvenile Offenders has led to a general opinion that the measure is to be used only in the case of the young. But in fact there are a great number of cases in which the offender is neither a first offender nor a child, but in which a Probation Order could very properly be made. Time will, no doubt, remove this misunderstanding, and when the Courts realize what assistance can be rendered to the administration of justice by judicious use of the Probation System, it is nearly certain that Probation Officers—male and female—for the younger as for the older prisoners, will become an established part of the machinery of every Court. The Probation Act, 1907, repealed Section 16 of the Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, and the Probation of First Offenders Act, 1887. The Summary Jurisdiction Act, 1879, provided by Sec. 16 (1) that where the charge, though proved, was of a trifling nature, the Court,without proceeding to conviction, might dismiss it, andmightorder the defendant to pay damage not exceeding 40/- and costs; by Sec. 16 (2) thaton convictionthe Court might order the defendant to give security with or without sureties, and with or without payment of damage or costs.
The Act of 1887 provided that the Court, before whom a person, not previously convicted, was brought, and who was convicted of larceny or false pretences, might, having regard to the youth, character and antecedents &c. of the offender, or to the trivial nature of the offence, direct that he be released on entering into recognizances, &c. to come up for judgment when called upon, and to be of good behaviour. If he failed to observe any of the conditions of his recognizance he was liable to be brought up to answer as to his conduct, andto receive judgment.
The Act of 1907, in lieu of the foregoing, provides that when any offender is charged before a Court of Summary Jurisdiction with an offence punishable by such Court, and the Court thinks the charge is proved, it may nevertheless dismiss the charge altogether, or may bind the offender over, with or without sureties, to appear for conviction and sentence when called on at any time during a specified period not exceeding three years, if it "is of opinion that, having regard to the character, antecedents, age, health, or mental condition of the person charged, or to the trivial nature of the offence, or to the extenuating circumstances under which the offence was committed, it is inexpedient to inflict any punishment or any other than a nominal punishment, or that it is expedient to release the offender on probation."
If such an order is made, or if the charge is dismissed under the Act, the Court may further order the offender "to pay such damages for injury or compensation for loss (not exceeding in the case of a Court of Summary Jurisdiction ten pounds, or, if a higher limit is fixed by any enactment relating to the offence, that higher limit), and to pay such costs of the proceedings as the Court thinks reasonable."
The powers granted under the latter Act were thus wider in their scope, and it was hoped that they would be used with greater frequency, and with better guarantee of good results by the appointment of Probation Officers, as prescribed by the Act. But at the present time, statistics do not show that the principle of Probation has been as widely extended in consequence of these provisions, as might have been expected. The numbers so dealt with in 1907 (the year before the Act came into operation) and those for the last recorded year (1918) are as follows:—
(or 8.2 per cent of the total number proceeded against).
(or 11·5 per cent of the total number proceeded against).
Owing to differences in the law and of procedure, it is difficult, if not impossible, to make comparison between England and Foreign Countries as to the extent to which Probation in the former, and "sursis" in the latter is being used as an alternative to imprisonment. So far as my researches have enabled me to go, I would venture the opinion that "sursis" is being used to a considerably larger extent in France, Belgium, and Italy than Probation is being used in England. There are, moreover, I believe, no statistics for comparing the results of the two systems. We know that in England the percentage of revocations is not more than about 6, the actual numbers having been as follows for the five years ended 1913:—
The effect of suspended sentence ("sursis"), without probationary oversight, was declared at the Washington Congress to be difficult, if not impossible, to ascertain, and the Congress went further in resolving that it was desirable for each State or County to provide a Central Authority to appoint some agency to exercise general supervision over Probation work. This is now the casein the State of New York, where a State Probation Commission has been appointed, and where, since 1910, as the consequence of good organization, there has been a great extension of the operation of the system. My own opinion is that Probation, carefully organized,i.e., with a staff of carefully selected Probation Officers, both Male and Female, is, as I have already stated, an indispensable part of the machinery of criminal justice, and, as such, ought to be under the direct control and supervision of the State, not with the idea of hindering or impeding voluntary effort by official interference, but by securing that each Court shall have its proper equipment for this purpose, and that, in every case where there is a transgression of the conditions of Probation, there shall be, without fail, an immediate report to the Court entailing an effective punishment of the offender who has refused to profit by the clemency extended to him under the Probation Act. I do not think, so long as the institution of this valuable machinery is permissive and left to the discretion of the Court, that a full effect will ever be given to the admirable principles of the Probation System, as a handmaid of justice, or that there will be a sufficient guarantee, that where a Court has used its powers in this respect, there shall be a prompt and effective vindication of the law in the event of any breach of conditions. In this way only, can an answer be made to any criticism by the many persons who have attempted, by their experience in individual cases, to suggest that Probation may be merely a mask for impunity. Unless Probation is so organized as to clear itself from this reproach, I am afraid that it will never take its place firmly and progressively as a necessary and indispensable weapon in the armoury of the criminal law.
The Home Secretary has recently appointed a Committee to inquire into the question of the organization of Probation; and it is likely that we are on the eve of an extensive development of the system.
CHAPTER X.
FEMALE OFFENDERS.
At the date of the London Congress of 1872 there were more than 1,200 females in convict prisons undergoing penal servitude: to-day there are less than 100. In the same year, there were 44,554 committals to local prisons, representing 382·3 per 100,000 of the female population of the country. For each of the ten years ended 1913, the committals steadily decreased from, roughly, 50,000 to 30,000, and since that date, to about 12,000, or 76 per cent., representing in 1920 only 32 per 100,000 of the population of the country, as compared with 198 in 1913. The Local Prison daily average population has fallen from 3,198 to 2,375 during the ten years ended 1913-14, and to 1,137 in 1919-20, or 61 per cent., and that of the convict population from 149 to 82, a decrease of 45 per cent.
The great diminution of the female population has resulted in the closing of a large number of establishments. At the time the Prisons were taken over by the Government there were about 100 female prisons; to-day there are only 26, and of these only six had a daily average exceeding 50 in 1919-20.
Women sentenced to penal servitude are, as already stated, kept in a section of the local prison at Liverpool. Except in the Metropolis, those sentenced to ordinary imprisonment are kept in wings of local prisons, entirely detached from the male side, and are under the supervision of a matron, assisted by a female staff, the Governor of the whole establishment being responsible for general order and discipline. In the Metropolis, a large prison—Holloway—is given up entirely to the custody of female convicted prisoners, and is also the House of Detention for the unconvicted. The Governor is a medical man.At the largest Prisons the female population is under the supervision of a Lady Superintendent.
If we examine the causes that bring these women to prison annually, whether the population be high or low, it appears that nearly two-thirds are committed for Drunkenness or Prostitution. Each succeeding year presents a heavy and monotonous list of women who thieve, keep brothels, neglect, or illtreat their children and offend in various ways against the Vagrancy Laws or Police Regulations. For such offences, the figures of recidivism are appalling—about one in every five committed having incurred over 20 previous convictions—some as many as 100 or 200. The actual percentage of the total receptions annually who have been previously convicted is greater in the case of females than for males, the former ranging between 70 and 75 per cent., and the latter between 50 and 60 per cent, annually.
A striking illustration of the high rate of recidivism prevailing among the female population was afforded a few years ago, when an inquiry was instituted as to the numbers of women committed to Holloway Prison for Drunkenness, and their previous convictions for that offence. It showed that during the three years ended 1915, 10,888 committals for Drunkenness were recorded against 1,628 women, who, including the above convictions and those incurredprior to 1913, had on their combined records a total of 30,986 convictions. Of these 1,628 individual prisoners:—
1,092 were received in 1913, incurring in that year 2,768 convictions,1,045 were received in 1914, incurring in that year 3,931 convictions,813 were received in 1915, incurring in that year 4,189 convictions.
1,092 were received in 1913, incurring in that year 2,768 convictions,
1,045 were received in 1914, incurring in that year 3,931 convictions,
813 were received in 1915, incurring in that year 4,189 convictions.
Amongst the 1,628 women was selected a group of 25, who, at the end of 1915, had each received ten or more convictions for this offence. All were stated to have been first offenders in 1913 and 1914. By the end of 1915, these 25 women had amassed a total of 353 convictions. This inquiry showed that in 1915 a falling population committed for Drunkenness was contributing moreconvictions per annum than formerly,viz:—5 per annum in 1915 as compared with 2.6 in 1913. The high rate of recidivism in the Local prison population limits the number ofindividualwomen in the community who are sent to prison annually to a comparatively small total. Statistics show that over 32 per cent. of the total committed on conviction in a given year are sent to prison more than once in that period. This rate applied to the total receptions for 1919-20 would show that the whole Female population of prisons for that year was limited to slightly over 8,000 individuals.
It does not appear that until recently any special effort had been made to deal with the problem of the female recidivist: in fact, the study of the English Penal System does not show that at any time the method of dealing with criminal women has engaged that close attention which might have been expected from the nature and difficulty and importance of the problem. The law strikes men and women indifferently with the same penalties of penal servitude and imprisonment. In the case of women it only provides that they shall be separated from the other sex: that they shall be in the charge of female officers, and that they shall be relieved from the harder forms of labour. Generally speaking, the methods of punishment are the same, subject to such modification and exceptions as difference of sex obviously demands. This is not the place to examine those abstruse, psychological, and social causes which render the rehabilitation in honest life of women who have fallen from their high estate of probity and virtue so difficult. Prison workers can, from painful and almost daily experience, endorse the despairing plaint—
"L'honneur est comme une île, escarpée et sans bords,On n'y peut plus rentrer, quand on est dehors."
But the admitted difficulty of the task has not prevented the most strenuous efforts being made in this country during recent years to rescue the female prisoner by visitation in Prison and by after-care on discharge. In 1901 the Lady Visitors' Association was founded with the object of securing at each Prison a body of earnest and devoted ladies, with experience of rescue-work and akeen sympathy with even the most degraded of their sex. This body worked for many years under the presidency of Adeline, Duchess of Bedford, until her much lamented death which recently occurred. These ladies working in all the female prisons, local and convict, under a regular and approved system, by their unfailing devotion to the quiet, if trying and inglorious, duty of cellular visitation, and in close co-operation with the authorities, lay and religious, have discharged a great and difficult public duty. They have undoubtedly contributed to that decrease in the number of female prisoners which recent statistics illustrate. Apart from this, they have furnished a notable example of high christian endeavour, and many prisoners owe their reclamation to the light from the torch of promise which these Visitors hold high in their work of encouragement and persuasion to turn from the paths of crime and evil-doing.
Lady Visitors are appointed by the Commissioners, subject to the concurrence of the Visiting Committee and of the Prison Authorities, with a view to the regular and systematic visitation ofallFemale prisoners, soon after reception, during sentence, and shortly before discharge.
In order that the assistance of Lady Visitors may be utilised to the fullest extent, Governors, Matrons, and Chaplains are instructed to inform all female prisoners, and to encourage them to avail themselves of the privilege within their reach.
It is the duty of the Chaplain at each Prison to endeavour to secure a sufficient number of Lady Visitors to attend to the needs of all female prisoners, and to take care, by a judicious distribution of duties, that all deserving cases receive consideration, and that no conflict or competition arises in the attention given to any individual case. As it is obvious that most practical good is likely to follow the ministrations of the Lady Visitors if their attention is concentrated mainly on the welfare of the prisoners on discharge, and if any influence that may be acquired over the prisoners while in prison is to be continued after release, it is desirable, in this connection, that use should be made of the services of any ladies who may be attached to the Discharged Prisoners' Aid Society. In order to securethe better direction of the services of Lady Visitors, and to avoid any clashing of duties, it has been found advisable that their work should be under the guidance of the Chaplain or Prison Minister.
Arrangements may be made for a Lady Visitor to deliver, or arrange for, addresses or lectures, to selected classes of prisoners, on any moral or useful subject.
A book is kept for the use of Lady Visitors, in which they may make any record they think desirable as to the action taken by them in regard to any prisoner, and in which they may enter any suggestion they may have to offer with regard to the industries on which prisoners could be employed, having regard to the needs of the locality and their welfare on discharge.
But it is to concentration of effort on the younger cases that the most fruitful and lasting results must be due. The application of the Borstal System to the young female, is being strenuously pursued at the Aylesbury Institution and is full of promise for the future. Here again the Prison authority relies greatly on the influence and aid of voluntary lady workers both inside the Institution and on discharge. The Visiting Committee, over which a lady presides, in addition to duties, judicial and other, prescribed by statute, take a keen personal interest in the work of the Institution,—laundry and domestic work, cooking classes, gardening, drill, school,—and make themselves acquainted with the personal character and history of the inmates. These, on discharge, pass into the hands of a Ladies' Committee of the Borstal Association who have already made the preliminary arrangements necessary for suitable disposal. As a rule, a girl passes straight to work, be it domestic service, or factory, or workshop. A social worker in the district, who places her services at the disposal of the Association, and known as an "Associate," is placed in touch with the case, for help or advice at any time. If possible, also, arrangements are made that the girl may benefit by association with any guild, club, or adult school, under the influence of which a relapse into idle or criminal habits might be prevented.
The Annual Reports of the Borstal Association show that on an average about 59 per cent. of girls discharged annually from Aylesbury are reported as satisfactory at the end of the year; 30 per cent. as unsatisfactory, and about 11 per cent. as having been reconvicted.
On the question of permanency of results of Borstal treatment, the following figures will be of interest:—132 girls were discharged from Aylesbury between 1st January, 1910, and 31st March 1914. In 1915 their records showed that 75 (or 56.8 per cent.) had not since been reported as reconvicted, and were satisfactory when last heard of; 17 (or 12.9 per cent.) were unsatisfactory when last heard of, but had not been reported as reconvicted; 35 (or 26.5 per cent.) had been reported as reconvicted; 2 had died; and 3 were sent to asylums. That is to say, over 69 per cent. had not been reported as reconvicted.
These figures are full of hope for the future when it is considered with what material we are dealing. It is nearly, if not quite, certain that if, as was till lately the case, these girls had on the occasion of each repeated offence, been made subject to a mere repetition of short sentences of imprisonment in the Local Prisons, they would, without exception, have drifted hopelessly and inevitably into the ranks of "professional" recidivism. To pick up and save even one from such a fate is a great and praiseworthy act, bringing as much honour to the worker who achieves it, as advantage to the community, which is at least freed from this one contaminating and hurtful influence: but to save even more than half, and as time goes on, it is hoped even more than that, is a work, not only of substantial material benefit to the State, and in that way patriotic in the best sense of the word, but a splendid example of human charity and effort, which is determined that these young erring creatures shall not glide down the easy current of shame and dishonour without at least an attempt to rescue and save.
As in the case of male offenders, there is also in operation at all Prisons, a "Modified" Borstal System for females, which may be applied up to the age of 25.The later age than in the case of males is due to the great desire of the Commissioners to segregate, as far as practicable, all young females from the contamination which experience shows must arise from any association with the older females, versed in crime and ever ready to corrupt, by their precept and example, the younger ones, who are still hesitating which path to choose.
The instructions regulating this class provide that cases up to the age of 25 may be admitted if the Authorities at the Prison are of opinion that benefit would result therefrom, and that no prejudicial influence would be exerted on younger inmates in the class. Admission to the class up to the age of 21 is the rule rather than the exception, but in any case where it is shown that a girl has rejected former efforts made to reclaim her, or that she is known to be likely to exert a corrupting influence on others, or that her manner or disposition, or previous history, are such as to make it probable that she will do so, the Authorities are empowered to exclude her from the class. The rules provide that such cases as are excluded shall be kept apart, as far as possible, from adult recidivist prisoners, and may, if thought desirable, receive special treatment. Care is to be taken that no prisoner shall be allowed to think that she is considered to be past hope or cure.
It is not likely, of course, that the same results can be obtained by the application of the "Modified" System to short sentences in local prisons, but there is satisfactory proof that the "individualization" of each case as it comes to prison, the care and attention given, the encouragement of any showing the least symptom of a desire to reform, are bearing fruit.
The fall in the annual number of young women, 16-21, received into prison on conviction, which has taken place during the fifteen years prior to the War,viz:—from 2,310 to 858, or 63 per cent., may be largely attributable to this special work in Prisons. It is to be regretted that during the War there has been a tendency for this particular age category to increase, the number received last year having risen to 1,098. But it may confidently be expected that with a return to normal conditions, thistotal will again decrease. Had not the terrible calamity of War impeded progress, steps would have been taken earlier to greatly improve and develop the State methods of dealing with young female offenders; but, as already stated, in view of the remarkable fall in the number of women sentenced to penal servitude, it has lately been found possible to transfer the female convicts from Aylesbury to a Wing of Liverpool prison, thus releasing the establishment entirely for use as an Institution under the Borstal Act. The powers conferred by this Act are largely extended by Section 10 of the Criminal Justice Administration Act, 1914. Whereas the former Act applies only to persons of criminal habits or tendencies convicted on indictment, this Section allows a sentence of detention in a Borstal Institution to be imposed in a case where an offender is summarily convicted of an offence for which a sentence of one month or upwards, without the option of a fine, can be imposed, but before an offender can be dealt with under this Section, it mustappearthat there is criminal habit or tendency, and it must beprovedthat there has been a previous conviction of an offence or a failure to observe a condition of recognizance on being discharged on probation. This same Act also raises the minimum period of detention in a Borstal Institution to two years, and increases the period during which a case may be kept under supervision after discharge.
Owing to this extension of powers under the Borstal Act a larger number of young women offenders are now falling within the meshes of the net, thus widely and wisely spread, the daily average having risen from 87 to 184.
In anticipation of such an increase, an extension of the scope of employment under skilled superintendence is being gradually introduced. Work in the open air, gardening, farm-work, tending poultry and stock, will be specially encouraged.
It is devoutly to be hoped that as the Borstal System for women develops, the march of the annual army of female recidivists through the prisons may be arrested. It can only be stopped by the concentration of a great effort,legal, official, and moral, on the young female offender. The easy irresponsible method of awarding sentences of a few days or weeks for repeated offences of a trivial nature is no remedy for the evil. The Borstal System catches comparatively few of these cases. If the age were extended, say to 30, in the case of women, and the principle of Reformatory sentences were approved by Parliament in every case where criminal tendency was observable, and a State Reformatory for this purpose were established, as it has lately been established in some States of America, then there might be some hope of rescuing from crime a larger percentage of women than is likely, or even possible, under the present system. By the daily operation of the law, sending these cases repeatedly and hopelessly to Prison, and from the present limitation of age (21) for the admission of women offenders to special reformatory treatment (i.e., under periods of detention long enough to give a chance of eradicating the evil tendency), no really great impression is going to be made on the girl or woman offender. The heavy roll of commitments to Prison and re-commitments will only cease when the State boldly recognizes the essential difference between the instincts and motives leading to criminal acts in the two sexes, and adapts its method of punishment and reformation accordingly.
The desirability of employing women for the superintendence and control of female prisoners is recognized. At the time when the Departmental Committee on Prisons, 1895, made their report, nearly 50,000 women were being committed annually to Prison, but that Committee did not consider that "the time of a Lady Inspector of Prisons would be sufficiently employed, but thought that a Lady Superintendent might be appointed who could not only do the ordinary work of inspection, but who could also be responsible for the general supervision of female prison industry, and for such other duty as the Secretary of State might consider it desirable to assign her." Since that date the annual committals have fallen by 78 per cent., the total commitments for last year being only 12,000; but the Commissioners have, for a considerable time, been assisted by a Lady Inspector of Prisons, andat each female prison there is a voluntary body of Lady Visitors, whose duties are referred to above; the welfare of young girls at the Aylesbury Institution, both during detention and on release, is the subject of anxious care and supervision by Lady Members of the Visiting Committee. Lately a new rank of Lady Superintendent has been created among the discipline staff of the largest female prisons. The presence of Ladies on the Visiting Committees of Prisons is in every way desirable, and it is hoped that, in the near future, the qualification of Justice of the Peace having been extended to the female sex, all Prisons for females may be subject to the visitation and jurisdiction of Lady Justices. It is recognized also that the medical care of females in penal institutions should be entrusted to Lady Doctors. We have been fortunate in securing very able and highly skilled women both at Holloway and Aylesbury, and their appointment has been an undoubted success.
CHAPTER XI
EDUCATIVE, MORAL, AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES IN PRISON.
In a former Chapter I have referred generally to the efforts made in English Prisons to apply such methods as are practicable, having regard to the average shortness of sentences, and to the fugitive character of the population, for the uplifting of prisoners educationally, morally, and spiritually.
It is a commonplace, dating from the middle of the eighteenth century, that we must educate our prisoners, as it was also the common injunction that we must inspire them with the teachings of religion, and the habit of industry.
At a time when education was the privilege of the few, and no national system was in existence, and when the average length of sentence gave opportunity for methodical and continuous teaching, it was reasonable that advantage should be taken of a long period of enforced custody to establish a system, where, at least, the many illiterates coming to prison could be taught the simple lessons of reading, writing, and arithmetic.
Records, however, do not show that before all prisons passed under the control of the Government a very serious effort had been made to grapple even with illiteracy, to say nothing of schooling in the more advanced subjects. When the Local Prisons were taken over by the Government in 1878, there were only 50 schoolmasters in 113 prisons. 'Hard Labour' was the dominant note in prison administration, regardless of the obvious fact that simple manual labour unaided by theincreased aptitude that follows upon even a moderate cultivation of the mind, will not rehabilitate a man or enable him to rise to a higher level of existence. Half-an-hour a week, or even a quarter of an hour, was all that could be set aside from the demands of labour for such a purpose as teaching a prisoner to read or write, or perform those simple calculations in money, by which he could regulate the spending power of his wages, or estimate his domestic budget.
No great advance was made even after the Government assumed control, though the subject of education in prison was, on more than one occasion, the subject of special inquiry.
Even at that time, the question was considered whether the passing of the Compulsory Education Act in 1870 had not relieved the Prison Authority of the duty of adult teaching in its elementary sense, and whether it might not be assumed that all persons coming in later life to prison had acquired a sufficient learning in elementary subjects in the National schools. But statistics showed that in 1880 the number of illiterates coming to prison was practically the same as before the passing of the Act—about 33 percent., while the number of those who could only read and write imperfectly was no less than 62 per cent. It was obvious that some years must elapse before elementary teaching in Prisons could be dispensed with. If we examine statistics since 1880, it is true that we find a large decrease in the number of illiterates coming to prison. In 1890 there were 37,000 committed who could neither read nor write: in 1900, 28,000, and in 1913 (the last recorded year) the number had fallen to 18,000,—representing for each year 25, 19, and 13 per cent. of the total committals, respectively. The bulk of the prisoners fall within the category of those who "can read and write imperfectly, or with moderate proficiency," and concurrently with the decrease in the proportion of illiterates received, these have risen from 72 per cent. in 1890, and 75 per cent. in 1900, to 82 per cent. in 1913. But the remarkable feature of these statistics is that, after 50 years of compulsory education, over 18,000 should be committed annually who are unable to read or write.These disappointing figures may be explained in various ways. Either a large number of those forming the criminal class, by reason of vagrancy and absence of settled home and life, slip through the meshes of the educational net: or, in the years between the school-leaving age and the apprenticeship of crime, they forget all they have learnt: or the rudiments of learning are not impressed with sufficient force and concentration in the tender years, when impressions are most likely to remain. Educational experts may argue as to this, but the fact remains that, judged by prison statistics, our costly and elaborate system of public education is not at least producing the results which were anticipated by those who dared to think fifty years ago that elementary teaching would be no longer required in Prisons; and so the Prison authority still remains in a sense an educational authority; but therôleit plays is not ambitious, and does not aim higher than to teach the illiterate to read and write, and in the small space and opportunity given, to raise to a higher standard those who are just a little better than illiterates.
For many years all prisoners under the age of 40, and with sentences of three months and over were taught in prison. Experience has, however, shown that better results can be obtained by concentrating attention on the young, and on them even if the sentence is quite short—more than a month. The rule is now to confine education to those under 25 years of age; with power to admit older prisoners to the privilege, where the circumstances of the case would promise any practical result.
At the present time, it is estimated that about 5,000 prisoners under 25 in a year, who on reception are below Grade III. of the National Code pass through the schools, and, as a result of such education as will be given, about 33 per cent. succeed in passing out of this Grade in a year, while 74 per cent. pass one or more grades during the year.
Our teaching staff is recruited from our own discipline staff. Capable and intelligent warders are given the opportunity, subject to satisfying the Civil Service Commissioners that they possess the necessary literary requirements, of entering the Schoolmaster class. Having passed such literary test, they are appointed for six months, when their ability to teach is tested by the Chaplain of the Prison, and then, subject to confirmation by the Chaplain-Inspector of Prisons, they pass into the permanent Schoolmaster grade.
It is not an ambitious scheme, nor is it pretended that our Schoolmasters can compete in learning and ability to teach with the trained teacher of our public schools; but, given the nature of the task they have to perform with a fugitive class, many of whom are not desirous to learn, or to re-learn what they have once been taught, it may be stated that they adequately fulfil the purpose for which they are appointed.
Although the classes are now limited to the younger prisoners, there is, of course, an infinite diversity in the standard of education, ranging from the illiterate to the half-educated, and those who having, perhaps, been taught, have forgotten what they once knew. Formerly, education was given to each individual prisoner in cells; but now it is given in class. The best plan would probably be to revert to cellular teaching in the case of those who, from the absence of a common standard of education, cannot usefully be taught in class. Here, again, 'individualization' is asked for. In the case of the younger prisoners, now collected in depôts under the "Modified" Borstal System, we have lately made arrangements with the local education Authority to lend us a trained teacher, who comes in the evening after hours of labour, and conducts what is of the nature of a "Continuation Class," the teaching being adapted to the requirements of each. This plan has worked very successfully and might, with advantage, be extended. The whole question is now under consideration.
But elementary teaching in prisons forms only a small part of the moral influences which we seek to bring to bear in Prisons. The Prison Libraries are stocked with suitable books both of technical instruction and of general literature, and prisoners are encouraged to make full use of them under the guidance of Chaplains and Schoolmasters. Note books and pencils are provided forthose who wish either to make a special study of some particular subject, or to maintain knowledge which they previously possessed; and if the necessary books are not in the library, permission can be obtained for them to be supplied by the prisoner or his friends. The privilege of selecting books from the library is associated with the Progressive Stage System,i.e., depends on industry and conduct, but, generally-speaking, a well behaved prisoner would be allowed two books a week, in addition to those which form a permanent part of his cell equipment,viz:—devotional and school books, and books of moral and secular instruction. Under this latter head, a Chaplain is given a wide discretion to allow practically all kinds of books, except works of fiction,i.e., histories, biography, and science, political, social, and physical. Generally speaking, fiction would be reserved as a privilege to be earned by good behaviour. Lectures calculated to elevate and instruct prisoners are given from time to time either by some member of the prison staff or by lecturers from outside. Such lectures are given weekly during the winter months to those under Borstal treatment and are frequently illustrated by lantern slides. The subjects cover a wide range. Sometimes there is a description of life in foreign or uncivilised countries, or an account of travel and adventures by land, sea, or air, by men who are speaking of their own personal experience; or a talk about the wonders of science. At other times, they are of a more practical character and deal with various trade processes, or domestic work, housekeeping, cooking, hygiene, and so on. There is seldom any great difficulty in finding persons who are experts in these and other subjects and who are very willing to place their services at the disposal of the Chaplains.
As a step beyond this, the experiment has been successful in large prisons of allowing men to meet together under the presidency of the Chaplain, or other official, for the purpose of a debate or discussion on a subject chosen by themselves. The proceedings are conducted on the lines of similar meetings in free life, and as long as due order is maintained, there is no objection to the expression of natural feelings. The object of theseefforts is not merely educational. Experience has shown that they have a psychological effect, which is even of greater importance and value. They provide healthy food for thought during many solitary hours, and so tend to prevent morbid introspection, brooding over wrongs or worrying about family affairs; they break the unavoidable monotony of institution life, and provide a mental stimulus which is of the utmost value. But more than this, the mere fact that a prisoner is trusted, if only for a short time, to control himself without the restraint of authority, is of immense value in building up that self-respect, without which restoration is impossible.
In addition to these lectures and classes which usually take place in the evenings after working hours, selected prisoners may be withdrawn from labour twice a week to attend Bible or other classes of instruction conducted by the Chaplain.
Recognising that the sanctions of religion are the true basis of all reformatory work, every effort is made to render the daily Services in Chapel as bright and instructive as possible. For this purpose, frequent advantage is taken of the help of outside preachers, not necessarily clergy, in the delivery of religious and moral addresses; also choirs, singers and instrumentalists are invited to take part in the Services. The Church Army is specially helpful in this way, and also in sending their trained Evangelists at the invitation of the Chaplains to conduct special Missions to prisoners.
Every week a short resumé of the week's news is given by the Governor or Chaplain, and this practice has been found to react favourably on the temper and attitude of prisoners towards authority, as showing that it is not desired to exclude them, though prisoners, from news of the outside world.
The annual reports of our Chaplains in nearly every prison, furnish accounts of strenuous efforts, apart from their usual ministrations, for the moral uplifting of their charges. The following is a summary of such efforts recorded during twelve months at a large Metropolitan Prison for males—an eight-day mission: 15 selected preachers occupied the chapel pulpit: 7 attendances byChoral Societies, bands, &c.: 28 special lecturers attended to give secular addresses to lads: a weekly Bible Class or moral lecture to lads by the Chaplain: the organization of a weekly debate among selected prisoners: the floral decoration of the Chapel, &c. Besides all this, there is the personal interest in the prisoner after his release, and many Chaplains and others speak of a correspondence maintained which furnishes abundant testimony that the labour of love during a prisoner's stay in prison has not been in vain. Year by year this great volume of work goes on in our Prisons: it is quietly and unostentatiously performed, and is probably little known and insufficiently appreciated by the general public; and for this reason a somewhat detailed account may not be out of place in an Account of the Prison System of this country.
CHAPTER XII.
LABOUR IN ENGLISH PRISONS.
A great change has taken place in the system of labour both in Convict and Local Prisons during the last twenty-five years. In Convict Prisons this change is due, not, as in Local Prisons, to a different policy or to changes in the law, but to the fact that not only has there been a great reduction in the number of persons sentenced to Penal Servitude, but the opportunity for employment on what was known generally as "Public Works,"e.g., the excavations at Chatham, the breakwater at Portland, the Dockyard extension at Portsmouth, the Forts at Borstal, has largely disappeared. Such Works in the early days of the English Convict system greatly facilitated the purpose of the Administration by affording means for carrying into effect the object of a sentence of Penal Servitude, which was to create a deterrent effect on the prisoner himself by the execution of a hard day's work, to develop his intelligence by his employment on interesting and productive labour and to give facilities for acquiring a knowledge of all those trades which the construction of such Works involved. Moreover, having regard to the valuable character of the Works referred to, it was possible in those days largely to recoup the cost of maintaining the Prisons. Thus the value of the labour of convicts at Portland, Portsmouth, Chatham and Borstal during the year 1880-1 amounted to £124,000, exclusive of the value of what is known as the domestic service of Prisons, such as baking, cooking, washing, &c., while the cost of maintaining those Prisons in the same year was £147,000. It has never at any time been regarded as an axiom in this country, however, that all prison labour should be remunerative or that the primary object of a Prison was to make it self-supporting, and for this reason, in those Prisons controlled by the Government, (that isConvict Prisons only prior to the Prison Act of 1877), the principle of competition with free labour was not admitted on such a scale that reasonable ground of complaint could arise as to undue interference with the outside market. The "Contract" system by which goods are manufactured for outside firms with the use of machinery, or under the supervision of the agents of those firms, is unknown in English State Prisons; and from early days to the present time, there has been no change of policy in this respect. The largest prison in the country, Wormwood Scrubs, was built entirely by convict labour, between 1874 and 1890. It has cellular accommodation for 1418 prisoners. Most of the bricks were made by prison labour on an adjacent site leased for the purpose. The massive blocks of stone used for the chapel, gate, and other buildings were quarried by convicts at Portland and Dartmoor: iron castings were prepared at Chatham and Portland. The average cost per cell was £70. 7. 0, as compared with a mean rate of £164 per cell paid to contractors elsewhere. Although no Public Works of importance have been undertaken for many years, the constant reconstruction of, and other works in connection with, the Convict Prisons of Aylesbury, Portland, Dartmoor, and Parkhurst have continued to engage a large percentage of the labour at the disposal of the Authorities. Thus of the value of the labour performed in Convict Prisons during 1912-13—a total of £63,000—more than half was in connection with building and quarrying work, the rest being divided between manufactures, farm and domestic service in the proportion of £16,000, £5,000, and £9,000 respectively. Apart from the fall in the numbers of the convict population, which now represents not more than a daily average of 1,500 persons, (whereas in the period of Public Works, strictly so called, to which I have referred, it was about 10,000) there has been a remarkable change in the physique and personnel of persons sentenced to penal servitude. From a medical census of the inmates of Convict Prisons taken in 1881, no less than three-fourths of the convicts were fit for hard labour of any kind, while only about one-thirtieth, or rather more than three per cent., were deemedunfit for any labour. An intermediate group of about twenty-one per cent. were returned as fit for the lighter forms of labour. A medical census of Convict Prisons taken in 1898 shows that only fifty-six per cent. were fit for hard labour, while seven per cent. were unfit for any labour and thirty-seven per cent. fit only for light labour. The days are, therefore, past when Public Works can be undertaken by large bodies of convicts either at the place of detention itself or by transfer to other localities for this special purpose. The last Public Work of this nature contemplated by the Government was the building of the new harbour at Dover; but though the plan advanced so far that a special prison was actually built at Dover for the location of the necessary number of convicts, the idea was not proceeded with chiefly on account of the great delay and slowness of building operations which is inseparable from the employment of convict labour. The result is that with the exception of quarrying stone, which is still a distinctive feature of the convict labour at Portland and Dartmoor, and reclaiming land for farming purposes (Dartmoor and Parkhurst), the character of the labour in Convict Prisons is more and more approximating to that in Local Prisons. Thus, if we compare the work carried on at the Local Prison of Wormwood Scrubs and at Parkhurst at the present time, we should find that much of the work was practically the same for those undergoing the longer sentences,e.g., a considerable number at each Prison would be employed as tailors, smiths and fitters, shoemakers, bricklayers, labourers and carpenters. In Convict Prisons, however, there was till recently no cellular labour, and the hours of labour and the whole system of Administration were adapted to the principle of outdoor associated labour. Now that the quarries employ a continuously diminishing number, the system of labour in both Convict and Local Prisons will be more and more assimilated.
Labour in Local Prisons has quite a different history. These Prisons did not come under Government control till 1878. The want of uniformity in their management, leading to an inequality of punishment in different parts of the country, was one of the principal argumentsused for the centralization of all Prisons in the hands of the State; and it was specially marked in the matter of Prison labour. The Parliamentary inquiry of 1863, which led to the passing of the Prison Act 1865, while Local Prisons were still under the control of the Local Authorities, laid great stress on this point. In some Prisons, there was complete idleness: in some, unregulated association: in some an active industry conducted with a view to commercial profit: and, in some, a close and melancholy adherence to the rule of separate confinement and its concomitant hard labour. Although, as before stated, the phrase "hard labour" was adopted in Acts of Parliament since the middle of the 18th century, its meaning has never been accurately defined, and there was consequently a great variety in its application. The Prison Act of 1865 attempted to define it, and enacted that hard labour was to be of two classes. First Class,—mainly treadmill, shot drill, crank, capstan, stonebreaking, to which every male prisoner of the age of sixteen and upwards, sentenced to hard labour, was required to be kept for at least three months and might be kept for the whole of his sentence. Any other approved kind of labour was called Second Class. This meant practically all forms of prison employment exclusive of the special forms of penal labour prescribed for the First Class. When the prisons were taken over by the Government under the Act of 1877 it was found that at some Prisons,e.g.Winchester, practically the whole of the population were employed in pumping, grinding and oakum picking. At Oxford, the treadmill, shot drill and capstan were the order of the day. At Devizes, sixty-two out of seventy-eight prisoners were engaged on the treadmill or on oakum picking. At other Prisons the question of providing remunerative employment received the keenest attention. One Prison competed with another in finding a market for its produce. Governors and Officers were encouraged to take an active interest in trade by bonuses or other payments and the amount of trade profit was taken largely into account by the Magistrates in dealing with applications for increase of pay. At Wakefield an extensive mat trade was carried on in which the sale averaged£40,000 a year. Steam-power was employed. A commercial traveller was appointed to sell the goods, and the whole of the industrial department of the prison was under the control of a trade manager, who was provided with a staff of clerks and trade instructors. The salaries of all those officers were paid out of the trade profits. The trade manager had authority to award a gratuity not exceeding half-a-crown to any prisoner on his discharge who had shown special assiduity in the performance of his work, and the Governor could supplement this to the extent of 17s.6d., making it one pound in all. It was in the power of the trade manager also to recommend the grant of additional bread as a reward for marked industry. Diligent long-term prisoners on their discharge were frequently provided for in the way of clothes, and had their railway fares paid to their destination. Cases have even been known of mutton chops being allowed at Christmas time to exceptionally industrious men. Preston Prison was another busy prison. It carried on a large trade, employed a commercial traveller, and the Governor was allowed a trade agent at a salary of £60 per annum. A taskmaster and assistant taskmaster also formed part of his staff. The regulations provided that "with a view to encourage habits of industry as well as to reward the honest efforts of prisoners, and to enable such as desired to reform to have the means of living after discharge until they can procure employment," the Governor should be empowered to grant a sum of two shillings to every prisoner who had performed his fixed task diligently and well during the whole period of his sentence (being not less than three months) and a further sum not exceeding two pounds for all work done in addition to such fixed task. The allowances were:—for an extra square yard of matting, 1d.; for an extra ton of stone breaking, 2d.; for every extra coat made, 2s.; for every extra pair of boots, 9d.; and so on. The same system prevailed at Bodmin, Bedford, Chester, Mold, Chelmsford, Maidstone, Coldbath Fields, Holloway, Lewes, and Warwick. Manchester had an agent paid by commission for the purchase of stores, and the sale of manufactured articles. The Governor ofHereford received ten per cent. on the net profits arising from the sale of the manufactured goods, and the assistant turnkey had an extra allowance of three shillings a week for acting as trade instructor. Then Kirkdale, Strangeways, Leeds, Lewes, and many other prisons were furnished, in addition to the ordinary disciplinary staff, with trade officers, whose duty it was to instruct the prisoners in the various industries carried on.
All this was altered when the Government assumed the complete control of all Local prisons in England and Wales on the 1st of April 1878.
In connection with the strict and uniform system of discipline which was introduced into every department of the Service, the granting of allowances to officers and the payment of rewards to prisoners were abolished, and in lieu of these rewards, the gratuity system, which is explained in another chapter, was introduced. The actual industries on which prisoners were employed remained much the same, except that, later on, matmaking, which had been one of the principal Prison industries, employing a daily average of nearly 3,000 workers, had to be almost abandoned in consequence of an agitation which had commenced in 1872 on the part of outside workmen, who complained that the competition of Prison labour was seriously affecting their trade. About this date, the oakum trade, on which the prisons throughout the country had been able to rely for employment for many generations, collapsed owing to the substitution of iron and steel for wood in the building of ships. This industry employed between 3,000 and 4,000 prisoners, mostly those under sentences then considered too short to admit of the teaching of any trade. At the same time, the Act of 1877 reduced the period of hard or penal labour to one month in the case of those sentenced to hard labour. A larger body of prisoners thus became eligible for the ordinary industrial employment of the Prison, but these employments were still carried on in separation, and it was not till twenty years later that the principle of associated labour in local prisons was recognized and adopted. The public inquiry of 1894 into Prison Administration was a practical condemnation of theseparate or cellular system except for short periods. It swept aside the old-fashioned idea that separate confinement was desirable on the ground that it enables the prisoner to meditate on his misdeeds. It held that association for industrial labour under proper conditions could be productive of no harm, and this view was supported by the fact that association for work on a large scale had always been the practice at the Convict Prisons without being productive of dangerous outbreaks by prisoners who as a class were less easy to control than those in Local Prisons. At the same time the vexed question of competition with free labour was examined, and representatives of trade unions who appeared before the Committee, while admitting that industrial labour was morally and physically beneficial to prisoners, only urged that direct competition with outside labour should not be allowed at cutting prices. They only asked that goods should not be sold below the market price for the district or the standard price elsewhere, and that every consideration should be shown to the special circumstances of particular industries outside so as to avoid all undue interference with the wages and employment of free labour. The inquiry of 1894 marks a new starting point in the history of Prison labour in Local Prisons, and steps were at once taken to give effect to the leading recommendations of the Committee, which were broadly in favour of the abolition of all forms of unproductive labour, cranks, treadmills &c., and of a system of associated, in lieu of cellular, labour. The problems involved were costly and difficult and only slow progress could be made. The provision of workshops alone in Prisons built for the most part on the cellular plan and for strictly cellular purposes was a considerable undertaking. The abolition of cranks, treadmills, &c., involved the necessity of finding work which should be of an onerous and disagreeable character for prisoners during the first month. The collapse of the matmaking and oakum trades increased this difficulty. The form in which the labour statistics had hitherto been rendered was thoroughly revised and the out-of-date labour price list, which had previously been in use as the basis of valuationin Convict Prisons, was abolished and a new list brought into operation on the 1st April, 1897, applicable to both Convict and Local Prisons. The old-fashioned "per diem" rates which had previously obtained in Local Prisons and which often had no relation whatever to the amount of work done, giving rise to fallacious valuations, were replaced with what are called "per article" rates, the actual quantity of work performed being now the basis of valuation. The institution of the new rates in connection with the new scale of the tasks required of prisoners now enables accurate calculation to be made as to the exact degree of industrial output and efficiency at each Prison. At the same time, a scheme was introduced for the payment of special allowances to officers engaged in instructing prisoners. The effect of these changes became at once apparent, and by the year 1900, there was an increase of no less than thirty per cent. in the average earnings per prisoner, as compared with what was earned four years previously when the revision of manufacturing methods was first taken in hand, and in that year the entire value of the labour in all branches, manufactures, farms, building and domestic service showed an increase of nearly £10,000. It was at this time that the demolition of treadmills had begun to place at our disposal for workshop purposes the buildings in which the treadmill had hitherto been worked, and steps were taken for the development of work of a higher grade such as bookbinding, printing, carpentry, tinsmithing, shoemaking, and tailoring, which it was thought it would be possible to obtain by the friendly co-operation of the Government Departments requiring such articles. Hitherto the Government work undertaken had been more or less of a simple and non-technical character and this must, of course, in the main be looked to for the employment of the local prison population, consisting largely of prisoners with short sentences, many being sent to Prison for periods of a month or under. Only two or three per cent. are for periods of more than six months. In spite of these drawbacks, the progress resulting from the new organization has been remarkable. There is a great improvement in the value of the manufacturing outputwhich in 1913-14, exceeded that of 1897 by no less than 88 per cent., and this has been achieved without entering into undue competition with private traders. The payment of trade allowances to carefully selected officers, though small in amount, has had a far reaching and stimulating effect. Not only do the officers take the keenest interest in their work, but the prisoners, now that they receive instruction in interesting trades, are year by year increasing their average earnings. It was estimated that the average earnings of a local prisoner in 1878, when the local prisons were taken over by the Government, was £5. 18. 0. In the year 1904, the average earnings per prisoner per annum reached £9. 18. 9. At this time the employment of local prisoners in associated labour was further extended: where shops were not available, they worked in the corridors, on the landings or at their cell doors for several hours daily: the numbers so employed, starting from comparatively low numbers in 1898, numbered more than 9,000 in 1911. The average number of prisoners for whom productive work is found represented in 1913-14 about eighty-six per cent. of the population, distributed as follows:—manufacturing department, 10,500: building, 1,700: prison service, 3,000: farm, 400.
By 1908, the average annual earnings per prisoner had increased to £13. 2. 0., and a gradual reduction had been made in the number engaged upon what are generally known as low-grade industries. A certain amount of unskilled and less remunerative labour is inevitable, owing to the short sentences of so many prisoners, and the physical inability of others. The work thus described consists of pea-sorting, bean-sorting, coir-balling, coir-picking, cotton-sorting, oakum-picking, rope-teasing, and wool-sorting. In 1908 about twenty-eight per cent. of the total number of prisoners under the Manufacturing Department were employed in this way. There was also a permanent non-effective strength, amounting to about sixteen per cent. This number represents prisoners under remand or awaiting trial, patients in prison hospitals, ill-conducted prisoners under punishment, and prisoners not told off for work pending medical examination,registration, &c.
The strong efforts made to increase the productivity of prison labour during the period which had elapsed since the daily round of crank and treadwheel was superseded by a rational system of tasked industrial labour obtained a marked success in 1911, in which year there was a record output of labour valued at over a quarter of a million pounds. In this year, the average annual earnings per prisoner rose to £14. 9. 4. This average has since increased to £15. 1. 0. in the year 1919-20. At the same time, there has been a decrease both of non-effective strength, which has fallen to 15 per cent. of prison population, and of the number employed on low-grade industries, which decreased to four per cent. last year. In 1910, satisfactory results became manifest from the development of female labour, the reorganization of which had been proceeding steadily throughout the country. By permitting women to proceed to associated labour at the commencement of their sentences, it was found possible to do much of the domestic service by prisoners with comparatively short sentences, thus freeing those undergoing longer periods for skilled labour,e.g., dress-making, needle-work, or other suitable occupation. Owing to the difficulty experienced during 1912-1913 in connection with the supply of materials for manufacturing purposes, consequent upon serious labour disputes throughout the world, there was a fall in that year in the aggregate earnings of prisoners, which still, however, continued high, thanks to the orders for skilled and unskilled work which are now placed at the disposal of the Authorities by the various Government Departments—the General Post Office, Admiralty, War Office, Office of Works, Stationery Office, &c. The sympathetic help of these Departments, on which we are now able to rely, furnishes a promising prospect for the present, and also for the development of other industries in the future.
On the outbreak of war, drastic steps were taken to secure a maximum output of war manufactures,e.g., the association of male prisoners during the first month of sentence; extended hours of labour; and optional employment on Sundays. The appeal which was made to thepatriotism of the prisoners met with a splendid response, and, in spite of the large withdrawal of able-bodied men and women for national services, the average value of prison labour was nearly £9 per head greater than for the five years before the War. During the period of the War, over 20 million articles were supplied to various Government Departments.
The Great War has sadly impeded the development of the plan of industrial training in Borstal Institutions which was originally intended. Up-to-date modern workshops, plant and machinery have not yet been fully installed, owing both to lack of the necessary material, and to the shortage of labour caused by the enlistment of inmates after a comparatively short period of detention. Rapid steps are now being taken to make up for lost time: advantage has been taken of the opportunity offered by the sale of materials of all sorts by the Government Surplus Property Disposal Board to accumulate plant and machinery, and it is hoped that before long the opportunity will be given to intelligent lads to acquire a good elementary instruction in various technical trades, which will facilitate their disposal on discharge, and also instil, not only the habit, but the love of work—the absence of which is in most cases the beginning of the criminal career, born of idleness, and the example of bad early associations. In the meantime, good work of an instructional character has been forthcoming by the employment of lads in the various building operations, often necessary at Borstal and Feltham, and the trades of carpentry and smithing incidental thereto. There is also a considerable area for farming operations at both places, with the advantage of healthy outdoor life and hard manual labour. There is also a regular system of instruction in market-gardening; and the various forms of domestic service, cooking, baking, laundry, &c., and in the case of those more fitted for sedentary occupation, tailoring, bootmaking, &c.
CHAPTER XIII.
(1) VAGRANCY: (2) INEBRIETY
(1) Vagrancy:—
Out of a curious medley of Tudor legislation has grown up the English idea of Vagrancy. It is a survival of a long series of penal enactments dating from the 14th century, which were directed against the desertion of labourers from their respective districts when serfdom was breaking down. Parliament interposed to prevent the rise of wages, resulting in the free exchange of labour, and, at the same time, to check the acts of disorder which followed in the train of Vagrancy and Mendicancy. Further penalties against Vagrancy followed from the Elizabethan law of Settlement. The wandering or vagrant man became, from the operation of these causes, a suspected or criminal person, and, in the course of time, vagrancy and crime became almost synonymous terms. It was not till the beginning of the last century that steps were taken to repeal and consolidate the numerous enactments—some fifty in number—relating to the law of Vagrancy, which four centuries had accumulated. The present law dates back as far as 1824, and bears the impress of the old Tudor legislation. It is repressive in character, and its object is to punish the offences such as wanderers are likely to commit. The offences dealt with by the Act are numerous, and can be divided roughly into three classes:—
(1) offences committed by persons of a disreputable mode of life, such as begging, trading as a pedlar without a licence, telling fortunes, or sleeping in outhouses, unoccupied buildings, &c., without visible means of subsistence:(2) offences against the Poor Law, such as leaving a wife and family chargeable to the poor rate, returning to and becoming chargeable to a parish after being removed therefrom by an order of the justices, refusing or neglecting to perform the task of work in a workhouse, or damaging clothes or other property belonging to the guardians; and(3) offences committed by professional criminals, such as being found in possession of housebreaking implements or a gun or other offensive weapon with a felonious intent, or being found on any enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose, or frequenting public places for the purpose of felony.
(1) offences committed by persons of a disreputable mode of life, such as begging, trading as a pedlar without a licence, telling fortunes, or sleeping in outhouses, unoccupied buildings, &c., without visible means of subsistence:
(2) offences against the Poor Law, such as leaving a wife and family chargeable to the poor rate, returning to and becoming chargeable to a parish after being removed therefrom by an order of the justices, refusing or neglecting to perform the task of work in a workhouse, or damaging clothes or other property belonging to the guardians; and
(3) offences committed by professional criminals, such as being found in possession of housebreaking implements or a gun or other offensive weapon with a felonious intent, or being found on any enclosed premises for an unlawful purpose, or frequenting public places for the purpose of felony.
The offences specially characteristic of the vagrant class are "begging" and "sleeping-out," and it is with vagrancy used in this sense that the Prison Authorities are chiefly concerned. Under the Act any person begging in any public place is an idle and disorderly person liable to imprisonment on conviction under the common law for one month or a fine not exceeding £5: a person wandering abroad without visible means of subsistence, or not giving a good account of himself is styled a "rogue and vagabond" and may be punished with imprisonment up to three months, or a fine not exceeding £25. There is a third category of Vagrant, known as the Incorrigible Rogue,i.e., a person who has been more than once convicted of any offence under the Act. Such a person is convicted at a Court of Petty Sessions and committed till the next Court of Quarter Sessions to receive sentence, which may be to a year's further imprisonment or to corporal punishment.
There is another class known as Vagrant, which does not come within the jurisdiction of the Prison Authority, and who is known as the destitute wayfarer or casual pauper. This class presents a curious history of quasi-penal legislation. No special provision was made for his case when the whole question of the Poor Law was comprehensively dealt with by the celebrated Act of 1834. During the years following that Act, there was an alarming increase of non-criminal vagrancy, and the principle of relieving the casually destitute in "special"wards of the Workhouse was established, and, with it, the principle of a prescribed task of labour in return for food and lodging. There was, however, no power to detain for more than four hours after breakfast on the morning after admission. It was not till 1871 that the period of detention was prolonged to the third day after admission, on proof that there had been more than two admissions during the month; it then became necessary to frame regulations for the detention of the casual vagrant on lines analogous to those under which the prisoner is detained:—labour, dietary, task, &c., and the casual ward became in many respects a sort of miniature Prison for very short sentences. These provisions, however, of which the purpose was to render detention in Casual Wards unattractive, especially to the habitual Vagrant, did not succeed in diminishing the number of the class of destitute wayfarer, who have for so long been a puzzle and a problem to the Poor Law reformer. The average numbers received into Casual Wards on a given day, for the five years ended 1876, had risen from 2,945 to 8,012 for a similar period ended 1913.