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Convict Conditions
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13. SANITARY CONDITIONS.—The stench in and around the hospital in the mornings is dreadful. The foul air from the men sleeping in the division seems to find its natural vent into the hospital when the door is opened. The hospital is also badly placed, because overhead there is the Roman Catholic Church, and the noise of the prisoners going in and out there is injurious, especially to the fever patients. 14. LUNATICS AND HOSPITAL ARRANGEMENTS GENERALLY.—There is no provision for dealing with maniacs or patients becoming violent under the influence of delirium. One case occurred where a man cut his throat whilst suffering from delirium tremens. There are no padded cells. The tea supplied to the hospital patients is made at 4 a.m. and stands for four hours before it is given out at 8 a.m. I think this is caused by defective arrangements in the cook-house. Whilst the officer in charge of the hospital is away for an hour at breakfast the hospital has to be shut up, which is very objectionable during the hot weather. The same thing occurs at dinner-time and after 4 p.m., from which hour, until 6 a.m. next day, there is no means of removing the accumulating excreta. The windows are, however, left open. The bath arrangements want attention. There is a new bath, but it is unprovided with water. A cause of complaint amongst the men is that, after medical comforts have been ordered by the Doctor, the Superintendent frequently knocks them off on his own responsibility. 15. CLOTHING.—In the matter of clothing, unless a man gets a three-year's sentence, he does not get his own specially marked clothing. I do not mean that the clothes remain unwashed, but the men naturally like to have their own special clothes. 16. MEDICINE.— Many of the prisoners who have purgatives prescribed cannot take black draughts, but the Superintendent insists upon these being made up instead of pills (of which we have plenty), because he thinks men come up needlessly for medicine. Nobody complains about the Doctor: he is kindness itself, but the Superintendent will not in all cases allow the Doctor's instructions to be carried out. 17. PERSONAL MISTAKEN IDENTITY.— In regard to personal matters, I would like to say that I was sentenced under a name which is not my own, but that of a notorious Victorian burglar, for whom the police mistook me. Some of the police know now that there was a mistake. At time of my arrest I had only been a few days in the Colony: but I produced evidence from respectable persons here to show who I was and that i was not the person the police believed me to be, but the evidence of the police was accepted. I have only just left a suburb of Sydney, where i was entertained on leaving by the mayor and councillors. I was three months in gaol awaiting trial. Bail refused, on the ground that I was a notorious Victorian criminal bearing the name under which I am sentenced. I am now being released on the petition of my wife, and my passage to Sydney by the steamer to-day has been taken under my real name. [The records and documents relating to the case were produced and read.] ( The Commission adjourned.) THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13TH, 1898. [AT FREMANTLE GAOL.] Present : Dr. ADAM JAMESON, Chairman. Mr. Horace Stirling, Mr. E. W. Mayhew, and the Secretary. No. 2920, examined. 18. PERSONAL GRIEVANCE.— I complain of the unfair treatment of the Superintendent, who seems, from the first, to have had a spite on me. He has several times threatened to break my spirit and make a skeleton of me, but he did not do this when anyone else was present. I was put in irons for attempting to escape. The irons hurt me, and the Doctor ordered me pads to relieve the pressure: but, notwithstanding the Doctor's orders, I did not get them for four or five days, until I was permitted to go into the shop and make them for myself. The only pads that were available were too light. I complain that the sentence of irons was excessive for the offence of attempting to escape. As a fact, I was only away two minutes. I jumped over a fence and was caught. At the time of the attempt I was feeling wretchedly bad and sick. The weather was hot and water dirty. I was tired of life, and would just as soon have been shot as not. With regard to remissions, I think that the Superintendent has too much power over the remissions allowed to prisoners. I found this belief on the fact that some prisoners, committing the same offences, get more liberal remissions than others. If a man is sentenced to irons for a certain period, I think the sentence should run from the date when it is pronounced and not from the day when the irons are first put on. If this is so, I got one day more in irons than ought. As to the work on which I am employed, I would like to have some work, however hard, that I could take an interest in. I work now at the pump. 19. OCCUPATION.—I am a boot-closer by trade, but there is no work of that kind available here. There are tradesmen in the gaol who would gladly do work at their trade if they had the opportunity. The present system does not reform any of us, and it makes some of us worse. No. 2561, examined. 20. COMPLAINT OF UNJUST SENTENCE.— I would like the Commission to see my papers. [Documents called for and produced.] I first received 12 months under the following circumstances:— Whilst in a state of intoxication I went into a shop where I was in the habit of buying lollies; went behind the counter, was found there and charged with being illegally on the premises. Was discharged after serving my sentence with 48 days' remission. When liberated I went to the goldfields, stayed there a short time, and returned to Perth, intending to go back to Sydney. I may say that in Sydney I was for nine years in the Sheriff's Office, and was retrenched when I was getting a salary of £240 a year. I had had no trouble of any kind in Sydney, although I believe that a tendency to give way to intemperate habits may have had a good deal to do with my being included in those selected for retrenchment. The head of my department, however, gave me an excellent character. After my return from the goldfields I was standing in the street in Perth watching the Lord Brassey procession. A detective arrested me and took me off to the lock-up on the charge of assisting in picking a pocket. Two more men were arrested on the same charge and subsequently brought into the cells. Before the Court, Mr. Brown, who appeared for me, elicited that I was not known to the police. The detectives did not know me and I had not been seen in the company of thieves. A woman was brought forward, as the result of advertisement, who claimed to have lost sum of money (ten shillings) similar to what was found in my purse; she also thought the purse resembled hers. It was an ordinary leather purse such as men use. I had bought it at Fremantle long before, and it was actually among the articles which were in my possession at the time of my previous conviction and incarceration in the gaol. I suppose it would be entered in the gaol records of prisoner's property. [Books produced confirmed the possession of such a purse by the prisoner.] At the time of arrest i had in the purse, besides half-a-sovereign, a silver coin of about the size of a two-shilling piece. I think it was a German coin, but I am not sure. I had won it in the train at "nap", coming down from Coolgardie on the previous day. The woman did not iderntify this coin, and she stated that she had not been in the street where i was supposed to have robbed or assisted to rob her. They did not take her to the place where i was arrested and ask her if she lost the money there. I understand Mr. Fairbairn has expressed the view that the conviction was illegal, but Mr. Roe, who sentenced me, thought otherwise. I paid a lawyer, Mr. Kelly, to lodge an appeal, and understood from him that this was done, and that the matter would be heard at the July sittings, but as far as i can make out he has done nothing in the matter. Mr. Kelly, as you will see by the documents, admits having received the money from me. I then petitioned to have my case considered before a Judge of the Supreme Court, and asked that it should not be decided by the magistrate who had convicted me, as he naturally must uphold his own conviction. My request was refused. I think in cases of this kind there should be some sort of independent inquiry possible. It now only comes before the Attorney General, after he has received the report of the convicting magistrate. During the time that i have been in gaol i have drawn up about twelve petitions for prisoners, but i have not known a successful issue in any case. It is generally understood here that a petition from inside the gaol, whatever the facts are, is useless. I would like to point out that the formal charge against me in Court was "being in Barrack street for an unlawful purpose." I think it was the first case of the kind tried, and there seemed to be some doubt whether Barrack Street was a "place" within the meaning of the Act. However, I got the maximum penalty. 21. CONDEMNATION OF PRISONERS' CLOTHING.—Under the regulations, when a man comes in, having 12 months to serve, his clothing is condemned. My clothes were almost new and had cost me £6, but they had to be condemned. 22. MODE OF DISCHARGE.—On discharge the prisoner gets a suit worth, perhaps, a few shillings and the hat and boots are easily recognisable by every one as the sort supplied to discharged prisoners. You are sent out without a penny in the world, and, if you are a ticket-of-leave man, must report where you are going to sleep. What chance has a man of obtaining employment if he is discharged penniless at noon on a Saturday, especially if he is tracked everywhere by the police? In my own case, on leaving gaol, I went up to Perth. In the street I met a man who had been in gaol, and did not bear a bad character there. This is only natural, because you come across men everywhere whom you have seen in gaol. I spoke to him. Then a detective came up to me and asked me my name, which i gave. He said "That's right, Wilson; always give your own name."He advised me to clear out of Perth. I cannot make out how he came to know who i was, except by the cut of my gaol clothing. I have had no complaints against me for misconduct in gaol. 23. FOOD.—Much improved in the last 12 months. Before that time it was really disgraceful. At dinner-time we get gruel, soup, meat, and potatoes; that is to much at one time. It would be better to have the gruel at breakfast. The tea is too strong and black, and causes indigestion. It stands too long in the cook-house before it is consumed. The 10 ounces of bread supplied in the morning is not in itself sufficient for a strong man doing work. The gruel is made in the morning and stands until midday. Half the prisoners cannot eat the pudding supplied on Sunday. 24. SANITARY CONDITIONS.—The closet accommodation in the yard is insufficient for the number of men. Only a short time, just before and after church, is available to make use of these closets, otherwise the accommodation in the cell must be used, which is undesirable. 25. CELLS.—In summer the cells are very close and in winter too cold. Their size is too small to admit of exercise for which there is not time enough in the yards. 26. TREATMENT OF LUNATICS.—A man called Isaacs, now in the Lunatic Asylum, was repeatedly flogged, although he was obviously of weak intellect. The floggings weighed on the man's mind and completely broke him up. There are other such cases: for instance, a Chinaman, Ki Sing, who, you can see for yourselves, is quite mad. He has been flogged three or four times. Incidentally, i would mention that i have been quite unnerved by the shrieks of a prisoner flogged at the triangle, close to my window, and i do not think that is properly a part of my punishment.
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