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Convict Conditions
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535. CLASSIFICATION.—This is badly needed. A man who is a first offender has to associate with all sorts of ruffians, who, if they see him in respectable company after they leave gaol, may blackmail him, and threaten to "give him away " as having been in gaol, if he will not let them have a few shillings. 535A. DISCHARGED PRISONERS.—Confirms previous evidence. ( The Commission adjourned.) THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 24TH, 1898. [AT FREMANTLE GAOL.] Present: DR. ADAM JAMESON, Chairman. Mr. H. Stirling, Mr. F. Craig, Mr.J.Gallop, Mr. E. W. Mayhew, and the Secretary. No. 3468, examined. 536. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Assault with intent to rob; two years and five months. 536A. DIET.—Insufficient. I have been hungry ever since I came here. I do not get enough to eat. I have no suggestions to make. Nos. 10494 and 10495, examined. 537. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Assault and robbery; five years. 537A. PERSONAL.—Our case has been the subject of discussion in Parliament, where papers have been called for respecting it. In the case of one of us the clearest alibi was proved by respectable citizens on the goldfields. No. 10494 was arrested first. No. 10595 came forward to prove that he was in the company of the other man all the evening when the alleged assault took place. No. 10595 was therefore arrested after the first prisoner had been committed for trial. The evidence against the prisoners was that of a woman of notoriously loose character, who swore she had followed us about up to the place where the assault took place, and could identify us. The prosecutor could not do so. We were found guilty, but the public on the fields and the police know that we are innocent. Our petition has not been favourably reported upon by the magistrate who sentenced us. It appears, as far as we can ascertain from the documents, that the authorities consider the case against one of us very weak, but stronger against the other. It is scarcely a case for remission, for if we are guilty we deserve all we have got, every day of it, if only for perjury, for we positively swore that we were together, and nowhere near the scene of the assault, and we can prove this. There was a third man, Watson, who was sentenced with us. He admitted his own guilt, but declared we were innocent. He escaped out of the Coolgardie lock-up and was not recaptured. We could have done the same, but we felt so positive that our innocence would eventually be established that we preferred to remain where we were. 538. SANITATION, DIET, ETC.—Confirm previous evidence. No. 10467, examined. 538A. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Blowing up a house; 15 years. 539. PERSONAL.—I have at times been in bad health and would like a change of food, but I was afraid to say much to the doctor about it, as I had reason to fear he was going to put arsenic into me with a darning needle or bodkin. [This witness made a wandering statement of very incoherent character, and appeared to be mentally deranged.] No. 3417, examined. 539A. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Larceny; six months. 540. PERSONAL.—I am going out on December 22nd. I want to get back to the goldfields, where I was one of the earliest pioneers. I am stranded here penniless, and I ask that I may be sent back there. I am well known on the fields. No.2059, examined. 540A. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Assaulting police; unlawful possession, ect. 22 months, in five cumulative sentences. 541. DIET.—Confirms evidence of previous witnesses. 541A. GENERAL.—I have no complaints to make. No. 10548, examined. 542. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Larceny; seven years. 543. PETITION.—I want permission to petition on the ground of the severity of the sentence. I have nothing else to say to the Commission. No. 10475, examined. 544. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Robbery; two years. 545. AGE.—20. 546. TICKET-OF-LEAVE REGULATIONS.—I had a previous sentence of five years and was released on ticket. The persecution of the police, who followed me about and reported me at the places where I was working as a carpenter, made it impossible for me to earn an honest living. No. 1840, examined. 547. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Embezzlement; 18 months. 548. REMISSIONS.—A prisoner may be recommended for special remission on account of hard work or long hours, but he does not necessarily get it. I am in the cook-house, and have to work long hours, and on Sundays as well. 549. LUNATICS AND IMBECILES.—These should not be allowed to mix with other prisoners. This is very undesirable. Men come down here committed as vagrants who are paralyzed, have lost the use of their limbs, and so on. This is surely not the proper place for them. They ought not to be classed with criminals; whilst as for the men of weak intellect, they should be placed and kept under careful observations. 550. BLANKETS.—We have the same quantity of blankets in the winter as in the summer, and in the winter it is very cold, and the bedding is insufficient. A strong drought blows up under the cell doors. No. 3754, examined. 551. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Larceny; two years. 552. CORRESPONDENCE.—All correspondence is supposed to pass through the Superintendent, but prisoners have reason to suspect that their letters are tampered with. There are, however, ways of getting letters in and out of the prison without their going through the Superintendent's hands. 552A. LUNATICS.—Owing to the presence of lunatics and weak-minded men in the gaol, advantage has been taken of them on more than one occasion to my knowledge by prisoners who have made use of them for unnatural offences. This is known to the authorities, but there has been no inquiry into the matter. The same thing takes place among the boys on the landing. The boys have admitted it to me themselves. 553. BLANKETS.—I have the same blankets in my cell which were there when I first occupied it 17 months ago. They were dirty then. 554. MALINGERING.—I have been reported for malingering, and my remission has, I believe, been knocked off in consequence. It seems hard that this should be so merely because I am ill, but cannot make the doctor understand what is the matter with me. No. 1816, examined. 555. OFFENCE AND SENTENCE.—Assault; four months. 556. MEDICAL.—When I was ailing the doctor said there was nothing the matter with me. He said, "Take your medicine." I replied that I could not see the use of medicine if there was nothing the matter with me; so I was ordered off to the cells at once. 557. DIET.—The bread is at times very doughy. You can make horses and cows and a whole farmyard of cattle out of it.
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