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Convict Conditions
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THURSDAY, JANUARY 12TH, 1899. [AT FREMANTLE GAOL.] Present : DR. ADAM JAMESON, Chairman. Mr. H. Stirling, Mr. J. Gallop. and the Secretary. The Rev. Canon Sweeting, M.A., examined. 831. DUTIES.—I am the Church of England Chaplain of the Gaol. I take the services at this and the female prison, the depot for the old Imperial convicts, and the lunatic asylum. That involves 22 services a week. I receive £175 and quarters. The stipend attaching to the position when there were only 80 prisoners was £400 a year. The number has, since the reduction to £175, exceeded 400 prisoners at times. 832. DAILY MORNING SERVICE.—I think It would be most undesirable to abolish the morning service. In the interests of discipline, compulsory attendance is necessary, but, at the same time, if there is any conscientious objection to attending any form of public worship, I would allow prisoners entertaining such objection to absent themselves, provided that they were, during the time allowed to service, confined to their cells. I have always found the prisoners attending church attentive and decorous in their conduct. There are more Roman Catholics than Protestants in the gaol. Many of the former are only nominally members of that church. They put themselves down as such to escape the morning service. 833. LIBRARY.—I see no objection to the amalgamation of the Roman Catholic and Church of England libraries for the use of prisoners, if it be deemed desirable. Perhaps the Roman Catholic Church might object to some of our books, which have any theological tendency. Those might be excluded from the amalgamated library, if necessary. On the other hand, I should not object to the admission of any of the Roman Catholic books. They could not possibly do any harm. 834. EDUCATION.—I am opposed to the substitution of school hours for the daily church service. To begin with, the daily service only takes a quarter of an hour. Besides, all education should begin on a groundwork of religion. Nevertheless, I think it would be an excellent thing to have a regular schoolmaster for the boys, and for those of the adults who require elementary education; provided, of course, that the hours of labour of the adults are not interfered with, otherwise they would all want to attend school for the purpose of escaping work outside. 835. BOYS.—There are usually from 15 to 20 boy prisoners, whose ages range from 12 to 18 years, on the average. I teach the boys once a week, and give them work to prepare in the interval. The majority of the boys have strong criminal tendencies, and if let out to-morrow would come back here again shortly. Some of them are fairly educated, and show every desire to make further intellectual advancement. I see no objection to the church building being used for educational purposes. 836. EXTERNAL RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES.—I am not aware what arrangements, if any, exist for religious persons obtaining access to prisoners for the purpose of their spiritual improvement. I think it would be very undesirable to admit outsiders, whose zeal might outrun their discretion, with disastrous results. I know that that has been done elsewhere, but it has had the tendency to develop hypocrisy among the prisoners, who soon find out that it is their cue to pretend to fall in with whatever is said to them. 837. WARDERS.—I have never seen any abuse of power among the officials. If anything, the tendency is towards too much leniency. The warders are a humane set of men. 838. SUGGESTIONS.—I made certain suggestions about three months ago in a letter which I wrote to Sir John Forrest. I suggested an intermediate prison at a place like Whitby, to which the long sentence men should be sent for the last 12 months of their times. It would be a sort of stepping-stone between the prison and liberty. The men should be employed on the farm, and allowed to earn something to give them a little start in life. I have known many cases where men inevitably drifted back into crime, merely because they were without any pecuniary resources whatever on their discharge. Dr. J. W. Hope, Medical Officer of the Gaol, examined. 839. DUTIES.—My duties as Medical Officer are defined rather by tradition than by any specific regulations. The stipend attaching to the position is £150 a year and quarters, with an allowance for dispensing, which I have received during the last two years. I attend all prisoners who put down their names to see me, and I attend the officers of the gaol and their wives free of charge. I examine prisoners sentenced to corporal punishment, to see that they are physically fitted to endure it, and I am present when the punishment is administered. If there is any physical disability on the part of the prisoner, arising out of neurotic tendencies or heart or kidney troubles, I certify accordingly. 840. HOSPITAL.—The most suitable place for a gaol hospital is the invalid depôt, which used to be the hospital. It is now cut off from direct communication with the rest of the gaol, but that communication could be restored if necessary. The nursing staff consists of prisoners of kindly disposition. Of course they are not skilled nurses, but I do not think any change in that direction would be practicable. 841. CONSULTATIONS IN SPECIAL CASES.—Outside professional skill is called in when the occasion arises, and is paid for out of the gaol funds. 842. HEALTH OF THE GAOL.—This is generally good. The mortality returns show only two deaths for the year 1898. In one case the prisoner was suffering from cardiac affection on admission. In the other a short sentence man, who was in a very enfeebled state from diarrhoea, died shortly after his admission. I have never known a case of typhoid having its origin within the gaol; but men may come in with undeveloped typhoid which only makes itself known after admission. 843. SANITARY ARRANGEMENTS.—I think these are, on the whole, very good. The ventilation of the cells is effective, although when the ventilation is from the bottom of the doors it might be better if the draught were better regulated. At the same time, what suits one man will not suit another, and a good many of the prisoners have no liking for fresh air at all. The cells are small, but so long as they are used for sleeping purposes only, I think they are big enough. The ventilation of the light cells might perhaps be improved by inserting a piece of perforated zinc in the window sash. 844. PUNISHMENTS.—It is not, of course, within my province to interfere in any way with punishments inflicted, so long as it is not probable that the health of a prisoner will be injuriously affected by such punishment; and I have never known a case where the dark cells, or other forms of punishment inflicted in the prison, had any injurious results upon the prisoners undergoing them. 845. LUNACY.—From time to time prisoners develop symptoms of lunacy, but I have had no reason to suspect that that development has been accelerated by the prison treatment. 846. INDIVIDUAL CASES OF PRISONERS.—I remember the case of McCall, who died in the gaol. It was from the first a case the diagnosis of which presented some difficulties, not merely to myself, but to other medical men. It was a cardiac affection, and he was treated accordingly, and the exact cause of death was made perfectly clear at the post mortem. 847. MALINGERING.—I occasionally report men for malingering, but only where it is perfectly obvious that the prisoner is malingering for the purpose of escaping work, or securing extra medical comforts. I cannot, of course, accept off-hand the prisoner's own statement as to his alleged malady or its nature. If a man says he cannot and does not eat his food for instance, I very likely cause inquiry to be made to see if he is telling the truth, and act accordingly. In the same way, referring to the evidence which you have read of witnesses who say that in the case of alleged ailments the word of the officials is allowed to influence my decision there is just a certain amount of truth in it. Whenever a prisoner patient makes statements as to his inability to eat food and so on, which can be verified or otherwise by the officials, I take the necessary steps to ascertain the facts. 848. TREATMENT OF HEPNER, A LUNATIC.—In the case to which reference has been made, I ordered the battery treatment. I am not surprised that prisoners should have thought it was applied by the warders as a sort of punishment. As a fact they generally look upon the battery not as a remedial agent but as a punishment, and so strong is their dislike to it that I do not insist upon it except where its use seems to be imperatively necessary. 849. SKIN DISEASES.—I have not known any case of skin disease in the gaol being communicated by shaving. A parasitic affection might, however, be communicated in that way. 850. VENEREAL DISEASES, ETC.—In accordance with the suggestion of the Commission, I have taken steps for the separation of the venereal from the syphilitic patients, when bathing. They have separate baths. The towels are now thrown, after use, into a big bucket of carbolic solution. 851. IMMORAL ASSOCIATION BETWEEN THE PRISONERS.—Between the men and boys it is impossible, but I could not say what might happen between the men and the boys respectively. I remember hearing of an alleged abuse of a lunatic in the yard; but, depraved as many of the prisoners are, I feel certain that they would not permit such a thing to be done in their presence as is stated to have been the case. 852. DIETARY, SCALE, SUGGESTIONS.—For short sentence men, in all cases, I would recommend a light labour scale of diet. These men are frequently in and out of the prison. The current ordinary scale is 18 ounces of bread, 10 ounces of meat, 16 ounces of potatoes, two ounces of porridge, besides a little rice, which is given in the soup. For the short sentence men, say for all under a month, I would give 16 ounces of bread, eight ounces of meat, and eight ounces of potatoes for the first fortnight of their incarceration. Up to nine months, I would recommend after the first fortnight, 16 ounces of bread, 12 ounces of meat, 16 ounces of potatoes, and two ounces of oatmeal. After nine months the scale should be 20 ounces of bread, ¾ of a pound of meat, and a pound of potatoes, four ounces of vegetables, and four ounces of oatmeal. Where and when it is practicable, I would give wholemeal bread, as being more nutrition than superfine flour, and dispense with the porridge. When porridge is given, it should be at breakfast, and not with the mid-day meal. Instead of the batter pudding on Sundays I would like to see vegetables substituted. 853. COOKING.—I consider bad cooking, rather than the quality of the the ingredients, has been the real cause of most of the complaints about the food. 854. TENDERS FOR SUPPLIES.—At the same time I think it is a mistake always to accept the lowest tender. It is frequently a more economical policy to pay a little more and get articles of undoubted quality. 855. DARK CELLS.—The blankets supplied to the dark cells are good. The health of the prisoners is not injuriously affected by the dark cell treatment. Of course the effect varies with the idiosyncrasies of individuals, but, as a rule, the prisoners are not men of nervous temperament. 856. WEIGHT OF PRISONERS.—Formerly this was not taken except when I ordered it, but I believe it is now recorded regularly. Nearly all prisoners who are accustomed to beer, etc, lose weight soon after admission. (The Commission adjourned.)
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