15 APRIL 1865, Page 13

REFORMS IN THE CONVICT SYSTEM.

To THE EDITOR OF THE "SPECTATOR."

Sin,—It is now nine months since the new penal servitude Act —the third within eleven years—became law. This Act left little, as far as legislation was concerned, to be desired. It abolished the mischievous short sentences, of which the judges had been so fond, making five years the lightest that could for the future be passed ; it sanctioned the principle of "cumulative sentences" by appointing seven years as the minimum where a previous conviction for felony was proved ; and it placed the ticket-of-leave men under the supervision of the police, arming the latter with ample powers to make their surveillance effective. The details of the new scheme of which the Act thus sketched the outlines were furnished in a circular issued by Sir G. Grey to all judges and recorders. The circular was as satisfactory as the Act, and on paper the English convict system was thoroughly reformed. Was the reform on paper to be followed by a reform in practice ? The critics of the old no-discipline, with the obstinacy of official resistance to all improvements fresh in their recollection, were not sanguine. There is good reason, however, to hope that they will be agreeably disappointed. It was a good omen for the vigour and sincerity with which the new system was to be worked that the amended code of prison rules was promulgated among the convicts a fortnight before the Act received the Royal sanction.

To all parts but one of their new constitution the convicts sub- mitted readily, probably not at first understanding their drift. But the reduction of their diet (for his stomach is always a true felon's tenderest part) was promptly resisted. At Chatham and Portsmouth their rebellion was quelled before anything worse had occurred than the discharge of a few curses and brickbats, but at Portland, where the convicts acted with greater concert, the out- break was violent enough to render military assistance expedient. To mass the convicts in large numbers was one of Sir J. Jebb's most serious mistakes. The men felt the power their numbers gave them, and this consciousness was a constant inducement to insubordination. The dangerous outbreak at Chatham four years ago seems to have been a mere wanton, purposeless manifestation of irrepressible brute force. There 1,100 felons were congregated under one roof. The prison, which was built in the shape of a cross, presented in the interior a really pretty coup d'ceil, with its lofty corridors and light roof of iron and glass ; visitors used to say that it was like a great aviary. This elegance is now sacri- ficed to discipline and safety, and each corridor, completely walled off from the others, forms virtually a separate prison.

The diminution of the convicts' creature comforts was the reform on which the public mind was most strongly set. Their fare has been reduced by about one-seventh ; it is still rather more than an ablebodied pauper's, though less than a soldier's ; as long as really hard labour is exacted the present scale is not a whit too high. The gratuities have been cut down still more ruthlessly. Under the old management a " V.-G." (very good) felon—and most of them were " V. G.," if not better still, " exemplary "—could easily earn, as he rosefrom stage to stage, ls. 3d , la. 7d., and Is. Ild. a week, and thus become entitled to 101. or 201. on his discharge ; the corresponding gratuities now earned with difficulty are about 20., lid., and 7d. a week. But minor improvements like these are of minor importance compared with the substitution of the real for the sham mark system. Now, as formerly, the convict's time on the public works is divided into four stages, through which he has to pass before his discharge, gaining various slight privileges as he ascends. If he passes through them all without any delay he regains the maximum remission of sentence that the law permits. Obviously, then, the whole stringency of the discipline depends on the conditions of promotion from stage to stage. In the halcyon days of the old regime a convict's progress was never retarded unless he incurred a bad report. But to avoid such reports no great exertion or self-restraint was necessary; the felon had merely to refrain from swearing at the chaplain, or assaulting the warders, or any other very overt act of insubordination, and then he was dubbed " V. G." and promoted as a matter of course, re- gaining his liberty at the earliest period the law permitted. Now, however, mere good conduct counts for nothing. The felon has a certain number of marks to gain in each stage, and they can be gained by work alone. If he earns eight marks a day, and escapes all fines for prison offences, he will just get his full remission,— one-fourth of his original sentence. But to earn the eight marks, hard, steady work is requisite, in fact barely one-third of the con- victs succeed in doing so. Of course the whole scheme would be a solemn sham if the marks could be got by the laxity or conniv- ance of the warders; but this is carefully guarded against. The " assistant-warder " in charge of a working party is required to allot his marks to each convict to the best of his judgment, and to render a report each night to the governor. When the work is done, another officer is sent round to estimate (quite indepen- dently) the money value of each gang's labour. Great pains are taken to render this an accurate estimate, and fortunately much of the work, such as the quarrying at Portland and the brickmaking at Chatham, is capable of exact measurement. His report, re- duced from money to marks, should tally nearly, if not exactly, with that of the assistant-warder. If they tally the latter's allot- ment of marks is accepted as correct; if not, he is called on to account for the discrepancy, and if he fails to do so, so much the worse for him. Possibly, however, the explanation is easy ; two or three raw hands, for instance, may have been attached to a brickmaking party, and these, though diligent enough to earn full marks, were not skilful enough to produce the corresponding money's worth. Subject to such a check as this, in addition to the vigilant supervision of the chief warders, no officer is likely to be very lax ; against harshness the convict has an additional safe- guard in his right of appeal to the governor.

In this mark system the directors have at last got a back-bone for their discipline. Their system, if thoroughly worked, will now be more reformatory and deterrent than any yet tried in Eng- land. While the felon remembers his severe toil he will shrink from incurring a second term of it, and yet that toil, so deterrent in the retrospect, was at the time, because endured willingly for his own sake, tolerable, not to say reformatory. There is, however, still room for further improvements in the system. In particular it is to be hoped that the partial but satisfactory experiment of " special classes " will eventually be developed into a stage of ordeal discipline intermediate between imprisonment and freedom. When the matter is properly understood the public will not toler- ate the liberation of convicts before their sentences have expired, till their fitness for liberty has been as far as possible tested. There is, moreover, another remarkable exception to the completeness of the reform. If there is one stage of discipline where the marks are needed more than another to stimulate the energies and prevent mental stagnation, by giving the prisoners something to work for and hope for, it is during the dreary months of separate confinement. The exclusion of marks from Pentonville and Millbank is quite suffi- cient to account for the convicts there, being, as they often are, stupid, depressed, and prone to suicidal attempts.

With these exceptions, the public has good reason to be satisfied with the new directors, though three or four years must elapse before the value of their reforms can be tested by the only thorough test—the number of reconvictions. Considerable progress has also been made towards the establishment of efficient police super- vision over the ticket-of-leave men. The Act, however, which armed the police with the requisite powers, did not arm the Home Secretary with authority to compel the exercise of those powers. The consequence is, that while the metropolitan police, who are under the control of Sir G. Grey, and the police of the City and of soine parts of the country, who have frankly given their co-operation, exercise a fairly efficient surveillance, in many districts the ticket-holders are suffered to violate the conditions of their licences and follow their own courses without interference. Sooner or later a little coercion will be necessary ; meanwhile, there is some comfort in the reflection that our felons will show a special partiality for the localities where the police and the- magistrates neglect their duty.

It is far harder to devise the right discipline for female than for male convicts, and this part of the problem is but partially solved as yet. When, however, Sir W. Crofton and his friends have established, as they shortly hope to do, "refuges" for the women on their discharge, the greatest difficulty will be overcome. But just as one's hopes for a sound convict system are brightening, they are clouded again by the statement that the penal settlement at Bermuda, with difficulty but recently abolished, is to be re-estab- lished. It has been proved ad nauseam that among convicts congregated in a' hot climate, at a distance from the central authority, the vilest abuses are inevitable. It would be well, be- fore perpetrating this iniquity, if the state of affairs among the felons at Gibraltar were investigated. The official reports from thence are rose-coloured enough, but the unofficial rumours are

very much the contrary.—I am, &c., W. L. CLAY.