• THE TRANSPORTATION BLUE-BOOKS. TICSET-OF-LEAVE SYSTEM AS IT IS.
WHAT are the present practice, condition, and effect of what has been called the Ticket-of-leave system? Strange to say, it is not quite easy to obtain from the officials who administer it a per- fectly complete and precise idea. Each man is prepared to tell you more or less respecting his own department, but even of that his notions are vague, and they are subject to change while he is under the very process of inquiry. Such as it is, however, we proceed to extract the substance of it out of the two blue- books that have already appeared. Everybody knows the gradual pressure of public opinion in this country and in the Colonies which compelled the Government to abolish transportation of con- vict prisoners, and to attempt the establishment of some plan at home for the punishment and detention of such prisoners. At the time of the inquiry in the spring of this year, there were sen- tenced to transportation and penal servitude, but actually detained in the prisons and hulks of this country, 6983 male prisoners and 884 femalesprisoners. Of the male prisoners, 1716 were passing the first period of separate confinement in Millbank, Pentonville, Wakefield, and Leicester ; there were 3729 in the prisons for public works—Portland, Portsmouth, Woolwich, Dartmoor, and the Defiance and Warrior hulks at Woolwich; 1155 invalids in the Stirling Castle hulk and in Dartmoor prison ; and 383 juvenile prisoners. The female prisoners are sent in the first instance to Millbank, thence to Brixton and afterwards to a re- fuge at Fulham. Under the latest statute upon the subject, the act of 1853, the operation of which gave rise to the present in- quiry, prisoners were discharged upon tickets-of-leave which were revocable. During the five quarters ending in March 1856, there had been 4679 tickets-of-leave issued. Out of that number there had been 181 revocations, and 422 men were reported to have "fallen into a state of crime." There is some reason to suppose that the number of relapses is much larger ; but upon this subsea the information is as vague as it is possible to be. The actual proportion of men who have "fallen into a state of crime" is guessed to be about twelve per cent, with about eight per cent more ; but confessedly, this additional eight per cent is imaginary. Before the present inquiry, the convicts were allowed to obtain the conditional release according to their good conduct. This "good conduct" appears to have been nothing more specific than the absence of bad conduct. They are presented with certain gratuities upon being released, the accumulative results of small payments allowed to them for industry in prison. The adult males appear to be classified in the first place with
reference to the date of their sentence, next with regard to their physical strength, and then with regard to their conduct. In the first place, they are confined separately. A man who is sentenced to seven years' transportation is recommended for licence in three years ; a man who is sentenced to fifteen years' transportation, at six and a half; and so on. These proportions are for prisoners of " ex- emplary " conduct. The men are badged to denote the character of their behaviour : if they are marked in the second class, they have to perform three months longer upon the public works ; if of the third class, six months longer ; and so on. Their badges en- title them also to some few privileges, such as visits from their friends. At Portland, the men are principally employed in parrying stone and in trades connected with keeping their tools in order ; at Portsmouth, in dockyard labour ; at Woolwich, dockyard or arsenal labour ; at Dartmoor, the labour is chiefly agricultural. The former occupation of the prisoner is made available as far as it can be for the labour of the prison. Black- smiths, smiths, and carpenters, for example, are set to their own work. In some eases men are employed at shoemaking or repair-
mn While the prisoner is in confinement, the Chaplain collects what information he can respecting the prospects of aid after his release. When his time has arrived for discharge, or for his release on leave, he is sent to the nearest railway station, un- der the charge of an officer, who pays his travelling expenses "so far as that railway company will receive them," to the place of the man's destination. He is also furnished with a post-office order on the place of his destination for the first instalment of the gratuity of earnings. In the case of a prisoner having friends, he is sent to that particular place : but those who have no friends form a very considerable class ; they are usually sent back to the places of their conviction.
It is now that the men become a public nuisance ; it is now that
they are guilty of that conduct which has raised the outcry .in favour of renewed transportation. The English people, learning what it is to have convicted felons turned loose among them, de- sire to retransfer that infliction to the Colonies, Some of the men,. perhaps some of those who have made themselves most notorious in these ulterior excesses, have held tickets-of-leave ; the novelty of the class drew especial attention to this peculiar infliction upon the public ; and at once the "ticket-of-leave man" was pronounced to be a monster of a peculiarly savage nature. Mr. M. D. Hill well remarks, in his evidence, that the ticket-of-leave man was in no case worse perhaps than an ordinary discharged convict; that in fact there was nothing peculiar about him except his ticket. Whether holding tickets-of-leave or not, however, there can be no doubt that the discharged eonvicts are a serious nuisance. Mr. James Smart, the Superintendent of Police at Glasgow, considers it "unsuitable and improper to allow so many parties to go at large, having nobody in many parts to look after them." It is the same in Bristol, in Birmingham, in London. There are about fourteen large towns where the pri, soners have had previous connexions, or where they have the op- portunity of concealing themselves and of pursuing some illicit calling ; and to those towns they at once resort upon release. Various means of keeping surveillance over them have been used, but none that are effectual. Captain Gardiner of the Bristol prison has had photographic portraits taken, duplicated, and. sent as circulars to the different places to which such men resort; and this proves a; better assistance to the police than the oldfashioned description. In May last, some twenty con- victs holding tickets-of-leave were known to have returned to Bristol: of these, five were subsequently convicted of felony ; five left the city and were reported to have gone to sea' three to Wales, one to Exeter ; two were in occupations of a doubtful character ; and five were "believed to be in honest employment." Nineteen such persons were known to be in Birmingham between November and February : of these the conduct of nine was bad, of two doubtful, and of eight good. The ticket-of-leave, therefore, is- not effectual in restraining men from lapsing into bad conduet. We have no right to presume that those who are absolutely dis- charged woulhl present a more favourable proportion ; the proba- bility is the direct reverse : so that the released convicts, whether with or without tickets-of-leave, are a nuisance to the greattowns, Magistrates and Police are unanimous upon this point. When these witnesses are pushed, they also agree as to one manifest cause why the prisoners relapse into bad. conduct. "I have no doubt," says Mr. Smart, "many of them have done all that they could to obtain employment and to get a living; but the difficulties are very great in a city like Glasgow, where an honest man has difficulty sometimes in obtaining employment, and, of course' the difficulty for a man of stained character must be much greater." Police-Sergeant M. Loome, of London' re- lates a conversation which he had with a man who had been home about three weeks. "I said, I hope you will get some work.' He said, Yes, if I can.' I saw the man afterwards my- self, yesterday ; he said, 'I.have nothing to do at present.' I said, If I can assist you in anything, I will. Do you intend to turn honest? I hope you will. He said, I hope I shall ; but I can do nothing.'" The boys confined at Parkhurst Prison, are far fewer in num- ber than those now consigned to Reformatories. They have to pass through the same grades and the same times as the adult prisoners. "What are the rules," Captain O'Brien is asked, under which prisoners are discharged upon licence ?" "I have no special rules to offer to the Committee," says Captain O'Brien, "beyond that which I have stated"; which was a certain propor- tion of time. The boys are subjected to some degree of training, are employed at trades, or at spade labour. On discharge, the lad is, as the adult is, sent back to the place where he may have friends, if he has friends : in other cases, he is sent to the place where the directors of prisons know the governor of the gaol, who may help a lad to provide for himself; otherwise they release him,. and hear no more of him. Captain O'Brien is questioned respect- ing their improvement: "Do they improve ? ' he is asked ; and his answer is indeed full of instruction. "Yes, they do, very much. They improve in carpentering ; there are, however' very few that are carpenters. They improve in smith's work ; but there are very few that are engaged in smith's work. The tailoring very good ; the shoemaking is likewise very good." They are set a good deal to shoemaking. "Are you aware:" asks Mr. Beckett Denison, "that there are more broken-down- shoemakers in the different workhouses than there are of any other trade you can mention ?" "I was not aware that such was the case. I am quite free to admit that very few of them get such a knowledge of handicraft as to support them in that handi- craft after they are discharged." The boys frequently get back to their friends ; but when those friends are of a disreputable kind, the lads "become disgusted, and cast about for a livelihood of some sort or another elsewhere." After this kind of treatment of them by the State, we read with a melancholy feeling the re- port about 151 prisoners released from Parkhurst in the year 1855 on licence. Many relapse, many are "doing well." Of some the conduct is "most satisfactory " ; and one or two are found assisting their parents. Of the 151 in the table, 134 have turned out satisfactorily, 17 have not turned out satisfactorily.. Therefore, at least with the young, in proportion to the amount of discipline is the amount of amendment in those who are released. The system is effectual in proportion as it is developed.
• Women occasion much anxiety, and have defied very specific classification of the results. Their behaviour has induced Cap- tain O'Brien to range them in four categories,—the well-dis- posed, the badly-disposed but incautious, the impetuous, the ut-
terly bad and reckless. The first division is recruited mostly by women from country places who have been ill-used or deserted, who "are in fact as deserving of pity as of punishment," and whose conduct in prison is exemplary." They bear confine- ment without complaint, and are industrious. They form 18 per cent of the whole ; and about a q,uarter of their number is inca- pable through sickness of enduring penal servitude for three years. The second division is usually formed of women above twenty-four years of age, who are the Bohemiennes of large towns —the trainers of thieves and vagabonds. The utterly vicious are generally young or aged. They form 11 per cent of the entire number. The third class is the most curious. Their ages are from seventeen to twenty-five ; they are women with violent pas- sions though susceptible of kindness. They are almost all from large towns ; they will attack the officers of the prison, but on the other hand defend them against their fellows. They are ge- nerally idle, frequently indolent ; scarcely know the use of the needle, though among them some are clever at fancy-work. They thrive only in quiet; punishment hardens them. "The badge-system works admirably, as they are influenced in their con- duct by the contemplation of what may be in prospect on receiving their discharge; and they dwell on this subject more even than on the length of their imprisonment. They sometimes say, What is the use of our leaving prison, when we shall be obliged to do what we have done ? ' And they sit desponding in their cells till they almost lose their reason. When in this condition, a feeling of recklessness amounting to despair comes over them, and they will smash their windows and destroy their cell-furniture under its influence. They form 25 .per cent of the female convicts, and 24 per cent of them are not in a condition to bear three years' imprisonment. There is always a fear that women in this division may descend into a lower one, and become incorrigible • while at the same time there is a hope, which is occasionally fulfilled, that they may become reformed." Something in the female character appears to have induced Captain O'Brien to anatomize the working of motives and exter- rI influences, more than in the case of men or boys. The con- sequence is, something more like a rough sketch of the material we have to work upon and therefore a nearer approach to the elements of the proper discipline. The day after Captain O'Brien gave this evidence, he presented himself again for examination; and he then produced new rules authorizing the transfer of women of exemplary character to a " Refuge " at Burlington House, Fulham, which will probably hold about 200. "How is that Fulham institution supported ?" asked the Chairman. "By Government." " Howlong has it existed ?" "It has only just come into existence." This is not the only instance in which small extensions and improvements appear to have been effected while the witnesses were actually under examination.
Much more might be culled from the blue-books, but enough is here to teach us the just conclusion at this stage of the inquiry. When transportation was abolished, the officers of our penal law at home, acquiescing in the necessity with a reluctance akin to contumacy, were compelled to find a substitute, and to provide for the custody and discipline of the convicts at home. They did not agree in the necessity ; they have not given up the hope of renewing transportation ; they cannot much care if their substi- tute is a failure. We might have anticipated that they would not have applied themselves to the work of framing or adminis- tering it with excessive painstaking; and the evidence tells us that they have not. They have not executed it thoroughly. Some of their own partial experiences,—such as the comparative success of the Irish penal stations, which we shall have to notice hereafter, —might have shown that they could obtain more complete results if they would do more. But they had not even applied their minds either to conceive the absolute necessity of the case or to compre- hend their own task in its magnitude and in its practical details. Their vague answers on matters of fact prove how little they have taken the trouble even to think ; their culpable heedlessness, be- traying them into false statements,—as in Colonel Jebb's foolish assertion that " incorrigible " boys are not admitted at Bernal,— shows their lax sense of moral responsibility. In comparison with some countries and past days, our prison discipline is not so bad as some declare who compare it with an imaginary standard, or with excellent results obtained under active, conscientious, zealous, and intelligent administrators. We shall have occasion, however, to show, that the "system," only half-developed, is discreditably inferior to what it might be if it were intrusted to willing ad- ministrators, or if the present officers would take heart of grace and recognize their duty.
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