inspection renders seclusion the more necessary. Of the prisons of which a Return has been given, thirty only have a sufficient, number of sleeping-cells to admit of each person being confined apart at night;—and there are yet thirty-one prisons in which are convicts, where no hard labour or employment of any kind is provided. The Act is neglected even in the construction of gaols now building. In several of these buildings, the limited means of classification and employment afford great scope for corrupt intercourse and mutual debasement, while the absence of inspection precludes the prisoners from observation, and affords encouragement to idleness and disorder. There is frequently an attempt at splendid elevation and external decoration, which are not only unnecessary, but perfectly inconsistent with the character of the esta blishment.

In a few new county gaols, the classification has been limited to the minimum required by the statute. It ought not, however, to be overlooked, that the Act contemplated an extended classification, where the number of prisoners is considerable, and declares that "such further means of classification shall be adopted as the justices shall deem conducive to good order and dis

The power of inspection is the first object to be obtained in the construction of a gaol. The superiority, for this purpose, of the radiating over the circular or polygonal form, will be seen by reference to the diagrams explained in a note at the end of this Report; and the examination of these plans is the more earnestly invited, because in some gaols, and those too en the radiating principle, no means are provided for the inspection of the interior of the prisoners' rooms from the governor's central station. — Vide "Remarks on the Form and Construction of Prisons, with appropriate De signs," recently published by the Committee of this Society.

cipline." The preamble to the building clause (sec. 49) is also thus, though perhaps too indefinitely, worded: "the justices shall adopt such plans as shall afford the most effectual means for the security, classification, health, inspection, employment, and religious and moral instruction of the prisoners." Wherever the numbers are large, separation, as it regards age, character, and degrees of crime, is indispensable; and where this rule is not respected, but slender hopes can be entertained of the reformation of the prisoner. The demoralizing effects of the neglect of these arrangements, are particularly felt by the untried, who being in but few instances provided with employment, are exposed to peculiar injury. But if the Returns from several places of confinement be incomplete, or afford evidence of the law being neglected, from other prisons no Return whatever has been transmitted, notwithstanding it is expressly required by law. It generally happens that where this omission has occurred, the gaols have been in such a condition as to render their exposure most desirable. The Committee might advert to the state of several, in illustration of this remark. In no case is it more striking than in the principal gaol of London and Middlesex. It is a fact, not very creditable to the Magistracy of the city of London, that no material change has taken place at Newgate since the passing of the Prison laws; and that consequently the observance of several of their most important provisions is habitually neglected. It is enacted, that it shall be lawful for the Court of Aldermen to make rules for the government of the gaol, and that copies of such parts as relate to the treatment of the prisoners shall be printed and fixed up in various parts of the interior;

but no regulations have been printed or prepared since the passing of and in conformity with the Act. It is enacted and required, that two or more justices shall be appointed, one of whom shall personally visit and inspect such prison at least three times in each quarter of a year, and oftener if occasion shall require; and shall examine into the state of the buildings, into the behaviour and conduct of the respective officers, the treatment and condition of the prisoners, the means of setting them to work, the amount of their earnings, &c.; but, at Newgate, the Magistrates do not at these periods personally inspect every department of the prison. It is enacted, that, while means shall be adopted to enforce hard labour for persons sentenced thereto, it shall be lawful to make provision for the employment of other prisoners. In Newgate, the male convicted prisoners of all classes are kept in a state of entire idleness. It is enacted, that provision shall be made in all prisons for the instruction of prisoners of both sexes in reading and writing; but in Newgate the adult male prisoners receive no such instruction. It is enacted, that every male prisoner shall be provided with a separate bed, hammock, or cot, either in a separate cell, or in a cell with not less than two other men, by which it was clearly intended that prisoners should be confined solitarily at night, or in small numbers, but that two male prisoners only should not be confined together. But at Newgate the prisoners, with the exception of those capitally sentenced, sleep on barrack bedsteads, and in large apartments containing many persons. It is enacted, that the convicted shall have no other than the gaol allowance; but in Newgate their friends are

allowed to supply them with provisions and beer. It is enacted, that restrictions shall be imposed on the indiscriminate visits of the friends of the convicted; but in Newgate such intercourse is unreservedly allowed. It is a serious grievance that persons sentenced to death in Newgate are not confined apart from each other; and that they have no opportunity of retirement for religious meditation and moral improvement. It is not unusual for thirty or forty persons to be congregated together in the press-yard, with but very imperfect inspection and control. Of this number a large majority well know that their sentence will not be enforced, and their corrupt conversation and habits are well calculated to obliterate from the mind of him who is doomed to suffer, every serious feeling and valuable impression. The prisoner, in this awful situation, has no retreat from the taunts and mockery of the thoughtless and depraved; and the humane attention which is shown to the moral welfare of the sufferer in most county prisons, is denied to the capital convict in the principal gaol in the metropolis.*

There is perhaps no circumstance resulting from the neglect of the Act, which is more mischievous

These observations must not be considered as conveying any reflection on the Governor and Ordinary of Newgate, whose duties it is well known are discharged with marked kindness and unwearied assiduity. The evils to be deplored in Newgate arise principally from the confined nature of the building, and the want of an active superintendence of the visiting Justices. Newgate is not sufficiently large to admit of the beneficial discipline required by the Gaol Act. This fact, however, is no justification for allowing the prison to remain, as it now is, in a state contrary to law. If it be necessary to enlarge the present, or to build a new prison, let the Magistrates of the city of London follow the example set them by the Justices of several counties, by the erection of a prison adapted to the numbers committed to it.

than the want of separate sleeping-cells. It appears by the Returns furnished under the Gaol Act,- for the year ending at Michaelmas 1826, that in four prisons, which at one time in the year contained one thousand three hundred and eight persons, there colwere only sixty-eight sleeping-rooms or cells lectively, making an average number of nineteen persons in each room. In six other prisons, where there were altogether one hundred and forty-six sleeping-rooms or cells, the number at one time was one thousand one hundred and fifty-six, or about eight in each room. A serious obstacle is thus presented to that reformation of character, which might be essentially promoted by solitary confinement at night; and the evils of association must, consequently, at such times, be aggravated by the prisoners being removed from all inspection and control. But it is not only in gaols in the country that this defect is observable. In the London prisons the separation of offenders is most defective; nor is there any gaol in the metropolis in which the evil is more severely felt than at the New Prison, Clerkenwell, erected in the year 1818. This prison is the principal reception gaol for the county of Middlesex, and upwards of six thousand persons were committed to it during the last year. There have been at one time two hundred and ninety-three men in confinement. The barrack bedsteads on the male side of the prison (exclusive of the infirmary, but including the boys' ward and the reception ward,) occupy a space not exceeding three hundred and ninety feet in length; there could not, therefore, have been at that time above sixteen inches allowed for sleeping room to cach person. The prisoners are thus shut up at night