Millbank Penitentiary: An Experiment in ReformationGriffiths, Arthur
Philosophy
Millbank Penitentiary: An Experiment in Reformation
Griffiths, Arthur
Millbank Prison (London, England); Penal colonies; Prisons -- Great Britain -- History
Further, the governor had sent the supervisor to bring up the prisoner
for this same feigning of a fit, and had sentenced him, without medical
testimony, to three days’ bread and water. Yet this very Chinnery had
been in the prison under a previous sentence, and had been lodged
always next door to a warder, so that assistance might always be at
hand when he had a fit.
The next charge was that the governor had sentenced three boys for
opening their Bibles in church, to seven days’ bread and water,
censuring them for such conduct, “which he considered irreverent.” (The
words are Baker’s.)
The third charge was that a prisoner who had assaulted and wounded
a warder with a pair of scissors, had not only been flogged, but the
governor had specially sentenced him to be deprived henceforward of all
instruction, religious or moral.
The fourth charge referred to a prisoner, Bourne, whom it was alleged
the doctor had neglected, refusing to see him, although he was actually
in a dying state. At length the officer of his ward sent specially to
the doctor, who came and had Bourne removed to the infirmary, where
he died two days afterward. “It was the governors plain duty to have
prevented such a catastrophe,” said Baker.
Fifth: a prisoner, Harris Nash, died of dysentery after three months
of the ordinary discipline. “The body was what may be termed a perfect
skeleton.”
Sixth: another prisoner, a boy, Richmond, from Edinburgh, died after
four months, having been confined in a dungeon on one pound of bread
and two pints of water per diem, for an unlimited number of days. At
night he lay upon the boards and had only a rug and blanket to cover
him.
Seventh: several prisoners who had been present at the infliction of
corporal punishment had immediately after hanged themselves, shocked by
the sight they had seen.
Eighth: many instances were quoted of the governor’s harshness and
partiality: fines inflicted unequally, old officers punished through
his misrepresentation, others deprived of their situations as
inefficient, though for years they had been considered efficient; while
several had resigned sooner than submit to such tyranny.
Ninth: Edward Baker further asserted that the reply furnished to
the House to his first petition was garbled and untrue. It had been
prepared secretly in the prison; it was altogether false; facts had
been suppressed or distorted; and that besides, the “cats” used were
not those sanctioned by law.
Tenth: that the governor had exceeded his powers of punishment, and
that in some cases prisoners had undergone as many as eighteen days’
bread and water in one month.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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