The History and Romance of Crime FROM THE EARLIEST TIMES TO THE PRESENT DAY [Illustration: Decoration] THE GROLIER SOCIETY LONDON [Illustration: _Armour of Ned Kelly and Manacles Worn by Prisoners in Tasmania_ The Kelly gang of bushrangers, of which Ned Kelly was chief, wore veritable armour, bullet-proof, made of old plough shares, iron pots and scrap iron. They terrorised the northeastern part of New South Wales from 1870 to 1878, and it became known as the "Kelly country." Troublesome bushrangers also devastated Tasmania, and when captured, were hanged or sent to the penal settlement at Norfolk Island.] Prisons Over Seas DEPORTATION AND COLONIZATION BRITISH AND AMERICAN PRISONS OF TO-DAY _by_ MAJOR ARTHUR GRIFFITHS _Late Inspector of Prisons in Great Britain_ _Author of "The Mysteries of Police and Crime" "Fifty Years of Public Service," etc._ [Illustration: Decoration] THE GROLIER SOCIETY EDITION NATIONALE Limited to one thousand registered and numbered sets. NUMBER 307. INTRODUCTION It will hardly be denied after an impartial consideration of all the facts I shall herein set forth, that the British prison system can challenge comparison with any in the world. It may be no more perfect than other human institutions, but its administrators have laboured long and steadfastly to approximate perfection. Many countries have already paid it the compliment of imitation. In most of the British colonies, the prison system so nearly resembles the system of the mother country, that I have not given their institutions any separate and distinct description. No doubt different methods are employed in the great Empire of India; but they also are the outcome of experience, and follow lines most suited to the climate and character of the people for whom they are intended. Cellular imprisonment would be impossible in India. Association is inevitable in the Indian prison system. Again, it is the failure to find suitable European subordinate officers that has brought about the employment of the best-behaved prisoners in the discipline of their comrades: a system, as I have been at some pains to point out, quite abhorrent to modern ideas of prison management. As for the retention of transportation by the Indian government, when so clearly condemned at home, it is defensible on the grounds that the penalty of crossing the sea, the "Black Water," possesses peculiar terrors to the Oriental mind; and the Andaman Islands are, moreover, within such easy distance as to ensure their effective supervision and control.