The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2Griffiths, Arthur
History
The Chronicles of Newgate, vol. 2/2
Griffiths, Arthur
Criminals -- Great Britain; Newgate (Prison : London, England); Prisons -- England; Punishment -- Great Britain
More cruel injuries were common enough, which did not result from
honest hand-to-hand fights. The surgeon's journal produced to the
inspectors contained numerous entries of terrible wounds inflicted in a
cowardly way. "A serious accident: one of the prisoners had a hot poker
run into his eye." "A lad named Matthew White has had a wound in his eye
by a bone thrown at him, which very nearly destroyed vision." "There was
a disturbance in the transport yard yesterday evening, and the police
were called in. During the tumult a prisoner, ... who was one of the
worst of the rioters, was bruised about the head and body." "Watkins'
knee-joint is very severely injured." "A prisoner Baxter is in the
infirmary in consequence of a severe injury to his wrist-joint."
Watkins' case, referred to above, is made the subject of another and a
special report from the surgeon. He was in the transport side, when one
of his fellows, in endeavouring to strike another prisoner with a large
poker, missed his aim, and struck Watkins' knee.... Violent inflammation
and extensive suppuration ensued, and for a considerable time amputation
seemed inevitable. After severe suffering prolonged for many months, the
inflammation was subdued, but the cartilage of the knee-joint was
destroyed, and he was crippled for life. On another occasion a young
man, who was being violently teased, seized a knife and stabbed his
tormentor in the back. The prisoner who used the knife was secured, but
it was the wardsman, and not the officers, to whom the report was made,
and no official inquiry or punishment followed.
Matters were at times still worse, and the rioting went on to such
dangerous lengths as to endanger the safety of the building. On one
occasion a disturbance was raised which was not quelled until windows
had been broken and forms and tables burnt. The officers were obliged to
go in among the prisoners to restore order with drawn cutlasses, but the
presence and authority of the governor himself became indispensable. The
worst fights occurred on Sunday afternoons; but nearly every night the
act of locking up became, from the consequent removal of all
supervision, the signal for the commencement of obscene talk, revelry,
and violence.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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