The State Prisoners.
(From 'The Age', February 14th, 1855.)
The following is the copy of a letter addressed by the state prisoners now
awaiting their trial in the Melbourne Gaol, to the Sheriff, complaining
of the treatment they have received:-
Her Majesty's Gaol, Melbourne,
February 6th, 1855.
To the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria:-
Sir--As the chief officer of the government, regulating
prison discipline in Victoria, we, the undersigned Ballaarat
state prisoners, respectfully beg to acquaint you with
the mode of our treatment since our imprisonment in this
gaol, in the hope that you will be pleased to make some
alteration for the better.
At seven o'clock in the morning we are led into a small
yard of about thirty yards long and eight wide, where
we must either stand, walk or seat ourselves upon the
cold earth (no seats or benches being afforded us), and
which at meal times serves as chair, table, etc., with
the additional consequence of having our food saturated
with sand, dust, and with every kind of disgusting filth
which the wind may happen to stir up within the yard.
We are locked in, about three o'clock in the afternoon,
four or five of us together, in a cell whose dimensions
are three feet by twelve, being thus debarred from the
free air of heaven for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four.
The food is of the very worst description ever used by
civilized beings. We are debarred the use of writing
materials, except for purposes of pressing necessity; are
never permitted to see a newspaper; and strictly prohibited
the use of tobacco and snuff. We have been subjected to
the annoyance of being stripped naked, a dozen men together,
when a process of 'searching' takes place that is debasing
to any human being, but perfectly revolting to men whose
sensibilities have never been blunted by familiarity with
crime--an ordeal of examination, and the coarse audacity
with which it is perpetrated, as would make manhood blush,
and which it would assuredly resent, as an outrage upon
common decency, in any other place than a prison. And again,
when the visiting justice makes his rounds, we are made
to stand bareheaded before him, as if--etc.
We give the government the credit of believing that it is
not its wish we should be treated with such apparent malignity
and apparent malice; and also believe that if you, sir,
the representative of government in this department, had
been previously made acquainted with this mode of treatment,
you would have caused it to be altered. But we have hitherto
refrained from troubling the government on the subject,
in expectation of a speedy trial, which now appears to be
postponed sine die.
We, each of us, can look back with laudable pride upon
our lives, and not a page in the record of the past can
unfold a single transgression which would degrade us before
man, or for which we would be condemned before our Maker.
And we naturally ask why we should be treated as if our
lives had been one succession of crime, or as if society
breathed freely once more at being rid of our dangerous
and demoralising presence. Even the Sunday, that to all
men in Christendom is a day of relaxation and comparative
enjoyment, to us is one of gloom and weariness, being locked
up in a dreary cell from three o'clock Saturday evening
till seven on Monday morning (except for about an hour
and a half on Sunday); thus locked up in a narrow dungeon
for forty consecutive hours! We appeal to you, and ask,
was there ever worse treatment, in the worst days of the
Roman inquisition, for men whose reputation had never
been sullied with crime?
We therefore humbly submit, that, as the state looks only
at present to our being well secured, we ought to be treated
with every liberality consistent with our safe custody;
and that any unnecessary harshness, or arrogant display
of power, is nothing more or less than wanton cruelty.
Some of us, for instance, could wile away several hours
each day in writing, an occupation which, while it would
fill up the dreary vacuum of a prison life, as would the
moderate use of snuff and tobacco cheer it, and soothe
that mental irritation consequent upon seclusion. But that
system of discipline which would paralyse the mind and
debilitate the body--that would destroy intellectual as
well as physical energy and vigour, cannot certainly be
of human origin.
Trusting you will remove these sources of annoyance and
complaint,
We beg to subscribe ourselves,
Sir
Your obedient servants.
[Here follow the names.]
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Sheriff CLAUDE FARIE, Inspector PRICE, Turnkey HACKETT, they will praise
your names in hell!