The subject of convict discipline has for several years past excited
the attention both of legislators and philanthropists; but the
knowledge of the public concerning its details has hitherto been
exceedingly meagre. It is not intended in this article to discuss the
abstract question of the policy of transportation to the colonies, or
of convict discipline there pursued; but merely to give some account
of the system adopted at a new settlement in Australia. We will state
at once, that our official authority is a Blue Book--one of those huge
volumes printed from time to time, by order of parliament, for the
edification--or as some facetious folks say, for the mystification--of
M.Ps. Having carefully waded through its voluminous pages, we have
jotted down the passages that especially struck us, and propose to
present the pith and substance of our labour--for it is nothing
less--in a condensed and popular form.
Little more than a couple of years ago, it was resolved by government
to establish a convict settlement at Fremantle--a small town, as we
learn, of some 5000 inhabitants--in Western Australia. The first ship
arrived in Swan River on 1st June 1850, with 75 convicts; and in
October following, a second came with 100 more. Soldiers, and proper
officers to control and conduct the convicts, were on the spot; and a
tolerably suitable prison was forthwith extemporised out of a
wool-shed or warehouse. It is this kind of temporary and experimental
establishment that forms the subject of the published returns to
government, which are dated up to February 1851, and include an
exceedingly minute and clearly-stated detail of the operations and
plans adopted during the six months ending December 31, 1850. Three
hundred more convicts--principally from the Portland prison in
England--were expected in February 1851, and a grand permanent prison
was to be erected, to contain 500 cells.
The convicts at Fremantle are employed in both in-door and out-of-door
work, but principally the latter. The artisans--_tradesmen_ they are
styled in the Reports--such as blacksmiths, masons, carpenters,
tailors, bricklayers, &c., labour at their respective trades; and the
labourers, _par excellence_, toil at road-making and various other
works of public utility. The 'daily routine' is as follows:--The first
bell is rung at 5 A.M., and the prisoners rise, and neatly fold up
their bedding--they sleep in hammocks, we believe, as the documents
speak of the beds being 'hung' at night. The second bell rings at
5.15; and they are then mustered in their several wards, and paraded.
The third bell rings at 5.55, when they are minutely inspected by the
proper officers, and working-parties are detailed and marched off.
From this time to 7.55, the prison orderlies are busily engaged in
sweeping the wards, and making preparations for breakfast. At 7.55,
the bell rings, and the convicts muster, and go into breakfast. One of
the prisoners is selected to say grace, and the breakfast is eaten in
perfect silence. At 8.25, they leave the mess-room, and are then
'allowed to _smoke_ in the square before the prison door till 8.45,
when they must muster inside for prayers.' At 9 o'clock, the bell
rings for work, and the parties are inspected and marched off. At 12
o'clock, the dinner-bell rings; but parties working at a considerable
distance from the prison, are allowed to leave off work a quarter or
half an hour earlier, according to the distance they have to walk to
the prison. When grace after dinner--for which meal one hour seems to
be allowed--is said, they are again permitted to assemble outside from
1 P.M., till resuming work. At 1.55, the 'warning-bell' rings, and the
working-parties are again formed. At 2 o'clock, the bell rings, and
off they march, and continue working till 6 o'clock, when they are all
paraded, wash themselves, and muster for supper. At 6.15 rings the
supper-bell; and after supper they are 'allowed outside' from 6.45
till 7.30, when the chaplain reads prayers. At 8 o'clock, the beds are
hung, and the convicts are sent into them immediately; and the most
perfect quiet is enforced till the morning.
The 'rules and regulations' to be observed by the officers of the
establishment and the prisoners are very strict and minute; and, on
the whole, appear to be exceedingly judicious. As a fair specimen of
the sound and humane spirit that seems to pervade the regulations in
question, we will only quote No. 2 of the 'General Rules'--as
follows:--'It is the duty of all officers to treat the prisoners with
kindness and humanity, and to listen patiently to and report their
complaints or grievances, being firm at the same time in maintaining
order and discipline, and enforcing complete observance of the rules
and regulations of the establishment. The great object of reclaiming
the prisoner should always be kept in view by every officer in the
prison; and they should strive to acquire a moral influence over the
prisoners, by performing their duties conscientiously, but without
harshness. They should especially try to raise the prisoners' minds to
a proper feeling of moral obligation, by the example of their own
uniform regard to truth and integrity, even in the smallest matters.
Such conduct will, in most cases, excite the respect and confidence of
the prisoners, and will make the duties of the officers more
satisfactory to themselves and to the public.'
With respect to the degree of communication permitted between the
convicts and their friends, it is stated that a prisoner is allowed to
write, or to receive a letter, once every three months; but the
chaplain or the overseer reads all letters either received or sent;
and if the contents appear objectionable, they are withheld. We are
told in the 'Rules for Prisoners,' that no prisoner during the period
of his confinement, or employment on public works, has any claim to
remuneration of any kind, but that industry and good conduct are
rewarded by a fixed gratuity under certain regulations, depending on
the class in which the prisoner is placed; and this gratuity is
credited to him at the following general rates: 1st class, 9d. per
week; 2d class, 6d.; 3d class, 4d. If any misconduct themselves, they
forfeit all advantages, or are subject to the minor punishment of
being placed in a lower class, &c. A prisoner, by particularly good
behaviour, will be eligible to receive 3d. to 6d. per week in addition
to the above rates. The amounts thus credited 'will be advanced to
the prisoner under certain restrictions, or otherwise applied for his
benefit, as may be considered desirable.'
There are several long and extremely circumstantial tables given of
the amount of work done per day, per week, per month, &c. We gather,
that the estimated value of the work earned by all the convicts in the
six months ending 31st December 1850, was no less than L.3128, 9s. 4d.
The total number of 'non-effectives'--men unable to labour through
illness or otherwise--was 40 in the six months. The total 'effective'
workers, during the same time, was 586--artisans, 218; labourers, 368;
and this gives the average number of effectives as nearly 98 per
month; so that some idea may be formed of their individual earnings.
In the month of November, the total number of effectives was 154; and
they earned the large sum of L.823, 17s. 6d. During the following
month of December, task-work was adopted, and the effectives, 143 in
number, earned L.665, 19s. 10d. We are informed that task-work has
been contrived to allow each man to do 1-1/4 to 1-1/2-days' work per
diem, and to obtain credit for the extra amount earned. Were we,
however, to take the above figures as a criterion, we should conclude
that less, rather than more, was proportionately earned during the
month of task-work; yet this conclusion would not be fair, for
doubtless many modifying circumstances require to be taken into
consideration--such as the state of the weather, the number of
artisans as compared with the labourers, &c.; besides which, it must
be borne in mind, that although task-work has been specially designed
to benefit the convicts themselves, yet, while some would work with a
will, others, and perhaps many, would prefer unremunerative idleness.
To every breach of discipline, certain punishments are allotted; some,
indeed, appear very severe; and for many misdemeanours, corporal
punishment is not merely held out _in terrorem_, but inflicted.
Attempts at escape are liable to be punished by labour in chains, or
flogging up to 100 lashes, or to a renewed sentence of transportation;
and the recaptured convict has to work out the expenses of his
capture, and the reward paid for the same. In the list of offences and
punishments for the month of December, we see some very curious items;
and, not knowing anything of the peculiar circumstances of each case,
they are apt to strike one as being somewhat arbitrary. For instance,
'for refusing to work,' a man had 'bread and water for three days;' a
second, 'for insubordinate conduct'--much the same thing, we should
suppose, as 'refusing to work'--had the very severe punishment of
'bread and water, and twenty-eight days' solitary confinement;' a
third, for 'talking to a female,' was 'admonished;' a fourth, for
being 'drunk at work,' had 'bread and water for three days, and
fourteen days' solitary confinement;' a fifth, 'for threatening
language,' had his '_tobacco stopped for three days_!' On the subject
of the 'pernicious Indian weed,' there is the following passage in the
Report of the comptroller-general of Fremantle:--'The issue, under his
Excellency's sanction, of a small allowance of tobacco, has been
appreciated as a very great boon, and has prevented many
irregularities. It also furnishes an excellent means of punishment for
minor offences--that is, by its stoppage.' We can well believe this.
We know positively that prisoners will undergo any risk to get even a
morsel of tobacco, and would gladly sacrifice a day's food for it. It
is almost incredible what an intense longing for tobacco arises in the
minds of those forcibly restrained from the indulgence.
Several 'tickets-of-leave' had already been granted at Fremantle; and
on this subject we are presented with a mass of remarkable and
instructive information. The reader is probably aware, that convicts
in prison, before quitting England, are subjected to a term of hard
labour--proportionate in duration to the length of their sentences of
transportation--and to a further term of hard labour on arriving in
Australia. When the latter term has expired, if the prisoner has
conducted himself well, he is presented with a ticket-of-leave, which
confines him to a certain district, where he may engage to labour for
his own benefit under an employer. He does this, however, under very
strict rules, and the least transgression is punished severely. If,
for instance, he leaves the district, he is liable to be apprehended,
and summarily convicted by a magistrate, who may sentence him to
labour in irons; or he may forfeit his ticket-of-leave, and relapse
into his former situation as a convict. Or if he at all misconducts
himself, or is insubordinate, his employer may carry him before a
magistrate, and have him corporally punished. A list is given of the
convicts who obtained tickets-of-leave at Fremantle, with their
trades, and the names of their employers, and the wages they were to
receive. A groom received L.12 per annum; a carpenter, L.14; a
labourer, L.1 per month; a blacksmith, L.1, 8s. per month; a mason,
L.1, 10s. per month; and a brickmaker, L.2, 10s. per month. Each
ticket-holder must pay to the comptroller-general the sum of L.15, for
the expenses of his passage out to the colony. No ticket-holder,
unless under very special circumstances, gets a 'conditional pardon'
till one-half of his sentence, from date of conviction, is expired;
nor will he receive a conditional pardon till the whole of the L.15 is
paid. 'Wives and families of well-conducted ticket-of-leave men will
be sent out to them, when one-half the cost of so doing has been paid,
either by themselves, their friends, or their parishes in the United
Kingdom; or the expenses of their passage may be assumed as a debt by
the ticket-of-leave holder, to be repaid (under a bond) by the same
means as the expenses of his own passage.' This is paid by the
employer handing over to the comptroller-general annually any sum not
exceeding one-third of the ticket-holder's salary, and not above L.5 a
year in any case, unless at the man's own desire. On the subject of
this forced payment of L.15 to government, the comptroller-general in
his Report animadverts strongly. He says that ticket-men will try
every trick to evade it; and that many of them openly say, that the
situation of a well-conducted ticket-holder is such, as to make them
think it not worth while paying so much as L.15 for a conditional
pardon. The employers, however, he hints, object to pay ticket-men at
all; seeming to think government ought to assign them gratuitously, as
was done, we believe, under the old system.
The surgeon states in his report, that the food supplied at the
establishment is 'wholesome, and ample;' and the health of the
convicts seems very good, for only two had died up to that time, and
both of these were landed in a very debilitated condition. He states
the number of convicts in January 1851 at 140.
The chaplain's report is interesting and encouraging. He says, that
'the present discipline is well calculated to maintain the habits of
industry, order, and cleanliness acquired in preceding prisons;' and
he speaks well of the general attention of the convicts to religious
exercises. Above all, he strongly and wisely advocates the formation
of a library for their use; and hints that the books selected should
not merely be religious, but 'entertaining and instructive'--such as
history, biography, voyages and travels, scientific books with
illustrations, &c. One exceedingly interesting fact mentioned is, that
certain of the best educated and most intelligent convicts have been
permitted to deliver _lectures_ to their fellow-prisoners on the
subjects with which they were best conversant, and with the happiest
effects. Thus, a man who had been employed in a large brewery,
described the whole 'mystery' in a very able manner; a second, who was
by trade a French polisher, did the same; and a third, who had been a
sailor, gave two lectures on the art of navigation, and illustrated
them in capital style with diagrams drawn on a black-board. We cannot
but think that the beneficial tendency of these novel prison
recreations will be very great.
The Report of the comptroller-general himself is, on the whole,
decidedly cheering; and he says of the convicts, that, 'taken as a
body, I am inclined to believe they are anxious to do well, and by
honest and steady conduct, to regain here that position they have
forfeited in their native land.' When inquiring of government whether
the same scale is to be adopted at Fremantle as at Van Diemen's Land,
he says, that at the latter place the cost of officers--such as
magistrates, superintendents, overseers, storekeepers, religious
instructors, medical men, &c.--allowed for each 300 convicts, amounts
to L.1337, 3s. 6d. per annum, or L.4, 9s. 2d. for each convict. This
seems a large sum, and does not appear to include the heavy additional
cost of warders and other prison-officers.
The necessary brevity of this article precludes any allusion to a
great variety of curious and instructive details of the Fremantle
'establishment,' as it is called; but if what we have already said
interests the reader, and he requires to know more, we can confidently
refer him to the bulky Blue Book alluded to, with an assurance that he
will there find most ample and authentic information.