Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons : with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley.

  • Hippisley, John Cox, 1748-1825.
Date:
1823
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Prison labour, &c. : correspondence and communications addressed to His Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the Home Department, concerning the introduction of tread-mills into prisons : with other matters connected with the subject of prison discipline / by Sir John Cox Hippisley. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by The Royal College of Surgeons of England. The original may be consulted at The Royal College of Surgeons of England.

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    has not been yet erected; but, in the plan laid before the Committee, a provision is made for eighty solitary cells, re- taining six of the double wards, and exclusive of the projected Auxiliary Penitentiary, which may be a subject of ulterior, but of highly important consideration. Previous to the last Epiphany Sessions, and also on the eve of thepresent Assizes, the number of prisoners, in this Prison, exceeded two hun- dred ; and, by the occasional aid of the day-rooms, (to and from which provisional beds may be readily and without diffi- culty removed,) three hundred prisoners may, at the present moment, be not less conveniently accommodated in single beds—a number which, in fact, is not exceeded in six prisons in the kingdom.* It will be recollected, that the site of the Prison stands sixty feet perpendicular above the river, which runs in the front of it,- and that by the last purchase of ground the Prison is nearly insulated, (and may be com- pletely so, by another very inconsiderable purchase :)—that of nearly five thousand prisoners, in the course of fifteen years, the deaths have amounted only to four men, one woman, and four bastard children; and that it is most rare to have a single male prisoner properly an infirmary case.— But the prescribed limits of the present cursory recapitula- tion will not admit of further extension. (Signed,) J, C. H. Ston-Easton, April 3, 1S22. [ Copies transmitted to the Cleric of the Peace, for circulation among the acting Magistrates.~\ V. (County of Somerset.)—Extracts from a subsequent Note of Sir J. C. Hippisley, Bart, addressed to the Shepton Prison Committee, dated Stoji-Easton, April 10, 1S22. As so much misconception has taken place respecting the Prison at Shepton, it may be desirable to pursue the investi- gation. The state of the Prison at the commencement of the year 1817 has been adverted to in a preceding Note. It was then proposed to provide “ for at least 100 additional Pri- “ soners, and, in emergences, admitting an encrease to 200, * It must also be remembered at what a trilling expenditure this accom- modation has been effected.