Second report of the Surveyor-General of Prisons.

  • Great Britain. Surveyor-General of Prisons.
Date:
1847
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Second report of the Surveyor-General of Prisons. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    13/280 (page 1)
    REPORT. TO THE RIGHT HON. SIR GEORGE GREY, Bart., SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT. Sir, 45, Parliament-street, \^th June, 1847. In compliance with your directions, I have the honour lierewith to submit plans of some of the principal prisons which have been erected under the sanction of the Secretary of State during the last few years, or that are now in pro¬ gress. The following are selected as examples of convenient arrangement and of the application of a uniform principle of construction, in forms adapted to different circumstances:— 1. County Prison, at Aylesbury. 2. Borough Prison, at Leeds. 3. County Prison, at Winchester. 4. Borough Prison, at Birmingham. 5. A portion of the proposed prison at Kirkdale. 6. Chapel at the new Prison, Wakefield. Before entering into further detail, it may be convenient, with reference to the extended improvements which are in progress in the prisons in this country, that I should briefly notice the defects in construction and discipline which have rendered them necessary. When public attention was called to the defective con¬ struction, and the demoralizing, neglected discipline of pri¬ sons about 30 years ago, it was most unfortunate for all the interests concerned that a step was made in the wrong direction. It was believed, even by those who had given the deepest consideration to the subject, and who influenced public opinion at the time, that if prisoners could be Classified it would effect everything that could be desired in the way of punishment and reformation.* Parliament was * There was apparently high authority for such a system, the great philanthropist, Howard, having advocated it. His views were, however, doubtless directed to providing a remedy lor the physical sufferings which his unceasini' labours disclosed, rather than for the moral evils of association, which any kind of Classification, however defective as a System of Discipline, would have greatly ameliorated. .A I