Appendix to the state of the prisons in England and Wales, &c. ... : Containing a farther account of foreign prisons and hospitals, with additional remarks on the prisons of this country / By John Howard.

  • Howard, John, 1726-1790.
Date:
1780
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Appendix to the state of the prisons in England and Wales, &c. ... : Containing a farther account of foreign prisons and hospitals, with additional remarks on the prisons of this country / By John Howard. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service. The original may be consulted at London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine Library & Archives Service.

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    At Venice, the great prifon is near the Doge's, palace,* and it is one of the ftrongefl I ever faw. There were between three and four hundred prifoners, many of them confined in loathfome and dark cells for life; executions here being very rare. There was no fever, or prevailing diforder in this clofe prifon. None of the prifoners had irons. On weighing the bread allowance, I found it four- teen ounces. I afked fome who had been confined many years in dark cells, whether they fhould prefer the galleys ? They all an- fwered in the affirmative : fo great a blefling is light and air! The chapel is only for the condemned^ who continue there a night and a day before execution. Regulations were hung up in the prifon.—Here is a charitable Jociety eftabliflied for the relief of prifoners both civil and criminal, and rules are publifhed for the diredtion of the officers who have the management of it, of whom four are appointed vifitors of the prifon. There are likewife rules for the good government of the two infirm- aries. Thefe I procured from the ducal printer, with the regula- tions for the galleys and prifons, for many years paft. One of the galleys was moored two boat's length from the fhore, in which were only twenty-feven flaves, who were kept here in order to be fent on board the other galleys. This was clean. Here, and in the other galleys, which were dirty and crowded, the Haves were in chains of about twenty-feven pounds weight.f * The rooms for thefiate prifoners are over part of the palace on the leads, which renders confinement in the heat of fummer almoft intolerable. * f I SAW a Have dead on the fhore, who I fuppofe deftroyed himfelf in defpair, for he could not hope to efcape by fwimming, becaufe of his heavy irons, I VISITED