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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    “ of the number of Prisoners, amounting- to 140, not one is “ in irons; that they are well accommodated, orderly, “ clean and healthy, and have no complaint to prefer of any “ kind.’’ <f They cannot conclude the Report without again ex- “ pressing their entire conviction of the great utility of “ prison labour, and strongly recommending it to the coun- “ try at large as a plan, which, while it promotes habits of “ industry amongst the prisoners, and preserves their health, <e tends greatly to alleviate the heavy burden of county rates.” The Committee also reported, that it appeared that no DELAY HAD TAKEN PLACE IN THE PROGRESS OF THE WORKS BUT WHAT HAD RESULTED FROM THE ALTERATIONS SANC- TIONED by the Court of Quarter Sessions. April 29,1822. *** It must be observed, that a considerable part of the preceding Appendix has an exclusive reference to the build- ings and improvements in the House of Correction at Sliep. ton Mallet, in consequence of engagements subsisting be- tween an individual Magistrate of the County of Somerset, and the Court of General Sessions. What has been already, and early effected, under those engagements, has been par- ticularised j and also what remains to complete the original contract:—the cause of the present suspension of the works under the contract has been already stated. But, the con- sideration of most importance, on the present occasion, arises from the proceedings of the Visiting Magistrates of the New House of Correction of the County of Bedford, with regard to the unlimited authority conceded to the opinion of the Governor or Keeper of the Prison, as stated in the Parliamentary Papers, and observed upon in the Introduc- tion to these pages. Should the dictum of that officer, thus deliberately sanctioned, as it is, by the most respectable Bench of Magistrates, find corresponding countenance in any direct recognition of the legislature, no efforts of the description of those adverted to in this Appendix, and sanc- tioned by so many consecutive acts of the General Sessions of the County of Somerset, can be again attempted. Of the construction of the Prison of Shepton Mallet, so far as it differs from the generality of that of modern gaols, enough has been said. By the latest accounts from that