A TREAD-MILL to grind corn and dress meal, and a room to receive the prisoners during the intervals from labour, have been lately added to the male ward of the old house of correction. In the female ward of the same prison, a wash-house and laundry have been built, with tanks to collect rain-water. The crank-handled machine to dress flour, for the employment of such prisoners as are deemed unfit for the tread-wheel, is continued in use in the old house of correction, as a secondary species of hard labour. The tread-wheel has an index, to regulate the velocity of rotation, and to give notice of the change to each relay. An index is also affixed to the tread-wheel of the new house of correction. In the penitentiary, or new house of correction, a building is immediately to be erected, which is to contain a residence for the turnkey, a receiving-room for the examination of prisoners on admission, and a store-room. The original residence of the turnkey, being under the tread-wheels, is to be converted into rooms for the different classes of prisoners, during the intervals B of their rest from labour; and for protecting them from the effects of exposure to too great a current of air, or cold, when heated by the exercise of their work at the tread-wheels. The chaplain continues to superintend the religious and moral improvement of the prisoners with great zeal and assiduity. Reading is taught by the system of mutual instruction; and there is a library of suitable books, for the use of the prisoners. That part of the prison hitherto appropriated to the common gaol, is divided into four wards, for the separate confinement of the following classes: 1. Debtors. 2. Male prisoners before trial. 3. Male convicted prisoners. 4. Females for trial. To each ward, or division, there is a separate day-room, and yard or airing-ground. The old house of correction is divided into two wards, for the following classes : 1. Male convicts, for summary convictions, want of sureties, bastardy, &c. 2. Females, convicted of felony or misdemeanors. Each ward contains a separate day-room and airing-yard. In both of these prisons the male prisoners cannot see or converse with the females. There is also a chapel, and separate infirmaries for male and female prisoners. The new house of correction is a distinct building, at a short distance from the old prison. It is under the care of a separate keeper, and is divided into four wards, for the confinement of the following classes : 1. Male prisoners convicted of felony. 2. 3. convicted of misdemeanors. idle and disorderly, vagrants, &c. 4. Females for summary convictions, idle and disorderly, vagrants, &c. Each class occupies a separate day-room, with an airingground, which is under inspection from the keeper's apartments, the buildings being arranged on the panopticon plan. There are also infirmaries for males and females, with a yard attached to each; and a chapel, with divisions for the four classes. This prison, as well as the old house of correction, contains tread-wheels and hand crank-mills, at which all the male prisoners are kept at work. The female prisoners are employed in washing, mending, and making the prison apparel, &c. under the direction of the keeper's wife, who is appointed matron. The justices, with a view to conform to the regulations of the new Act of parliament, propose to appropriate the buildings, hitherto used as a gaol and house of correction, to the purposes of a gaol only, and to introduce the following classification therein : 1. Debtors, and persons committed for contempt of The new house of correction will be continued for the follow ing classes: 1. Males convicted for the first time of felony. 2. ..... under summary convictions, for fines, 3. Male vagrants. 4. Females after trial. Although it might appear that much evil, as well as inconvenience, would be likely to arise, from the females being divided into two classes only, yet it is stated that there is scarcely one female committed for felony, on an average, in two years, and that eighteen months have frequently passed without any such commitment. The old gaol and house of correction contain forty-eight separate sleeping cells, in which 70 prisoners were in confinement at one time in the last year. The new house of correction has forty sleeping cells, in which 60 prisoners have been placed at one time. The whole number of commitments in the year has been 376; and of re-commitments, 37-being ten per cent. The amount of earnings, in the house of correction, last year, was £58. 1s. The weekly cost of food is 2s. 10d. per head for those who labour. The dietary is the same as in the last year. Clothing is allowed in both prisons. Irons have not been used for the last three years, excepting as a punishment for attempting to escape, and in the case of convicts under sentence of transportation. There is a county lunatic asylum, in which criminal lunatics, in a dangerous state, are confined; so that no prisoners of this description remain in any of the county prisons after trial. |