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

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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$APPENDIX. I. Extracts from the Evidence of Sir John Palmer Ac- land, Bart, taken in the Select Committee of the House of Lords, 27 th May, 1819. “ To what do you principally attribute the beneficial effects to be produced by the punishment of imprisonment ?— Hard and constant labour j and I believe there are no people work harder than the prisoners with us ; the orderly habits produced by it are not to be estimated : we have no noise, no abuse, no cursing or swearing, or any thing of the kind in the gaol. The prisoners, in general, despise a man who will not work.” “ What effect have you known to be produced by solitary confinement ?—It is a very good punishment when people are contumacious or ill-behaved; but, I think, if solitary confinement be carried too far, it hardens the heart; it makes them brood over their misfortunes: these common people have nothing but sensual pleasures to gratify them- selves with, and no good can be done but by leading them to better habits, and bringing them under the influence of moral and religious instruction.” “ Do you find it a very effectual instrument of subduing contumacy ?—The very best; there is no severity exercised in it, and it subdues a refractory spirit.” “ Is it regarded with terrors by the prisoners ?—Very much so: but if it be carried to excess, I think it injures the mind.” “ Do you find it effectual in two or three days ?—Yes, in general; very few people will hold out longer than two or three days.” * * * * * “ For the last eight years we never have employed a foreigner in our gaol, but only as a glazier or as a black- smith,* because we have no means of erecting a forge in our * In the House of Correction at Shepton Mallet, all the work of the gla- cier and blacksmith, and every other description of artificer’s labour, lias$