SCENES IN NELSON GAOL.

Dunstan Times, Issue 956, 13 August 1880, Page 3

SCENES IN NELSON GAOL.

It was the publication of the following statemeut in a Wellington paper by on exwarder, that induced the Government to order that a strict enquiry shall he made into the management of the Nelson Gaol. We would merely add that if a tithe of ex-warder’s allegations prove true, the matter should not be allowed to end with the enquiry;— The first thing that struck me was the total disrespect of all human principles in dealing with refractory prisoners, and the easy manner in which enquiry into complaints made by prisoners to the visiting justices was avoided, neither the prisoner who Complained nor any other witness being called to give evidence. One instance of this kind will suffice : A prisoner named Thompson was transferred from the Wanganui to the Nelson Gaol to undergo a sentence of eighteen months’ hard labour. Before ho was sent to Nelson he was examined by Dis Tripe and Earl, and pronounced to be insane. He was, therefore, sent to Nelson in a straight jacket, and there placed in the Lunatic Asylum. After remaining there some time he was sent back to the gaol, but it was observed that he frequently showed symptoms of incipient insanity. On one of these occasions he was committed to tho solitary cell for fourteen days for refusing to go to work ; and, as it may easily be imagined, one effect of such solitary confinement upon one bordering on insanity was that he used obscene language. This proceeding being objected to, Police Sergeant Nash and Constable Withers were- brought to the gaol at midnight and instructed to handcuff the prisoner’s hands behind his hack. After this was done a rope was lashed round his ankles and then passed between his arms and drawn tightly up, so that the prisoner’s position was that of a man kneeling with his hip resting on his heels. This

was apparently not thought sufficient punishment, and a gag was hastily improvised out of a piece of wood, to completely prevent the prisoner speaking, but after being fitted into the prisoner’s mouch it was found to be rather small, so a rag was procured and wound round the wooden gag. He was left in this position for threequarters of an hour, and when the handcuffs were removed it was discovered that his ankles and wrists were swollen to a fearful extent. The man was terribly exhausted, and Could scarcely articulate “water.” I am quite aware that the visiting justices professed to have enquired into this gagging case,' but I positively assert that the man who was gagged was not brought before the justices, neither were any of the officials concerned in the matter examined. The solitary dark cell, or in gaol parlance, .“the dummy," is an apartment where a prisoner under sentence is compelled to remain in total darkness. Two blankets are allowed but no mattrass. I have known, when an unfortunate wretch Las been inured in -this; cell, that water has been poured under the cell door to frighten the prisoner, who, being m total darkness, was unable to ascertain or imagine the cause.