The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1833. THE DUNEDIN GOAL.

Temuka Leader, Issue 1145, 6 September 1883, Page 2

The Temuka Leader. THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1833. THE DUNEDIN GOAL.

The report of the Commissioners who inquired into the mismanagement of the Dunedin gaol has been mads public. It is satisfactory to a certain extent. Mr Caldwell, the .Governor of the Gaol is to be made to retire on the pension to which he, is entitled. Dr Burns, the medical officer, and Warders Flannery, Watson and Noonan are to be dismissed, if the recommendations of the Commissioners. arc attended to. Several other recommendations are made, which will be found in another column of this issue, but the ones above referred to are those to which we wish to direct special attention; Anyone who has read the evidence, or such portions of it as have been published in the newspapers from lime to time while the inquiry lias been going on, will say that it s'erved these petty tyrants right that they have been ignominiously convicted of the charges preferred against them. The disclosures made were startling. They reminded one of the stories about the black-hole at Calcutta, and were sufficiently revolting to make one blush for the civilisation, that .had allowed such things to go on so long. Not alone have prisoners been most cruelly punished, but some deaths have re suited from the harsh treatment to which unfoitnnate prisoners hare been subjected, if we are to believe the statements made at the inquiry, and there is no reason to discredit them when we find that the Commissioners have acted upon them. Why the arch-fiend of the whole system, Mr Caldwell, should be leniently dealt with, by recommending that he should receive a pension, while his subordinates are to be summarily dismissed we cannot understand. The Commissioners say in their report:— “That several prisoners were continuously illtreated with the general knowledge and sanction of the Visiting Justices.

“ That minor offences, and that of idleness especially, were frequently punished by the Visiting Justices by repeated sentences of additional imprisonment for terms, in many cases, amounting in the aggregate to far more than the original sentence of the prisoner, and that as in many instances the punishment of additional imprisonment was awarded for a first offence, at all events as first punishment, the Visiting Justices in the opinion of the Commissioners acted without authority of the law as well as with undue severity. “ That sufficient care was not taken to establish charges of malingeriug, one prisoner having died whilst under punishment (for that offence) in the shape of reduced diet and additional imprison-

ment; and another haying- been under punishment-for malingering; by reduction of diet and additional imprisonment concurrently with irregular treatment by the medical officer, as shown by the entries in the prescription book. In the latter case, moreover, on the man’s eventual discharge, the medical officer procured his admission into the Dunedin Hospital. “ That, pri the occasion of the prisoner first referred to in the last-paragraph, the Gaoler did not tender the evidence of either warders or prisoners’ wardsraen who were in attendance on the prisoner at the time of his death, and the Coroner and Jury were, in consequence, not in possession of evidence calculated to guide their decision upon the case. ‘‘ That some of the warders were urged by the Gaoler to make more frequent charges of idleness or other offences against the prisoners than those officers considered necessary.

“ That a system of espionage was .encouraged by the Gaoler amongst the warders and also amongst the prisoners, .both, as regarded themselves and the officer's.”

Still the Commissioners cloak the Gaoler and the Visiting Justices by saying that they were most assiduous in their duties. It would appear from the language of the above report they were most assiduous in what were not their duties, especially the Gaoler, whom they convict of having urged warders to make charges against prisoners when they had committed no offence. Those who have read the evidence will also remember that it pointed very clearly in the direction of showing that Mr Caldwell was guilty of immorality with female prisoners; that ho used, so to speak, to throw dust in the eyes of the Visiting Justices; that he used to lock up prisoners who were likely to give evidence tmfavorable to himself ; that he used to put obstacles in the way of the Inspector ; and, in fact, that he dircted every abominable and shocking act of cruelty that was perpetrated. The prisoner who had to sleep on the bare floor on the corridor while suffering from rherraatic fever was kept there by Mr Caldwell’s direction ; the prisoner who was thrown into a bath of almost scalding water was put there with his knowledge ; and yet he is to get his pension. The report is a scandalous miscarriage of justice. The scoundrel ought to be tried for the manslaughter of the poor unfortunates who died through his doings, instead of receiving a pension. The Commissioners themselves say that the Gaoler used to compel the warders to make charges against prisoners, when prisoners had been guilty of no offence, and they recommend the summary dismissal of the warders for thus obeying their superior, while that superior, who forced them to do wrong, is to have a pension ! Such a recommendation is a parody upon justice—it is disgraceful. We are not sorry to see the warders dismissed, neither do we regret to see the doctor sent about his business branded as a heartless unfeeling monster. ■But we certainly say that each and every one of them was by far less culpable than the man who is to receive his pension. He had control of the whole establishment; the warders would not have been cruel only that they knew it was the only way they bould please their superior, and if anyone were excusable it would be those who had to obey. The heartless, unfeeling tyrant who had control over them made them do what they have been dismissed for ; whereas if he bad been kind and benevolent, he would have compelled them to deal fairly with prisoners. As for the old women who, as “ Justices of the Peace,” have not only been witnesses to all this, but in reality were aiders: and abettors, they deserve to be struck off the Commission of the Peace, In point of culpability they come next to the Gaoler, and ought to be disgraced for the shameful part they played. The law does not allow the beasts of the field, to-be, cruelly treated, and certainly ought not to allow human beings to be worried to death, as they were in Dunedin Gaol. If Mr Caldwell is not prosecuted instead of receiving a pension, justice will not be done.