IN GAOL.

Observer, Volume 3, Issue 70, 14 January 1882, Page 280

IN GAOL.

I entered the gaol by this latter gate. Passing the offices, where the walls are profusely hung with heavy handcuffs and leg-irons, and the receiving room, where the prisoners are initiated

into gaol discipline, one of the first objects that met my view was a poorly clad woman conversing with a prisoner — probably her husband — through a grating, in the presence of a warder. My conductor and I passed very near this group, but the ■woman never turned her head, or appeared in any way to notice us. I suppose she was making the best use of the limited time afforded her to talk to one who, in spite of his prison garb, was still dear to her. There was little in the incident itself. It must be a common daily event of the place, but it called up a multitude of reflections. For, after all, it is the mothers, and wives, and sisters who are the real sufferers, as well as the sympathisers, in the vast majority of criminal .. convictions. The men, at all events, are sure of %f O od, raiment, and shelter; the women, may be H .«»tarving, shoeless, and homeless. But let us iiurry on, for there is much to see. We pass

into the penal department, with its two long rows of cells, divided by a corridor. The inmates^ are engaged in the various works, and the doors of the cells are wide open. In each cell there is a neatly folded pile of bed-clothes. The cells are all wholesomely whitewashed, and the floor is so clean that one might dine off it. Over the door of every cell is a ticket bearing the prisoner's name, the nature of his offence, date of sentence, and its duration. One of these I find relates to a man who was sentenced less than twelve months ago to five years' on a charge of rape, and for whose release a petition is being got up, which is likely to be successful. Ascending a flight of stairs, we came to another series of cells precisely similar to those on the ground floor. One is that of a man who is undergoing a life sentence for a murderous assault. Another prisoner, an old man, is also serving a life sentence for rape, and, like the Chancery Prisoner in the Pickwick papers, map never get his release until he' receives it at the h ands of his Maker. The man's family belong to the criminal class, and are sometimes all inmates of the gaol at once. jSfcar him is another old sinner, whose children have gone to the bad. On this floor there is a large apartment called " The associated cell," whicli is occupied by five Maoris undergoing short sentences for petty larcenies and other minor offences. In all these buildings ample provision is made for extinguishing fires. The prisoners are searched three times a day by men trained to the business.