WESTPORT GAOL.

Westport Times, Volume VI, Issue 985, 5 July 1872, Page 3

WESTPORT GAOL.

It is within the hounds of possibility that tho removal of the Westport Gaol building will be absolutely necessary at no very distant date, and as improvements andenlargementstherein will be also necessary, and have, in fact, been already suggested, it will not be out of place to refer thereto. The gaol as at present built, comprises a series of small, badly arranged, cells and ward?, resembling more in their contracted dimensions, the 'tween deck cabins of a crowded emigrant ship, rather than a building for the

keeping in good health and safe custody, of prisoners for lengthened periods. Entering from the front, a ; door on the right hand opens into the gaoler's quarters—three small rooms, . ( n igly built, but too confinedfor family comfort or convenience. On the left laid another door opens into the warder's room, which does duty also as Warder's dormitory, gaoler's office, and visiting room. It has been suggested that this r3om should bo divided into two, thus making the visiting room separate from the warder's quarters. Leading off from this room is a passage into which the doors of the prison cells open on either side. These cells are small dimly lighted dens, each fitted with moveable bunks for four occupants, arranged similarly to those in use in the Dunedin Gaol, but of more contracted dimensions. One of these cells is used for solitary confinement; and thus wheu at any time all the cells are occupied, and it becomes necessary to subject a prisoner to such punishment, it can be only inflicted by crowding the rest of the inmates into still closer quarters, so that the delinquent may have a cell to himself. There is also no other accommodation for the safe keeping of lunatics, other than in the ordinary prisoners cells ; and debtors undergoing imprisonment are subjected to the same treatment, except that Mr Maguire, generally permits them to crawl up into a sort of cock loft under the roof, and there " doss down" at night, as best they may. At present, however, debtors are not often impri. soned; the rule that detaining creditors shall pay twelve shillings per week maintenance money, restraining many from enforcing the strict letter of the law. At the end of the passage above mentioned a door opens into the prisoners mess room, a small, ill-contrived ward to which male and female prisoners alike have access. It is proposed to extend the area of this ward, and then by carrying the passage right through to divide it into two messrooms, thus keeping prisoners more' within the bounds of prison discipline. Leading off from this ward, a door opens into the female prisoners ward, where, as in the male cells, much crowding together and inevitable confusion prevails. There too are kept the children of female prisoners, there being no separate quarters for them. An arrangement conducing nothing to the health or morals of the little unfortunates. A small outhouse and a yard, comprise the rest of the gaol premises, and the insufficiency of the accommodation and defective arrangements are obvious to any casual visitor. Kitchens, bath-houses, separate wards and cells, roomy passages, and all the usual arrangements for the healthful keeping, and strict control of prisoners, are wanting, and the gaol i 3 at the best but an enlarged watch house, wherein good order and discipline prevail only by reason of constant vigilant supervision.

Apart from the necessity of extended accommodation, another matter presents itself for consideration, and needs instant attention. The majority of female prisoners are of the class mildly termed habitual drunkards, in reality, abandoned vagrants, whose presence on goldfields and seaport towns is inevitable. They come flocking thither bringing with them, in most cases, a brood of illegitimate offspring, and, when, in the usual course of events, the mothers become amenable to prison discipline, for lengthened sentences, the children are taken into custody also, and frequently forwarded to the Orphan Asylum at Motueka, Nelson, at the expense, not of the parents, but of the Government. Thus a premium is actually offered to abandoned females, to take a spell in gaol, knowing that, in the meantime, their children will be well cared for and educated by a paternal government, even with less trouble on the part of the putative parents, than would be entailed on honest living, but unfortunate individuals, seeking relief for the support of their legitimate families. As a case in point may be instanced a very recent occurrence, a female prisoner was sent from Eeefton to "Westport, under sentence of fourteen months imprisonment with hard labor. Accompanying the woman were three young children, all of whom she begged and prayed might be sent to the Motueka Refuge, but when asked to contribute to their support, she has refused. It is known to the gaol authorities that, with the thrift peculiar to many of her class, she has for years past, been hoarding up a portion of her ill-gotten gains, by deposits in the Savings Bank, and yet they have no power to compel her to pay for the support of her children, who remain now in the Westport Gaol, and will continue to do so unless they are sent at Government expense to Motueka. The difficulty is, that supposing they should be sent there, the mother may, on her discharge from prison, suddenly disappear, travelling to parts unknown, and leaving her offspring a perpetual charge on the country. It has been suggested that, out of the usual grant for charitable aid, a building might be erected within the precincts of the gaol, and some arrangements made for the care and control of the children of prisoners undergoing sentence, at a much less expence than is now entailed by sending them to Nelson. The cost per head per day of maintaining prisoners in the Westport Gaol is, for male prisoners, sentenced to hard labor, a fraction less than lOd, and females of the same class, a fraction over Bd. At Cobden and Ahaura, the cost is two shillings and sixpence

per day, and at Eeefton, four shillings and sixpence. It may bo presumed that the charges, so widely different, are in each case based on'economical calculations, but the wisdom of keeping prisoners at country stations at so great an expense, compared to tho rates paid at Westport for maintainance, is very doubtful. And moreover it seems unwise to keop prisoners in places where their labor cannot be turned to profitable account, where so much needs doing in Westport of that kind of work for which prison labor is most fitted. A gang of 12 prisoners only, kept to work at street and road improvements, would soon make a preceptible difference in the appearance of the thoroughfares, and now that the new site for the township of Westport will shortly be laid off for occupation, the Nelson Government could not do better than direct that every male prisoner sentenced on the South-west Goldfields, should, as soon as gaol accommodation can be provided, be sent to Westport to work on the streets and drainage of tho new township. Thus following the example set by the Otago Government, whereby prison labor has been largely utilised in public works. The removal of Bell Hill, and the Beclamation works in the Harbor, for instance. Another point worthy of attention, is the fact that tho Eesident Magistrate and Warden at Westport, and whose time is fully occupied in his district duties, is at present the only Visiting Justice to the Gaol. The only Justice of the Peaee at Westport, being, also tho Medical Office:' of the GaoL It will, as a matter of course, happen, now and then, that unruly prisoners need the wholesome correction of lengthened solitary confinement, or other punishment, beyond that the Governor of the Gaol is authorised to inflict, and it would be evidently more in accordance with the fitness of things that some gentleman should bo appointed to visit the Gaol in the absence of tlio Eesident Magistrate, and hear and decide upon any serious complaints arising from the breacli of prison rules. It would surely be no difficult matter to select some resident, of good repute and standing, on whom the dignity of Justice of the Peace, and Visiting Magistrate, might be worthily conferred. It has before been pointed out that, as a matter of general public right and convenience, there should be another Justice of the Peace appointed for the Westport District.