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LJ002-0015 | three hundred debtors and nine hundred criminals in Newgate, or twelve hundred prisoners in all. |
LJ002-0016 | Previous to that date there had been seven hundred or eight hundred frequently, and once, in Mr. Akerman's time, one thousand. |
LJ002-0017 | Trustworthy evidence is forthcoming to the effect that these high figures were constantly maintained for many months at a time. |
LJ002-0018 | The inadequacy of the jail was noticed and reported upon again and again by the grand juries of the city of London, |
LJ002-0019 | who seldom let a session go by without visiting Newgate. |
LJ002-0020 | In eighteen thirteen |
LJ002-0021 | the grand jury made a special presentment to the Court of Common Council, pointing out that on the debtors' side, which was intended for only one hundred, |
LJ002-0022 | no less than three hundred forty were crowded, to the great inconvenience and danger of the inmates. |
LJ002-0023 | On the female side matters were much worse; |
LJ002-0024 | Quote. the apartments set apart for them, being built to accommodate sixty persons, now contain about one hundred twenty. End quote. |
LJ002-0025 | Returns laid before the House of Commons showed that six thousand, four hundred thirty-nine persons had been committed to Newgate |
LJ002-0026 | in the three years between eighteen thirteen and eighteen sixteen, |
LJ002-0027 | and this number did not include the debtors, a numerous class, who were still committed to Newgate pending the completion of the White Cross Street prison. |
LJ002-0028 | In order to realize the evils entailed by incarceration in Newgate in these days, it is necessary to give some account of its interior |
LJ002-0029 | as it was occupied and appropriated in eighteen ten. |
LJ002-0030 | Full details of the arrangements are to be found in Mr. Neild's "State of Prisons in England, Scotland, and Wales," published in eighteen twelve. |
LJ002-0031 | The jail at that date was divided into eight separate and more or less distinct departments, each of which had its own wards and yard. |
LJ002-0032 | These were: one. The male debtors' side. |
LJ002-0033 | two. The female debtors' side. three. The chapel yard. four. The middle yard. |
LJ002-0034 | five. The master felons' side. six. The female felons' side. seven. The state side. |
LJ002-0035 | eight. The press yard. |
LJ002-0036 | one. The male debtors' side consisted of a yard forty-nine feet by thirty-one, |
LJ002-0037 | leading to thirteen wards on various floors, and a day room. |
LJ002-0038 | Of these wards, three were appropriated to the "cabin side," so called because |
LJ002-0039 | they each contained four small rooms or "cabins" seven feet square, |
LJ002-0040 | intended to accommodate a couple of prisoners apiece, but often much more crowded. |
LJ002-0041 | Two other wards were appropriated to the master's side debtors; they were each twenty-three feet by fourteen and a half, |
LJ002-0042 | and supposed to accommodate twenty persons. The eight remaining wards were for the common side debtors, |
LJ002-0043 | long narrow rooms -- one thirty-six feet, six twenty-three feet, and the eighth eighteen, |
LJ002-0044 | the whole about fifteen feet wide. |
LJ002-0045 | The various wards were all about eleven feet in height, |
LJ002-0046 | and were occupied as a rule by ten to fifteen people when the prison was not crowded, but double the number was occasionally placed in them. |
LJ002-0047 | The day room was fitted with benches and settles after the manner of the tap in a public-house. |
LJ002-0048 | two. The female debtors' side consisted of a court-yard forty-nine by sixteen feet, |
LJ002-0049 | leading to two wards, one of which was thirty-six feet by fifteen, |
LJ002-0050 | and the other eighteen by fifteen; and they nominally held twenty-two persons. |
LJ002-0051 | A high wall fifteen feet in height divided the females' court-yard from the men's. |
LJ002-0052 | three. The chapel yard was about forty-three feet by twenty-five. |
LJ002-0053 | It had been for some time devoted principally to felons of the worst types, |
LJ002-0054 | those who were the oldest offenders, sentenced to transportation, and who had narrowly escaped the penalty of death. |
LJ002-0055 | This arrangement was, however, modified after eighteen eleven, and the chapel yard was allotted to misdemeanants and prisoners awaiting trial. |
LJ002-0056 | The wards in this part were five in number, all in dimensions twenty feet by fifteen, with a sixth ward fifteen feet square. |
LJ002-0057 | These wards were all fitted with barrack-beds, but no bedding was supplied. |
LJ002-0058 | The chapel yard led to the chapel, and on the staircase were two rooms frequently set apart for the king's witnesses, |
LJ002-0059 | those who had turned king's evidence, whose safety might have been imperiled had they been lodged with the men against whom they had informed. |
LJ002-0060 | But these king's witnesses were also put at times into the press yard among the capital convicts, seemingly a very dangerous proceeding, |
LJ002-0061 | or they lodged with the gatesmen, the prisoner officers who had charge of the inner gates. |
LJ002-0062 | The middle yard was at first given up to the least heinous offenders. After eighteen twelve it changed functions with the chapel yard. |
LJ002-0063 | It was fifty feet by twenty-five, and had five wards each thirty-eight by fifteen. At one end of the yard was an arcade, |
LJ002-0064 | directly under the chapel, in which there were three cells, used either for the confinement of disorderly and refractory prisoners, |
LJ002-0065 | or female convicts ordered for execution. |
LJ002-0066 | The master felons' side consisted of a yard the same size as the preceding, appropriated nominally to the most decent and better-behaved prisoners, |
LJ002-0067 | but really kept for the few who had funds sufficient to gain them admission to these more comfortable quarters. |
LJ002-0068 | Here were also lodged the gatesmen, the prisoners who had charge of the inner gates, and who were entrusted with the duty of escorting visitors from the gates |
LJ002-0069 | to the various wards their friends occupied. |
LJ002-0070 | The state side was the part stolen from the female felons' side. |
LJ002-0071 | It was large and comparatively commodious, being maintained on a better footing than any other part of the prison. |
LJ002-0072 | The inmates were privileged, either by antecedents or the fortunate possession of sufficient funds to pay the charges of the place. |
LJ002-0073 | Neild takes it for granted that the former rather than the latter prevailed in the selection, |
LJ002-0074 | and tells us that in the state side, quote, such prisoners were safely associated whose manners and conduct evince a more liberal style of education, |
LJ002-0075 | and who are therefore lodged apart from all other districts of the jail. End quote. |
LJ002-0076 | The state side contained twelve good-sized rooms, |
LJ002-0077 | from twenty-one by eighteen feet to fifteen feet square, which were furnished with bedsteads and bedding. |
LJ002-0078 | seven. The press yard was that part set aside for the condemned. |
LJ002-0079 | Its name and its situation were the same as those of the old place of carrying out the terrible sentence inflicted on accused persons who stood mute. |
LJ002-0080 | The long narrow yard still remained as we saw it in Jacobite times, |
LJ002-0081 | and beyond it was now a day room for the capital convicts or those awaiting execution. |
LJ002-0082 | Beyond the press yard were three stories, condemned cells, fifteen in all, with vaulted ceilings nine feet high to the crown of the arch. |
LJ002-0083 | The ground floor cells were nine feet by six; |
LJ002-0084 | those on the first floor were rather larger on account of a set-off in the wall; and the uppermost were the largest, for the same reason. |
LJ002-0085 | Security was provided for in these condemned cells by lining the substantial stone walls with planks studded with broad-headed nails; |
LJ002-0086 | they were lighted by a double-grated window two feet nine inches by fourteen inches; and in the doors, which were four inches thick, |
LJ002-0087 | a circular aperture had been let in to give ventilation and secure a free current of air. |
LJ002-0088 | In each cell there was a barrack bedstead on the floor without bedding. |
LJ002-0089 | eight. The female felons were deprived of part of the space which the architect had intended for them. |
LJ002-0090 | More than half their quadrangle had been partitioned off for another purpose, |
LJ002-0091 | and what remained was divided into a master's and a common side for female felons. |
LJ002-0092 | The two yards were adjoining, that for the common side much the largest. |
LJ002-0093 | There were nine wards in all on the female side, one of them in the attic, |
LJ002-0094 | with four casements and two fireplaces, being allotted for a female infirmary |
LJ002-0095 | and the rest being provided with barrack beds, and in dimensions varying from thirty feet by fifteen to fifteen feet by ten. |
LJ002-0096 | The eight courts above enumerated were well supplied with water; |
LJ002-0097 | they had dust-bins, sewers, and so forth, "properly disposed," and the city scavenger paid periodical visits to the prison. |
LJ002-0098 | The prisoners had few comforts, beyond the occasional use of a bath at some distance, situated in the press yard, |
LJ002-0099 | to which access was granted rarely and as a great favor. But they were allowed the luxury of drink -- if they could pay for it. |
LJ002-0100 | A recent reform had closed the tap kept by the jailer within the precincts, but |
LJ002-0101 | there was still a "convenient room" which served, and, quote, |
LJ002-0102 | near it a grating through which the debtors receive their beer from the neighboring public-houses. |
LJ002-0103 | The felons' side has a similar accommodation, and this mode of introducing the beverage is adopted because no publican as such |
LJ002-0104 | can be permitted to enter the interior of this prison. End quote. The tap-room and bar were just behind the felons' entrance lodge, |
LJ002-0105 | and beyond it was a room called the "wine room," because formerly used for the sale of wine, but |
LJ002-0106 | in which latterly a copper had been fixed for the cooking of provisions sent in by charitable persons. |
LJ002-0107 | Quote, On the top of the jail, continues Neild, are a watch-house and a sentry-box, where two or more guards, with dogs and firearms, |
LJ002-0108 | watch all night. Adjoining the felons' side lodge is the keeper's office, where the prison books are kept, and his clerk, |
LJ002-0109 | called the clerk of the papers, attends daily. End quote. |
LJ002-0110 | Having thus briefly described the plan and appropriation of the prison, I propose to deal now with the general condition of the inmates, and the manner of their life. |
LJ002-0111 | Of these the debtors, male and female, formed a large proportion. |
LJ002-0112 | The frequency and extent of processes against debtors seventy or eighty years ago will appear almost incredible |
LJ002-0113 | in an age when insolvent acts and bankruptcy courts do so much to relieve the impecunious, |
LJ002-0114 | and imprisonment for debt has almost entirely disappeared. |
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