ACT FOR THE BETTER ORDERING OF PRISONS.
During this session an act was passed for the “better ordering of prisons.” By this act it was provided that prisoners might be separately confined, though that separate confinement should not be deemed solitary confinement. No cell was to be used for the separate confinement of any prisoner which was not of such a size, and lighted, warmed, and ventilated in such a manner as might be required by a due regard to health, and which did not furnish the means of enabling the prisoner to communicate at any time with an officer of the prison. Every prisoner so confined was to have the means of taking air and exercise at such times as should be deemed necessary by the surgeon, and was to be furnished with the means of moral and religious instruction, and with suitable books, as well as with labour or employment. All prisoners were to be divided into the following classes: namely, debtors in those prisons in which debtors might be lawfully confined; prisoners committed for trial; prisoners convicted and sentenced to hard labour; prisoners convicted and not sentenced to hard labour; and prisoners not included in either of the foregoing classes.