A New Prison Régime
Six months after our arrival, there came a change of authorities, and with the passing of the years a more enlightened régime was instituted by the Home Office. If a prisoner has any complaint to make or wishes to seek advice, she asks to have her name put down to see the governor. She is then termed a “wisher,” and is “seen” by him in his office in the presence of the chief matron. Her request is written down by him in her penal record, and if he can not settle the matter out of hand it is referred to a “visiting director,” to whom the prisoner is permitted to make a statement. If this gentleman finds that his powers are insufficient to deal with the question, he in turn passes it on to the prison commission, and sometimes it goes even to the Secretary of State himself.
The same privilege holds good concerning medical matters. If a prisoner is feeling ill she asks the officer in charge of the ward where she is located to enter her name on the doctor’s book. At ten o’clock the prisoner is sent for, and sees the doctor in the presence of an infirmary nurse. He enters her name in a book, also the prescription, both of which are copied later in the prisoner’s medical record. If a prisoner is dissatisfied with the treatment she is receiving, she can make application to see the “medical inspector,” who comes to the prison every three months. But if neither the governor, nor the doctor, nor the director, nor the inspector gives satisfaction, then there is the “Board of Visitors” to inquire into the complaint.