Since Howard succeeded in gaining national attention to the condition of prisoners, the evils of prison management have been removed. A large proportion of the prison population is taken from the worst regulated and most confined neighbourhoods, which have been the subject of examination; and, with the view to judge what might be effected by sanitary regulations, I have made frequent inquiries as to the effects of sanitary measures on the worst class of persons, the larger proportion of whom are taken from the worst neighbourhoods, that is, as to the effects of living in the same atmosphere, on a less expensive diet than that of the general labouring population, but provided with clean and tolerably well-ventilated places of work and sleeping-rooms, and where they are required to be cleanly in their persons.
I have obtained through Mr. Hill, the prison inspector of Scotland, an accurate return of the number of days which the prisoners had been absent from labour on the ground of ill health in the celebrated prison at Glasgow, where the separate system of confinement has been tried (Return No. 1); a similar return from the Edinburgh prison, (No. 2). I also obtained a careful examination of the amount of sickness prevalent amongst the prisoners at Salford prison, (No. 3). The average cost of the diets, (principally vegetable,) at Salford, varied from 1s. 4d. to 1s. 6d. per week; at Edinburgh, 1s. 9d. per week; and at Glasgow, 1s. 7d. per week. Vide Appendix.
The medical practitioners, who are well acquainted with the general state of health of the population surrounding the prisons concur in vouching to the fact, upon their own knowledge, that the health of the prisoners is in general much higher than the health almost of any part of the surrounding population; that the prisoners, as a class, are below the average of health when they enter the prisons; that they come from the worst neighbourhoods; that many of them come from the lodging-houses, which, in those towns, as will be shown, are the constant seats of disease; that they are mostly persons of intemperate habits; that many of them come in in a state of disease from intemperance and bad habits; and notwithstanding the depressing influence of imprisonment, the effect of cleanliness, dryness, better ventilation, temperance, and simple food, is almost sufficient to prevent disease arising within the prison, and to put the prisoners in a better working condition at the termination than at the commencement of their imprisonment. At the Glasgow bridewell, the prisoners are weighed on their entrance and at their discharge, and it is found that, on the average, they gained in weight by their imprisonment.[[33]] At Edinburgh, there were instances of poor persons in a state of disease committed from motives of humanity to the prison, that they might be taken care of and cured. The tables are to be taken as showing imperfectly the comparative effects of the different circumstances; because, when a labourer is obliged to leave work he loses wages; and it is known of large classes of them, that they often work improvidently and injuriously to their chances of recovery by continuing at work in impaired health too long; the prisoner, on the contrary, by absence on the sick list, gains ease and exemption from slave labour; and the officers have constantly to contend against feigned sickness to avoid task-work and punishment. It should also be noted that a large proportion of the sickness of the prisoners is of a character that is excluded from all tables of insurance, from the benefit societies as being specially excluded from their benefits. The numbers imprisoned at the lower ages, or above 36 years of age, were too few to form any comparison:—
| Average Annual Sickness of Male Prisoners in the | Labourers and Operatives. | No. 7. Average Annual Sickness of Members of Benefit Societies in Scotland. | No. 8. Average Annual Sickness of provident portion of Working Classes throughout Great Britain, according to the experience of Mr. Finlaison. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No. 1. Glasgow Prison. | No. 2. Edinburgh Prison. | No. 3. Salford Prison. | No. 4. Employed in East-India Company’s Warehouses. | No. 5. Average duration of Sickness per annum of every person employed in Cotton Factories of Lancashire. | No. 6. Males of Families in Wynds of Edinburgh. | ||||
| Age. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. | Years of Age. | Days & Decimals. | Days & Decimals. |
| Under 16 Years | 3·5 | ||||||||
| 16 to 21 | 3·05 | 4·01 | 3·10 | 4·02 | 4·42 | 2·3 | 18 | 2·5 | 5·18 |
| 21 to 26 | 1·83 | 2·04 | 1·64 | 5·40 | 4·91 | 5·1 | 23 | 3·8 | 6·75 |
| 26 to 31 | 2·65 | 2·33 | 2·72 | 4·49 | 6·88 | 11·0 | 28 | 4·6 | 6·78 |
| 31 to 36 | 2·83 | 3·10 | 2·63 | 4·55 | 3·85 | 8·3 | 33 | 5·6 | 6·33 |
| 36 to 41 | 9·00 | 5·10 | ·85 | 5·57 | 4·13 | 4·1 | 38 | 6·2 | 7·86 |
| 41 to 46 | ·49 | 2·75 | ·51 | 5·18 | 5·69 | 15·1 | 43 | 8·8 | 9·02 |
| 46 to 51 | 5·43 | 7·18 | 30·0 | 48 | 9·1 | 11·76 | |||
| 51 to 56 | 6·80 | 3·47 | 16·2 | 53 | 14·8 | 16·77 | |||
| 56 to 61 | 7·21 | 12·68 | 30·4 | 58 | 17·8 | 23·57 | |||
| 61 to 66 | 10·24 | 42·7 | 63 | 20·0 | 33·22 | ||||
| 66 to 71 | 9·93 | 64·2 | 68 | 36·0 | 61·22 | ||||
| 71 to 76 | 10·60 | 41·0 | 73 | 38·6 | 101·44 | ||||
| 76 to 81 | 12·67 | 83·6 | 78 | 70·9 | 164·72 | ||||
The total number of male prisoners in the three prisons from which the returns were compiled was 7,328; of which number, in the Glasgow prison there were 1,796, in the Edinburgh prison 1,256, and in the Salford prison 4,276 prisoners. The columns inserted in the above table from the prisons give only the amount of sickness prevalent amongst the males. The returns which are given in full in the Appendix contain the amount of sickness prevalent among the female prisoners also.
The information as to the actual amount of sickness prevalent amongst the labouring classes is at present extremely defective for the purposes of insurance. One of the most authentic tables is that compiled by Dr. Mitchell, from returns we obtained under the Factory Commission of Inquiry, of the experience of sickness amongst the labourers employed by the East India Company in their warehouses in London. The experience was from 2461 workmen employed during ten years. (Return No. 4.)
This is a highly favourable table, inasmuch as the men were, in the first instance, select, nearly as much so as recruits in the army; care was also taken to give men who became infirm such labour as they could perform without exertion; but, above all, they had the benefit of medical advice without any expense, and being thereby induced to make early application, disease was cut short at once on its first appearance. Moreover, they were not allowed to return to work until they had a medical certificate of their cure.
Another table (No. 5) given is one of the amount of sickness experienced by the male operatives in the cotton mills in England, also deduced from the returns directed to be made under the Factory Commission of Inquiry. But these returns do not include the experience of the mills in Manchester, which was not collected by the district commissioners.
The table (No. 6) is that made up by Mr. Tait, surgeon, from his inquiries of the experience of sickness in the wynds of Edinburgh.
The next table (No. 7) is made up from the experience of benefit societies in Scotland, subsequent to the experience tables which were compiled by the Highland Society; but this is the experience of a select class, which appears to me to be too favourable for general use in Scotland.