CONVICT OF THE SECOND CLASS AND MUNSHI.
Plate XIV.
Sixth Class. This class embraced all invalid and incapable men who were able to perform light work, as sweepers, watchmen in country commands, and in charge of latrines; also caretakers at Government bungalows, and those superannuated men who were exempt from all work. No convicts were admitted to this class until declared unfit for hard work by the medical officer and the Annual Medical Committee. Men of approved conduct got the indulgences of their former class. Female convicts belonged to this class, of which there were always a few under transportation. They were confined in a separate ward under a convict matron, and no prison male warder was allowed therein on pain of degradation.
The supervising staff consisted of a Superintendent—who was also the Executive Engineer of the station—and his assistant, a chief warder and two assistants, an overseer of artificers and of roads. The native staff, being all petty officers raised from amongst the convicts, consisted of three duffadars, eight first tindals, twenty-two second tindals, ninety-four peons, and sixty-five orderlies, for the number of convicts then under confinement.
In the year 1857 there were 2,139 convicts from different parts of India, Burmah, and Ceylon in this jail; but upon an average, until the prison was broken up, there were 1,900 always under control. The men from India were Seikhs, Dogras, Pallis, or a shepherd race; Thugs and Dacoits from different parts of the Bengal presidency, and mostly from round about Delhi and Agra; felons from all parts of the Madras and Bombay presidencies, and a few from Assam and Burmah, chiefly Dacoits, and a sprinkling of Cingalese.
Upon arrival from India, each convict was checked with the warrants that accompanied the several gangs, then photographed, bathed, and supplied with the prison clothing, and each received a number by which, until he entered the third class, he was always known. Each convict was then duly inspected by the medical officer before admission to the wards. Any property with them was scheduled and put away until they were entitled to receive it, and the clothing in which they arrived was duly fumigated.
The artificer body was drawn from the third and fourth classes only, and they were subject to the same discipline as their classes in the general prison. They were divided into four grades, according to the degree of skill they evinced, and received a monthly allowance commencing at one half a rupee, or 1s. a month, up to the highest sum given to the best workmen of 10s. a month, who were called "tindal maistris," and who were entrusted with the duty of teaching beginners. These tindal maistris were exempted from keeping watch in the wards at night.
The several trades taught in the prison were as follows, and none of them were dangerous to health except the cement-sifting by females on treadles, which had to be discontinued:—
| Bricklayers and plasterers. | Quarrymen. |
| Brick and tile makers and potters. | Sawyers, stone cutters, and blasters. |
| Blacksmiths. | Slaters. |
| Basket makers. | Shoe and sandal makers. |
| Coopers. | Tailors. |
| Carpenters, cement and lime burners. | Turners and weavers. |
| Gardeners. | Wheelwrights. |
| Painters. | Woodcutters. |
| Lime and charcoal burners. | Boatmen. |
| Plumbers. | Stone masons. |