The English Prison System

by Sir Evelyn Ruggles-Brise

A prisoners' relief Society was formed in connection with Worcester Prison in 1840. Its rules provided, as an inducement to employers of ex-prisoners, for the grant of a weekly sum of money. This allowance might continue for three months, being subject to withdrawal in unworthy cases. For prisoners who could not get work, an allowance not exceeding four shillings a week might be paid for a period not exceeding one month.

Another early experiment was the "Gloucester Refuge for Discharged Prisoners" commenced in 1856. Prisoners on discharge from the County Gaol were, on the recommendation of a Visiting Justice or the Chaplain, maintained free of charge for a fortnight, after which a small charge was made. On employment being found they handed over the whole of their earnings, any balance remaining being handed to them on leaving the Institution. The stay of unemployed inmates was limited to fourteen days, and in no case exceeded one month.

Another phase of relief to discharged prisoners took the form of an "Industrial Home" at Wakefield, founded in 1856, under the auspices of the Governor of the House of Correction for the West Riding. It was said to be self-supporting, manufactures being carried on. Lodgings were found for inmates outside the Home.

These three experiments are said to have compared favourably as regards expenditure with those having the same object in view, which had been established in London, and known as the London Reformatory, the Preventive and Reformatory Institution, and the Metropolitan Industrial Reformatory at Brixton.

About this time, Societies for aiding ordinary prisoners on discharge were formed at many of the larger Prisons, e.g., the Hull, East Riding, and North Lincolnshire; Glamorganshire; North and South Stafford; Leeds; West Kent; Manchester; Liverpool; and the Metropolitan Aid Societies, all of which are in existence at the present time.

The success of the Birmingham experiment is said to have led to the passing of the Act of 1862, which recited that Aid Societies had been established by voluntary effort, and gave power to Justices to pay a sum not exceeding £2 to such Societies, to be expended on behalf of the discharged prisoner.

Another Act was passed in 1865 which re-enacted a similar provision to that contained in the Act of 1862, the expense to be borne by the local rates. Under the Prison Act of 1877, it was laid down that "where any prisoner is discharged from prison, the Prison Commissioners may, on the recommendation of the Visiting Committee or otherwise, order a sum of money not exceeding £2 to be paid by the Gaoler to the prisoner himself, or to the Treasurer of a Certified Prisoners' Aid Society or Refuge, on the Gaoler receiving from such Society an undertaking to apply the same for the benefit of the prisoner."

This being the law, two general observations may, I think, be made with regard to it (1) that the duty of aiding prisoners on discharge has been recognized from the beginning of the century as a public duty to be borne by public funds, the Voluntary Aid Society being ancillary for this purpose, i.e., to assist in the disbursement of public money, and incidentally, at least, in the first instance, to increase it by private benefaction (2) that in its origin this grant was a charitable gift, irrespective of the prison history and conduct of a prisoner, and the total sum expended might assume large proportions, the maximum of £2 being permissible for any prisoner.

As a matter of fact, the local authority used this power very sparingly. A Return is given in Appendix 19 of the Second Annual Report of the Commissioners, and shows that the total discharges for the three years preceding 1878 were, roundly, 370,000, and the total gratuities paid to prisoners, roundly, £11,000, or a proportion of about 7d., per head, the sums given varying greatly in the different districts, e.g., Cold Bath Fields Prison gave £3,000 and Manchester £60 for a nearly similar number of discharges (circ. 30,000). In some Prisons, there was a system of giving a percentage on the value of work done, but this did not prevail to a large extent, and the above statement may, I think, be taken as roughly representing the extent to which monetary help was forthcoming to discharged prisoners before the prisons passed into the hands of the Government.