THE NETHERLANDS. From the Prison Society at Amsterdam. March, 1831. OUR Society is managed by a directing Committee composed of twelve members, residing for the most part in this city (Amsterdam); and in every city where a prison exists, there is likewise a Sub-committee. There are at present in the Northern Provinces thirty-six Sub-committees; and there has also been one formed at Paramaribo, in the colony of Surinam, in Guiana. The establishment of a new correctional prison at Hoorn, in the former workhouse for vagrants, which is calculated to receive 700 prisoners, will soon enable the government to suppress several of the most objectionable of the old prisons. We have happily found great openness among the enlightened inhabitants of that city to promote our views, and rejoice at the prospect of seeing the inmates of that prison as well attended to as in any other of the towns. The greatest difficulty we have to contend with, is to provide work for such of the prisoners as are not confined in the large prisons, where the government has engaged to employ them in some way or other. We wish to get them employed in preparing rushes, which are abundant in this country, for saleable articles, such as mats, baskets, sailors' bags, and the like. The schools which we have established in various prisons are in a good state: we have introduced writing by the use of slates, on which the letters are engraved, such as are used in the Infant and Lancasterian schools. The school at Rotterdam is thriving; and we have now established one in this city, in which the boys receive proper instruction, in reading, writing, arithmetic, the first principles of geometry and geography, and likewise in knitting, making nets, and some other handicrafts. Thus we have, provisionally, all the young prisoners collected under good inspection, properly instructed, and constantly employed. In general we find but little difficulty when they come out, in disposing of them, either on board of ships, or as apprentices with shoemakers, tailors, carpenters, &c. It is satisfactory for us to be enabled to say, that very few indeed return to their former bad practices. We have found the means of procuring proper instruction for some very young boys, who had undergone punishments for petty thefts, through the kindness of a truc philanthropist, who has established a school of industry on his estate in one of the Provinces; he has taken gratuitously two boys from the directing Committee, and others have likewise been placed under his care by some of the Sub-committees, from which he receives a small sum for their board, lodging, clothing, and instruction. The boys must, however, belong to the Protestant Church: they are taught every sort of elementary knowledge, and afterwards trained up to a trade, such as carpenter, mason, shoemaker, tailor, or husbandman; and are not sent away till they are able to earn their livelihood. The supply of Tracts which we receive from the Netherlands Religious Tract Society, and of various useful works published by the Society for Public Utility, has enabled us to procure, for most prisoners who are able to read, a sufficient stock of really useful and even some entertaining books: both these requisites are also to be found in the Manual for Prisoners, published by our colleague W. H. Suringer, of Leurwaarden. This Manual has been sent by our Society to all the prisons of this kingdom, and likewise to the Vagrant Colony at Ommeschaus; 2000 copies of this excellent work having been presented to us, one half by government, and the other by a private individual. likewise supplied the prison at Ghent, a few weeks before the Belgian revoluWe have placing them in a separate building, fitted up at the public expense, and under the superintendence of a matron. The Committee, finding that the public monies allotted by the legislature for the support of the house of correction did not allow of any provision being made for the salary of a matron, but feeling that the employment of such a superintendent for the female prisoners was not only necessary to the effectual maintenance of good discipline, but was due to public decency and good morals, did not hesitate to provide for this expense out of their limited funds; and they feel it due to Mrs. Hall, the person at present employed by them in that capacity, and who has also acted as teacher to the female prisoners, to acknowledge thus publicly the diligence, firmness, discretion, good temper and good principles by which her conduct has invariably been marked. The Committee have also to acknowledge and applaud the readiness with which, at their instance, the gaoler gave up a shop which he had kept (as his predecessors had done) in the gaol, and from which he had derived considerable advantage. In consequence of the insufficiency of the public appropriation for the house of correction, the Committee have been under the necessity of furnishing several suits of clothing to the prisoners; and while they regret the unsuccessful result of the application which they made to the legislature, for reimbursement of this expense as well as of the expenditure they incurred for the salary of a matron, they still more regret that no farther provision has been made in the public appropriations of this year, for these objects so indispensably necessary to the comfort of the female prisoners, and to the maintenance of decency and good order among them. They at the same time represented to the legislature the necessity of providing an enlarged and suitable building, for establishing such a system of penitentiary discipline and labour as may effectually serve the purposes of punishment and reformation, which the law has in view in the confinement of offenders; and they have the satisfaction of stating that through the active and zealous exertions of the members for the Upper-Town, an appropriation has been granted by the legislature for obtaining plans and estimates of a suitable Penitentiary for this district. The condition of the children of prisoners,- -a condition even more afflicting to humanity than that of actual orphanage, because more excluded from the ordinary sources of charitable relief, has engaged the anxious attention of the Committee. Several children have, from time to time, been brought to the gaol with their parents for want of another asylum;—some of these, whose parents were protestants, have been taken into charge and provided for by the clergy, out of the funds of the churches to which they belonged ;-others have been placed in situations in the country parishes or townships, where they may earn a subsistence; and those who could not otherwise be disposed of, have been sent to and have punctually attended the national school. The Committee, however, lament that the low state of their funds has prevented them from carrying these exertions to the extent that was required; they still more deeply lament that no other asylum can be found for the innocent offspring of parents, -who themselves may not in all cases be guilty,-than the precincts of a gaol; and they trust that public attention being called to the subject, they may receive increased support from public benevolence, in aid of their exertions on behalf of children thrown into so deplorable a situation. CRIMINAL AND PAUPER LUNATICS. It appears by the last "Returns” made under the Gaol Act, that in several County Prisons in England and Wales, the practice was still continued of keeping insane persons in confinement, many of whom had been tried and acquitted on the ground of insanity. In the gaols belonging to local jurisdictions, a similar practice exists; and in some of these prisons are also lunatics and idiots who have been committed by direction of the parochial authorities.* The same system also prevails in the Gaols of Scotland. In Ireland, the regulation of District Asylums for criminal and pauper lunatics, is included in the duties of the Inspectors-general of Prisons; and it is gratifying to observe that considerable progress is now making in the provision of suitable places for the reception of this class of persons, who, from their helpless and afflicted state, possess a superior claim on the public commiseration and liberality. The following documents and tables illustrative of the number and proportion of Lunatics, Idiots, &c. are inserted, in the hope that they will be found useful to those magistrates and gentlemen who may be disposed to interest themselves, on the subject of improving the general condition and treatment of the Insane. Extract from the Report of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy, London, July 1, 1829. Although the Asylums, with regard to the comfort of the patients, are generally as good as we could expect, we regret to say, that in those establishments which are more especially destined for the reception of poor and of parish patients, very little attention is given to any curative process. The number of patients either cured or materially relieved is so small, compared with the total number of those under confinement, as to strengthen our own observations of the imperfection of the present system, so far as it is connected with restoration to reason of those who may be justly considered capable * On the 23d instant, an inquest was held at Rochdale, on the body of a young man named Richard Pilling, a pauper in the Wardleworth workhouse. It appeared that the deceased had been taken to the prison, and confined in a solitary cell, in which there was no bed, no covering, nor any thing for him to lie down upon but a bench of wood of about a yard broad; that he had been confined therein fifteen days, and was discovered by a person (who was appointed to consign another wretched being to the same den) lying naked on the stone floor, which was covered with filth! He was in a dying state, with a portion of his clothes in his mouth, and he had been in that state nearly the whole of his imprisonment. In consequence of representations made by the person who discovered the unhappy man, he was carried, about ten o'clock that night, to the workhouse, where he died in ten hours afterwards. The jury returned a verdict that he died from hunger;" and in consequence, Richard Hargreaves, (overseer,) Elizabeth Burrows, and Hannah Holt, (governess, and assistant in the workhouse) were committed to Lancaster Gaol, for Manslaughter.-Manchester Herald, March 30, 1831. The Manchester Advertiser and Guardian also state that the unfortunate man was 28 years of age. He was subject to epileptic fits, which rendered him incapable of earning his livelihood. Having been sent from the workhouse to fetch some milk, he fell down in a fit, and the milk was spilled; for this he was committed to prison, was deprived of his clothes, some old ones being put on; and, without shoes, was placed in a cold, dark, damp cell. In this state epileptic fits seized him, during which he stripped himself naked, bruising himself in his paroxysms, and devouring a portion of his clothes, and even his ordure for want of nourishment. He remained in this state from February 24, to March 11, when he was removed to the Workhouse in the evening, and was found dead the next morning. placing them in a separate building, fitted up at the public expense, and under the superintendence of a matron. The Committee, finding that the public monies allotted by the legislature for the support of the house of correction did not allow of any provision being made for the salary of a matron, but feeling that the employment of such a superintendent for the female prisoners was not only necessary to the effectual maintenance of good discipline, but was due to public decency and good morals, did not hesitate to provide for this expense out of their limited funds; and they feel it due to Mrs. Hall, the person at present employed by them in that capacity, and who has also acted as teacher to the female prisoners, to acknowledge thus publicly the diligence, firmness, discretion, good temper and good principles by which her conduct has invariably been marked. The Committee have also to acknowledge and applaud the readiness with which, at their instance, the gaoler gave up a shop which he had kept (as his predecessors had done) in the gaol, and from which he had derived considerable advantage. In consequence of the insufficiency of the public appropriation for the house of correction, the Committee have been under the necessity of furnishing several suits of clothing to the prisoners; and while they regret the unsuccessful result of the application which they made to the legislature, for reimbursement of this expense as well as of the expenditure they incurred for the salary of a matron, they still more regret that no farther provision bas been made in the public appropriations of this year, for these objects so indispensably necessary to the comfort of the female prisoners, and to the maintenance of decency and good order among them. They at the same time represented to the legislature the necessity of providing an enlarged and suitable building, for establishing such a system of penitentiary discipline and labour as may effectually serve the purposes of punishment and reformation, which the law has in view in the confinement of offenders; and they have the satisfaction of stating that through the active and zealous exertions of the members for the Upper-Town, an appropriation has been granted by the legislature for obtaining plans and estimates of a suitable Penitentiary for this district. The condition of the children of prisoners,—a condition even more afflicting to humanity than that of actual orphanage, because more excluded from the ordinary sources of charitable relief, has engaged the anxious attention of the Committee. Several children have, from time to time, been brought to the gaol with their parents for want of another asylum;-some of these, whose parents were protestants, have been taken into charge and provided for by the clergy, out of the funds of the churches to which they belonged ;-others have been placed in situations in the country parishes or townships, where they may earn a subsistence; and those who could not otherwise be disposed of, have been sent to and have punctually attended the national school. The Committee, however, lament that the low state of their funds has prevented them from carrying these exertions to the extent that was required; they still more deeply lament that no other asylum can be found for the innocent offspring of parents, -who themselves may not in all cases be guilty,—than the precincts of a gaol; and they trust that public attention being called to the subject, they may receive increased support from public benevolence, in aid of their exertions on behalf of children thrown into so deplorable a situation. CRIMINAL AND PAUPER LUNATICS. IT appears by the last "Returns" made under the Gaol Act, that in several County Prisons in England and Wales, the practice was still continued of keeping insane persons in confinement, many of whom had been tried and acquitted on the ground of insanity. In the gaols belonging to local jurisdictions, a similar practice exists; and in some of these prisons are also lunatics and idiots who have been committed by direction of the parochial authorities.* The same system also prevails in the Gaols of Scotland. In Ireland, the regulation of District Asylums for criminal and pauper lunatics, is included in the duties of the Inspectors-general of Prisons; and it is gratifying to observe that considerable progress is now making in the provision of suitable places for the reception of this class of persons, who, from their helpless and afflicted state, possess a superior claim on the public commiseration and liberality. The following documents and tables illustrative of the number and proportion of Lunatics, Idiots, &c. are inserted, in the hope that they will be found useful to those magistrates and gentlemen who may be disposed to interest themselves, on the subject of improving the general condition and treatment of the Insane. Extract from the Report of the Metropolitan Commissioners in Lunacy, London, July 1, 1829. Although the Asylums, with regard to the comfort of the patients, are generally as good as we could expect, we regret to say, that in those establishments which are more especially destined for the reception of poor and of parish patients, very little attention is given to any curative process. The number of patients either cured or materially relieved is so small, compared with the total number of those under confinement, as to strengthen our own observations of the imperfection of the present system, so far as it is connected with restoration to reason of those who may be justly considered capable On the 23d instant, an inquest was held at Rochdale, on the body of a young man named Richard Pilling, a pauper in the Wardleworth workhouse. It appeared that the deceased had been taken to the prison, and confined in a solitary cell, in which there was no bed, no covering, nor any thing for him to lie down upon but a bench of wood of about a yard broad; that he had been confined therein fifteen days, and was discovered by a person (who was appointed to consign another wretched being to the same den) lying naked on the stone floor, which was covered with filth! He was in a dying state, with a portion of his clothes in his mouth, and he had been in that state nearly the whole of his imprisonment. In consequence of representations made by the person who discovered the unhappy man, he was carried, about ten o'clock that night, to the workhouse, where he died in ten hours afterwards. The jury returned a verdict that he "died from hunger;" and in consequence, Richard Hargreaves, (overseer,) Elizabeth Burrows, and Hannah Holt, (governess, and assistant in the workhouse) were committed to Lancaster Gaol, for Manslaughter.-Manchester Herald, March 30, 1831. The Manchester Advertiser and Guardian also state that the unfortunate man was 28 years of age. He was subject to epileptic fits, which rendered him incapable of earning his livelihood. Having been sent from the workhouse to fetch some milk, he fell down in a fit, and the milk was spilled; for this he was committed to prison, was deprived of his clothes, some old ones being put on; and, without shoes, was placed in a cold, dark, damp cell. In this state epileptic fits seized him, during which he stripped himself naked, bruising himself in his paroxysms, and devouring a portion of his clothes, and He remained in this state from February 24, even his ordure for want of nourishment. to March 11, when he was removed to the Workhouse in the evening, and was found. dead the next morning. |