PARKHURST CONVICTS

Greymouth Evening Star, 29 September 1938, Page 10

PARKHURST CONVICTS

STRIKE FOR MORE WORK. Zeal for work is “running away with our convicts, writes R. A. Pugh, in the “Daily Mail.” There has been a disturbance at Parkhurst, Isle of Wight, because prisoners complained that they had been sent to hospital with minor ailments, and so had lost their working pay. Twelve months ago the Home Office, prompted by an experiment, at ■Wakefield Gaol, introduced earning schemes at the convict settlements, which allowed the prisoners pocket money to buy tobacco and other luxuries. * The main object was to make them more contented. The authorities hardly foresaw that the experiment in humanising punishment would lead to a revolt —against being excused from work.

Three inmates at Parkhurst are undergoing close confinement for wrecking a hospital ward as a protest against being ordered there for a rest. They made this gesture when on the top floor ward of the hospital in charge of Hospital Officer Fairweather.

They began by smashing up the furnitu,re. Then they barricaded the door of the ward' with beds and tables. For 20 minutes they unleashed their fpry on every object in the room, breaking up chairs, tearing up bedding, and throwing the remnants though windows they had broken. Warders eventually forced the barricaded door and assisted Officer Fairweather in overpowering the three men, who were taken to the cells. This is the first outbreak to be reported since work for wages was introduced into the prisons. Mr Harold Scott, chairman of the Prison Commissioners, recently described the effect of the reform as “a miracle,” and added:—

“The result has been to empty the prison hospital and to do away with •the doctor’s parade. It has also resulted in the astonishing spectacle of convicts who want to go on working having to be ordered to down tools.” An official of a prison organisation said: “There has been some unrest both at Parkhurst and Dartmoor over recent reforms which have undoubtedly made prisoners’ lives more pleasant.

“There have been complaints from some convicts that they are now kept so long in the workshops that they have not time to read or otherwise relax. It’s probably just another illustration of the fact that the more libel ty they get the more they, want.”