FREED OF HIS FETTERS

Hawera Star, Volume LIV, 17 January 1935, Page 5

FREED OF HIS FETTERS

LEG IRONS ABOLISHED IN BRITAIN (By Air Mail from Our Own Correspondent). LONDON, Dec. 20. A convict in a solitary cell in reterlioad prison, Aberdeenshire, stretched out His legs and a warder struck from them two heavy iron chains. The clank of .those chains on the stone floor of the cell was the death knell of this system of punishment in British prisons. Never again will these chains —more fitted for a medieval dungeon than a modern gaol—be worn by convicts in this country. Sir Godfrey Collins, Secretary of State for Scotland, in making these announcements in a parliamentary reply, added that he was making an immediate inquiry into the whole code of prison regulations. The Peterhead convict is John Ramensky. He is 2S years old. He is serving a three (years’ sentence. Last; • month he escaped—the first man to escape from the sea-flanked walls of Peterhead. He was at liberty for nearly 30 hours. Ho was caught in a ditch in the road. His punishment included a term of solitary confinement, and the wearing of log shackles. “I did not know that this sort, of shackling was done,” Sir Godfrey stated. “I heard about it in the morning and immediately made inquiries. The convict was released from his shackles early in the afternoon. He will never wear them again.”