HARD LABOUR IN ENGLISH PRISONS.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume XXIX, Issue 176, 27 July 1895, Page 4

HARD LABOUR IN ENGLISH PRISONS.

In a brief comment on tho olos o of the trinl of Oscar Wilde, the Daily Chronicle said: — " His sentence, oufbiced as it will be by the severest rigors known to our abhorrent penal system, is virtually a sentence of death or ot madness, a fato to which we confess we hesitate to condemn any human creature whatever.'' A correspondent mxi day asked what this meant, and ho was enlightened as lollows : — Two years' hard labour is the eovereßt sentence, whilo it lasts, known to tbe English criminal law. It is v form ■of punishment never inflicted on criminals sentenced to penal servitudo, inasmuch as it is calculated to produce madness amongst them. Nino mouthb' sepurute cObfiuemcnt- is aB ranch as a convict gets, and is cont-idered as much as his mind can stand. Tho Prisonc Committee report that even nine mouths' separation often iijoriously affect the nervous system, and recommend a reduotiou ol the time. A piitontr under two years' hard labour may be kept during the whole timo iv tho tolitude of his cell, with the exception of one hour a day. During a portion of his detention ho is allowed nooidinury reading bocks, has a wooden |lai>k as a bed, and bas to encage in occupation which the late Chairman of the Prison Board declares to be •' irritating, depressing, und debasing to the mental faculties, and decidedly bi utalising in its effects." iio severe is this form of Buuteuoe considered to be. that muuy judges will iiot it-flict it at all, and last year in a total of 160,000 short sentences, only 3t pertous were committed for two years by the ordinary criminal courts.