CRIPPLES IN ENGLAND AS LAWBREAKERS.

Otago Witness, Issue 2272, 16 September 1897, Page 50

CRIPPLES IN ENGLAND AS LAWBREAKERS.

What They do at Laeob and in Pbison.

" Are there many criminals blind, lame, or otherwise afflicted?" the writer recently asked an ex-convict, being moved, thereto by seeing a one-legged man stumping along in a string of released prisoners.

"Any number," was the reply, "and some of them are very clever, too. One of the very smartest pickpockets I ever came across in my life i 3 paralysed on one side ;' and I saw in prison not long ago a burglar w.ho couldn't run to save his life, simply because he can't move without a stick. Then there's a good many wooden-legged fellows who fetch men down by catching them in the stomach with their prop. I onca saw that done to a policeman, who was off duty for a week or two afterwards.

" There are even thieves without hands. I know one myself — a fellow who has lost both — and yet he goes through people's pockets as thoroughly as anybody with the usual number of fingets. When he's working alcne, his crutch — one of bis legs is partly paralysed — comes in very handy. Oae blow with that and his victim is down. Then he takes away the man's watch and guard with the hook at the end of his right arm and transfers it to his own pocket. Next he rips open the prostrate individual's pockets with the same useful instrument, picking up the money in his month. Although he is such a cripple, he misses nothing.

"To give you an idea what a murderous thief he is, I recollect two policemen trying to arreat him. One snatched his crutch away, thinking he would be helpless then ; but was he ! He got np against a wall, and directlj the officers came for him he hit out, sending both to the 'ground, and making havoc with one by the aid of that dangerous hook. It took about half a dozen policemen to get him 1o the station that time. " I have alao known a blind thief. When I was in a certain county prison he was serving* sentence for highway robbery. Yon would hardly credit It, but he waa one of the most desperate fellows in the place. Over and' over again he was in trouble for bad conduct. You wouldn't think, either, that he could overpower anybody and rob him ; but lie did. He met somebody on a desolate country road, where he was tapping his way along. I daresay the man spoke to him. Very likely he would pity him. Anyhow, the blind thief threw himself on the man, stunned him with his stick, and then rifled his pockets. " ¥es ; there are many blind and crippled criminals-r^thousands, I should think.

" Prison 1 Well, in local ones the blind, the cripples, and the paralysed are nob kept in solitary confinement ; they are pub in the association ward, where they have company and can talk to each other. The blind are not obliged to do anything in the way of work, but to pass time they knit stocktrjgs and pick oakum. The others may be put to mat- making, or something of that kind. I know a one-armed fellow in for robbery who cbuld do nearly anything. He used to make the landing as clean as could any man with two hands

" Moat • doctor's men ' who eret long sentences are sent to P«rkbnrßfr, which, of course, is the invalid station. There, also, the blind pick oakum, knit stockings, and so or>, while the cripples carry water and do similar jobs. Things are easy there ; most of the men only potter about — keep movicg. But down at Portland cripples — the blind never go there, or, at least, I never saw any — are simply classed as • light labour men,' and have a harder time of it in the winter, if not all the year round, than the able-bodied prisoners who work in the quarries. ' " What they do is to break stone — granite. There is no task set ; they are cot obliged to do so much in a day ; but, for all that, they must keep knocking. Perhaps there will be 18 or 20 in a gang, one of them wheeling the etone away as it is broken, and they have to keep moving. 11 The first drawback to their lot is that they get only light-labour diet, which is just enough to make a man feel hungry. For breakfast they are given B.z of bread and three-quarters of a pint of cocoa, and for j dinner (on Monday) 3oz meat, lOoz of potatoes, 4oz of bread, and half a pint of liquor ; soup, as the water that the meat is boiled in is called. Now, hard-labour men are entitled to have for dinner on the Bame day soz of meat, lib of potatoes, 6oz bread, and half a pint of liquor — a difference in their favour, you see, of lOoz of food at one meal. "Then the work, which is carried on in the open air, is awful in winter. I have frequently seen the men crying with* cold. In '95 the poor wretches did suffer. The warders had to get them to their feat every now and then, put the handcuff* on, and let them walk about to warm themselves Gloves, made of the same material as the trousers, were served out. to them ; but they were not of much use. A lot of men went into hospital with chilblains, frost-bitten ears, and other complaints. " And yet even these fellows break ont sometimes. .While I was at Portland, one of them, when they were returning from work, attacked another prisoner in the gang and knocked him about a bit before the

warders could interfere. The fellow did not offer to hit back, as I have seen convicts do. Sometimes there is a regular fight in the quarries, and when the warders are going to part the men, oae of the chiefs will shout, ' Let them alone 1 Let them have it oat. or

they'll start again when they get a chance.' S-\ as there wjs no set-to in this case, the fellow was tried for assault and had a bit more put on his sentence. What an ass he was ! When he attacked that man he had less than a month longer to seive 1 "