SWISS PRISON ARRANGE. MENTS.

South Canterbury Times, Issue 3304, 3 November 1883, Page 2

SWISS PRISON ARRANGE. MENTS.

The “ Times ” of August 31 says “ Our Geneva correspondent states that an assault by a drunken prisoner on a warder (magnified by rumor [into a general revolt of the inmates) of the Freiburg House of Correction has been the means of bringing to public notice a state of things probably unparalleled in Western Europe. The prisoner, who was chained by the foot to a heavy log, was shot down by the director, and the question naturally arose why he was chained, and how, being chained, he managed to get drunk. The question is answered by a correspondent of “ Le National,” a paper published at Freiburg. The director of the House of transferred to other provinces, or wer Correction, it seems, receives no fixed salary ; his remuneration consists in a payment of six pence (60 centimes) a day for every prisoner under detention, out of which he undertakes to provide the prisoner with food. But as providing food at the rate of sixpence per day cannot be a very profitable business, ke is allowed certain privileges and perquisites. The prisoners are permitted to work ; their earnings as well as any money they may receive from outside, are at their own disposal ; they can spend what they like in food, drink and tobacco at a canteen kept by the director, and as the latter fixes his own prices he naturally makes handsome profits. There is an order against selling more liquor to a man than he can conveniently take but as this order is more honoured in the breach than the observance, scenes of drunkenness and violence are far from rare in the Freiburg House of Correction. Prisoners who cannot or will not work are chained to a log, and compelled to live on as much less than sixpence a day as it may please the director to allow them. The man who assaulted the warder and was shot by the director had probably been made drunk by bis more fortunate companions. It is hardly necessary to say that the Federal Government are in no way responsible for this state of things, the regulation of prisons and the punishment of prisoners being among the most cherished prerogatives of t cantona.