THE BLACK MARIA

Te Awamutu Courier, Volume 59, Issue 4219, 4 December 1939, Page 6

THE BLACK MARIA

IN A PRISON VAN (By S.S. in Melbourne Age.) Modern science, by aiding detection, has made the lot of the criminal much harder, but it has also contributed to his comfort when he is eventually captured. Compared with conditions existing in prisons only fifty years ago, those under which the convicts live to-day are pleasant. Recently the inmates at Pentridge complained that the tread of the warders at night interfered with their sleep! Now they travel in a comfortable Black Maria. The latest model, designed by Constable Arnott, the officer in charge of the police motor workshops, is a luxurious vehicle, and besides being fitted with electric light is air-conditioned. It contains two cells, and a compartment which holds twenty-four persons. Various safety devices make escape impossible.

The walls of the van have been constructed of two layers of steel, and a red light on the dashboard indicates to the driver if the entrance doors are locked. A speaking tube enables the warders in the compartment at the rear to converse with the driver. Why is the police van called a “Black Maria” ? Explanations vary but perhaps the most probable is that which links the vehicle with a giant negress of Boston, U.S.A. They called her Black Maria. As the proprietress of a boarding house she met all types of people, but no one gave her any trouble, for she was greatly respected in the district because of her amazing physical strength. Once provoked, this black Amazon was capable of terrible vengeance.

One night one of the policemen in the locality was confronted by a drunkard whom he could not arrest single-handed. Being near the establishment owned by Maria, he called the negress to his aid. Maria made short work of the task, and the drunkard was compelled to go to the watch house, much to the astonishment of the policeman and the bystanders who had assembled. Thus it came about that whenever a policeman in the vicinity needed assistance he called Maria. She was capable of handling the most difficult prisoners, and eventually the police employed her on the van that they used for conveying those under arrest, and the nickname “Black Maria” was coined for the van.

The early Black Marias were anything but comfortable. The ventilation—or lack of it—was comparable to that in the Black Hole of Calcutta, and prisoners of all ages were indiscriminately bundled into them. Many attempts were made to escape. On one occasion a prisoner was able to saw a hole in the floor large enough for him to be able to jump out, and on another prisoners escaped by cutting and tearing an opening in the roof. When the first Black Maria lumbered through London a little more than 100 years ago, it received a very hostile reception from the people. The authorities had tactlessly constructed it of elm wood, and, as the gallows were Usually of elm, this was responsible for a public outcry. For a long time the van was known as the “gallows coach,” and, if a prisoner did succeed in escaping from it, he was readily helped by the people in the streets.

Dickens, in his “Sketches of Boz” gave a moving description of an occasion when he saw the prisoner’s van. The bystanders referred to it as “Her Majesty’s Carriage.” The prisoners were of all ages, and both sexes. There were boys of ten with hardened criminals, dissolute old women and young- girls, and it is with a feeling of thankfulness that people recognise that to-day such scenes are not witnessed. When the Melbourne Gaol was situated in Russell Street, the Black Maria was a forbidding vehicle drawn by two black horses. As it rolled noisily along the streets it struck terror into the hearts of those contemplating breaking the law. The driver was perched high in the front, and the warder who accompanied the van was seated near the rear of the vehicle.

The march of science has brought in its place a comfortable and scientifically constructed Black Maria.