PENAL SERVITUDE AT PORTLAND.

New Zealand Graphic, Volume XVI, Issue XI, 14 March 1896, Page 289

PENAL SERVITUDE AT PORTLAND.

TIGHE HOPKINS IK ‘TH! UtISCKK HOU Chapel muster is at a quarter to seven, and ately after service comes the general parade for labour. Here the men are mustered in gangs according to the work they are employed at. While the principal warder in charge of the gang counts his men. an awiwant warder searches them ; each prisoner standing with his jacket unbuttoned and arms outstretched, holding his cap in one hand and handkerchief in the other. This is to prevent the men from carrying food or any other article out of their cells When the warder in charge is sawed that all is right with his party, he salutes the deputy governor, who presides at the parade, gives the number of his party and the number of men in it. and the figures are checked by the chief warder. There are some thousand men to be searched and numbered, but the work is quickly despatched, and at about quarterpast seven all is ready for the march to the works. The

members of the civil guard, who corm the outlying sentries, shoulder their rifles and are the first to leave the parade ground. They are followed by the military guard, whose scarlet coats are the only cheerful colours in the place. The prisoners march out two abreast by gangs, and remarkably well they step ; the parties for the quarries leading the way. Jitanding on the rampart in front of the governor's office, which commands a prospect of the varied and extensive works, quarries, and outbuildings enclosed within the prison walls, one may take note of the different classes of prisoners as they troop out to labour. A certain number of men will be seen wearing the ordinary convict dress without facings of any kind. These are probationers. Every prisoner passes his first twelve months in the probation class, during which time he must earn on public works ~x> marks. If be has earned that number and has been well conducted. he is eligible at the end of his first year for promotion to the third-class. Those are third-class men with the black facings on their jackets. They must earn during their second year 2,920 marks, and they may then be promoted to the second class. The second-class men are those with the yellow facings. At the end of another year promotion may be obtained to the first class, with bine facings. In the first class an industrious prisoner of good behaviour remains until within twelve months of his discharge, when he may perchance be received into the • special ' class, the members of which are dis-

tinguished bv a full suit of blue. While be remains in the probation class, the prisoner is allowed to receive nc visits from friends nor to receive or write letters, except one letter on reception from separate confinement. The third-class men may receive a visit of twenty minutes duration once in six mouths, and may receive and write a letter once in the same period. The second-class man may be visited and may receive and write a letter once in four months In the first class the prisoner is entitled to receive a visit of half an hour, and to receive and write a letter every three mouths. In respect of d.et, prisoners in the first class are allowed the choice of tea and two ounces additional bread in lieu of gruel for breakfast, and baked instead of boiled beef for dinner. Two hideously distinctive dresses remain to be described. One is a parti -coloured dress of black and drab, one side one colour and one the other. The second is parti-coloured drab and brilliant yellow. The black-dress men have been dogged with the cat-o'-nine tails for an assault on a warder, or some other flagrant offence against discipline. The yellowdress men have attempted an escape from prison. Both wear a chain 6 “-lbs in weight, held up to the waist by a strap and riveted on each ankle. These fetters are worn night and day, sometimes for six months together, and the wearers are in the penal class and on restricted diet, with other discomforts, all that time. They walk alone at the rear of their respective gangs, their chains clanking at every step, grotesque and painful objects.