Reports on Jails Visited and Inspected in Bengal, Behar, and Arracan (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1856 Excerpt: ...gunny-bags are the chief work of such of the convicts as are not employed in breaking Manufactures..... stones or picking oakum. Basket-making, iron work, and putting together coffins for the Europeans who die in the port, occupy the time of a few of the prisoners. The raw material for the gunny is procured in Calcutta, and the manufactured article is sold by auction. If I am rightly informed, the latter is not the most advisable or profitable means of disposing of the bags. In Bengal, where the Jailor is allowed 25 per cent, of the profits realized by the sale of Jail manufactures, he is also permitted to sell them to the best advantage, and as his own interests are involved, the articles generally fetch a higher price than the average market rates. I shall feel obliged by the Magistrate's informing me if any and what objection exists to the adoption of the same practice at Akyab. 10. The feeding of the prisoners is, as at Alipore, entrusted to the European Jailor, --the contract system having been formerly tried and failed. The cost of dieting the native prisoners is greater than in any Jail in the Regulation Provinces, and there are no less than four different scales of diet in use, --one for Mngh prisoners, a second for Bengali term prisoners, a third for life convicts, and the fourth for Europeans and Eurasians. I shall he glad to receive a special report on this subject from the Magistrate and Civil Surgeon, and to know whether, by purchasing the food in a cheaper market and storing it, the cost of feeding the prisoners could not be reduced, without depriving them of any portion of what is considered necessary to maintain them in health and in good working condition. KYOOK PHYOO. I Visited this jail, accompanied by the Civil Medical Officer, twice durin...