PRISON LIFE.

Gisborne Times, Volume XXVIII, Issue 2734, 12 February 1910, Page 4 (Supplement)

PRISON LIFE.

“If I had the alternative, of serving six months in a workhouse or in a prison, I would prefer a prison.” This view was expressed to a “Daily Mail” representative by tho Rev. John Powell, of Ipswich, who has just returned from the chaplaincy of Suffolk County Gaol, having reached the age limit of sixty-five, years. “I have been chaplain at a county workhouse,” he said, “and I can understand tho preference for the goal for persons who are- ‘down on their luck.’ A prisoner has more protection nowadays in a prison that he has in a workhouse against rough treatment. Everything in prison is done with such strictness as regards the treatment ol : prisoners, and the warders are enjoined not to speak roughly to those under their charge. “A prisoner can not only complain to the governor, but he has also an opportunity of personally bringing his grievance before the visiting magistrates and thp. Home Office. Commissioner, who visits* the prison at short intervals. One thing that a prisoner appreciates is having a room, or a- cell, if* you like, to himself, instead of having to live, as under the workhouse system, with a lot of other men, some of them not very agreeable. “I remember a man who was going up for trial for a not very serious offence, saying to me, ‘Look here, gov’nor, you might ask the chap on the bench to give me three years. I shall he obliged! to you if you will. ‘When I’m outside I haven’t a bed to sleep on, while I am here I have my own private sitting-room, my butler to bring in my meals, my doctor to see after me, and even my private chaplain.’ That man quite meant what he said. Prison life was better for him than a’life of practical destitution."