2jf> MINUTES QV EVTDENCE BEFORE SELECT COMMITTEE Report on Limerick blishment, and the sobriety and orderly conduct which the prisoners are obliged County Gaol, to observe are extremely irksome to all persons of loose immoral habits, to those the v dehveied m. ^ labour, though as yet but slight, is also peculiarly disagreeable, and when the period ~ of their imprisonment has been so short as to afford no opportunity of improvement ( 3 » ay-) or refoririation arising from the system pursued in the gaol, it has been sufficient to cause a great deal of disgust and discontent, and a consequent resolution to avoid if possible a second committal; in many of those persons whose confinement has been longer, there has been a visible improvement in morals and conduct, common swearing and profane conversation have been laid aside, and books of a serious and devout tendency have been sought for with anxiety, and read or listened to with eager attention; the conduct of the prisoners of this class in chapel is serious and edifying, and the chaplain reports he has every reason to believe, that with many criminals of no light dye the foundation of a better life has been laid in the gaol; several on leaving the prison have gratefully acknowledged the benefits they derived from the discipline to which they have been subjected, and from the instructions received, and promised by their future lives and conduct to evince the reality of their amendment; some time must elapse before the sincerity of their declarations or the good effects of the systems of the gaol can be said to be fully proved, but it is conso- litary to know, that as yet there has been no instance of a re- committal, and the board have been informed, through the catholic clergyman of a parish to which some persons of notoriously bad character have returned, after a period of confinement, that the greatest possible change has been observed in their manner and conduct, and that there is every reason to believe those persons are ashamed and afflicted at their past misdeeds and sincere and steady in their resolution to oflfend no more." T. S. Rice ( Mr. Rice.)— It may be right to state to the Committee, that, subsequent to Esq. the increase of salary of the physician and surgeon, to which I have already adverted, a Member. another grand jury have reduced the salary to 50/. a year each, which, even at the reduced sum, I consider to be more than the necessity of the case requires. It may be also material to mention, that the moral and religious instruction which takes place in the prison, is with the perfect concurrence and assistance of the Roman catholic clergyman ; who, although he objected to any attempt being made to force the reading of the Scriptures upon any prisoners within the gaol, had no kind of objection to allow any person, who himself wished to read the Scriptures, to be furnished with the Testament. In point of fact, are you aware whether any of the prisoners have applied for a Testament for the purposes of reading?— I rather think they have; I am quite sure that there are Testaments in the prisons; the Douay Testament, without note and comment; and a variety of other moral and religious works of the best ten- dency, and as we conceive of the best effects, have been recommended by Roman catholic clergymen to the superintending committee, and after being approved of by them, have been put into the hands of the prisoners of the gaol. The appointment of all the officers of the gaol are by the superintending com- mittee, are they not?— No; the appointment of the gaoler is in the hands of the sheriffs; and under the old system of administration, the greatest possible inconve- niences were found to result from this system of appointment; the sub- sheriff con- sidered the office of gaoler to be a matter of patronage which belonged to him ; and I know of my own knowledge, that it has been more than once made a matter of sale ; the superintending committee found very great difficulties in obtaining any power of interference without controling or limiting the responsibility of the sheriff's, and the following plan was devised, which has been found to answer extremely well: A considerable portion of the gaol has been appropriated by the grand jury as a house of correction, which appropriation, grand juries are by law authorized to make; they are competent to appoint an officer, as governor of the house of cor- rection ; and all their presentments to the gaol they make contingent upon the appointment of the keeper of the house of correction taking place as a gaoler by the sheriff; and as the county require security, both in money and in character, we apprehended, and we have found that the security which was good for the county, would also be good for the sheriff; by adhering to this principle we have in point of fact, made the gaoler a permanent, in place of being an annual officer, and we have had no reason to imagine that any inconvenience has arisen to the sheriff, from his acquiescence in the regulations which we recommended to him. 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