QGR2/6/1/10

Report of the Prison Chaplain John James Rew to Michaelmas Sessions 1869. Includes the following:

18 October 1869

From: 1869 To: 1869

I find on intimate acquaintance with the previous habits of prisoners that a large proprtion of the offences committed may be attributed to the prevalent and hateful vice of intoxication, to this they confess they owe their imprisonment, degredation, poverty and misery. One very pleasing feature in your prison is, I consider, the Industrial training - the prisoners being taught handicraft trades....one striking instance of its usefulness has come under my notice - a prisoner obtained employment at the trade he had learned in the prison. It affords me much pleasure to report that the prisoners who attend the classes for secular instruction duly appreciate the attention they receive from the schoolmaster, several of the prisoners during their term of impriosonment learn to read and write tolerably well.

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BEDFORD, Middlesex, Pentonville, gaol, general justices of the peace, chaplains, prison governors, Quarter Sessions, Assizes, Bedford Gaol, County Gaol, House of Correction, magistrate, inspector of prisons, imprisonment, punishment, employment, Governor, crime, crime statistics, literacy, health, alcoholism, drinking