QGR2/7/2/8

Annual Report of the Chaplain to the Prison John James Rew to Michaelmas Sessions 1872. Includes the following:

October 1872

From: 1872 To: 1872

It is with regret I have to record that very gross ignorance prevails among many of the prisoners on thier admission - to this & habits of intemperance may be attributed much of their wretchedness, and has laid the foundation of a vicious course of life and led to the committal of crimes of which they have been convicted. Freom recent legislative enactments, it is to be hoped we may anticipate some suppression of the evil of intemperance. BBut my himble opinion is that an improved moralfeeling among the people and an increased sense of responsibility to God, themselves and their fellow men and the acquisition of self restraint, will effect only true and lasting good. In hoping to attain this desirable end my interviews with the prisoner were directed. The total number of prisoners who have passed under my notice during the year, exclusive of Middlesex men and County Court debtors, is 334 males and 50 females. There have been 14 males and 2 females under 15 years of age, 38 males and 2 females under 20 years of age, 93 males and 14 females under 30 years of age, 56 males and 7 females under 40 years of age - the remainder have been over 40 years. 120 males and 9 females could neither read no write, 124 males and 32 females very imperfectly, 146 males and 11 females I found to be totally ignorant of the most elementary truths of the Bible, and the Lord's prayer.

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BEDFORD, Middlesex, gaol, general justices of the peace, magistrate, prison governors, Quarter Sessions, imprisonment, Bedford Gaol, County Gaol, House of Correction, crime, crime statistics, punishment, chaplain, Christianity, religion, Church of England, Bible, church services, literacy, EDUCATION, TEMPERANCE, drunkenness, alcohol