QGR2/8/1/10

Report of the prison governor Robert Evan Roberts to the Bedfordshire Michaelmas Sessions 1873 Includes the following:

14 October 1873

From: 1873 To: 1873

Number of prisoners in custody 29th September 1873 = 132 On the corresponding day last year there were 57. Comments on the tables of crime statistics for 1873 [see QGR2/8/1/11] Table no.1: Comparted with 1872 a decrease of 82 committals The decrease under the head of Game Laws referred to last year still continues. The diminution in the number of committals for vagrancy and misbehaviour in workhouses is very marked. I firmly believe that the efforts put forth within the prison since 1868 for the supression of vagrancy have acted asa very powerful auxiliary in deterring tramps and strangers from frequenting this County in aid of relief. The committals for drunkenness are still on the increase 68 this year against 57 last. I hold that a large proportion of the remaining committals proceed from poverty and domestic misery. Table no.2 gives the Petty Sessional Divisions and the population of each. Of the 332 committall 197 were residents and 135 non residents of the County. Table no.3 shows recommittals for the past year were 123 against 143 for the year 1872. County Court debtors: 39 males and one female = 40. Military Prisoners: I have now 105 of these men in custody. Drunkenness leading to desertion and insubordination appears to be the primary cause of their imprisonment....as a body they are sharp, shrewd, and intelligent in matters affecting their own interests, and they necessarily call for extra vigilance on the part of the warders placed over them. Industrial Department: I have already paid to the County funds £300 and shall pay over £50 more in a few days, for the year 1872 I paid £450. That a man should contribute towards his support by honest industry is an universal maxim upon which all are agreed as being one of the first laws of nature, but why there should be an exception to this principle when a man is committed to prison for wrongdoing I am at a loss to comprehend. Hence in your prison industrial pursuits are carried on and encouragd, Finances; the decrease in our numbers has been accompanied by a corresponding decrease in the cost of prison expenses.

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BEDFORD, gaol, general justices of the peace, prison governors, Quarter Sessions, imprisonment, Bedford Gaol, County Gaol, House of Correction, crime, punishment, crime statistics, EDUCATION, literacy, juvenile delinquency, warden, prison warden, night watchman, prison officer, POVERTY, vagrancy, Game Laws, drunkenness, alcohol, desertion from armed forces, army, employment