Tothill Fields
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 February 2012
Summary
The first yard you enter is for felons, tried and untried, boys and men; at the end of this is an open iron railing, within is the narrow airing place of the infirmary; beyond is the vagrants' court, equally connected with the infirmary by open iron work. Thus the patients communicate with the vagrants on one side, and the felons on the other; nothing surely could be more admirably contrived for the interchange of physical and moral contagion.
Many of the wards, in which the prisoners sleep, are sunk below the level of the ground, and this level is considered to be below high water mark. The up-stairs rooms of the Governor's house are much affected with damp; hearing this from himself, I could not suspect the truth of the statements of the prisoners, who complained bitterly of the cold and moisture of these cells. To obviate these inconveniences, as many as possible crowd together at night into the same cell;–how injurious this must be to health, can be conceived by the statement of the jailer, who told me that having occasion lately to open one of the doors in the night, the effluvia was almost intolerable. My readers will naturally ask–what is the result of these precautions against health? I will answer by facts. We saw a woman lying in one of the wards, who seemed very ill.
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- Information
- An Inquiry, whether Crime and Misery are Produced or Prevented, by our Present System of Prison Discipline , pp. 32 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2009First published in: 1818