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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 4, p. 401.

XI.] POLICE .4D JAILS 4oi drawn attention to the subject. There are, however, difficulties attending this: the cost of providing cellular accommodation is very great, and free ventilation is essential in a jail in the Indian plains. Steady progress has been made during recent years, and many sleeping wards have been fitted with cubicles. The provision of cells for separate confinement has been carried farthest in Madras, where a special penal routine has been introduced for the first stage of confinement. Discipline is maintained by a parade system, and the life of the convict is controlled by rule in its minutest details. Prisoners are kept separate under the following classes: persons under trial, females, juveniles, civil prisoners, ordinary convicts, habitual offenders, and sick prisoners. Prisoners under sentence of labour rise at daybreak, take their early meal, work through the morning, are allowed a mid-day interval for rest and food, work again until evening, and, after a third meal, are locked up for the night. The hours of work amount to about nine a day. The dietary varies in different parts of the country with the staple food of the people. Great pains have been taken in all Provinces to regulate it on a scale which is sufficient to main- tain good health without being lavish or extravagant. The disease and mortality statistics of the jail population have been discussed in chap. x of Vol. I; and it need only be observed here that the jail death-rate has been reduced until it compares favourably with that of the general working population-a great achievement, considering the large proportion of criminals who are physically as well as morally below the average. There are three classes of labour-hard, medium, and light; Employ- and a prisoner is employed on one or another class according ment of · . . , . prisoners. to his physical capacity. Work is mostly carried on within the p jail walls, but convicts are sometimes employed near the jail, and extra-mural employment on a more extensive scale is approved in the case of projects so large as to make it worth while to erect special accommodation. These conditions do not often exist, but a large number of convicts have recently been employed in excavating the Jhelum Canal in the Punjab. Within the walls prisoners are employed on jail service and repairs, and in workshops. The main principle laid down with regard to jail manufactures is that the work must be penal and industrial. The industries are on a large scale, and multifarious employments are condemned, while care is taken that the jail shall not compete with local trade. As far as possible industries are adapted to the requirements of the consuming public departments; and printing, tent-making, and the manufacture VOL. IV. D d