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Imperial Gazetteer of India, v. 4, p. 403.

XIl] POLICE AND JAILS 403 and industrial education. In 1903, 1,114 boys under sixteen were admitted to the various jails in British India. It is strictly enjoined that boys shall not be sent to jail when they can be dealt with otherwise. The alternatives provided by law are detention in a reformatory school for a period of three to seven years, but not beyond the age of eighteen; discharge after admonition; delivery to the parent or guardian on the latter executing a bond to be responsible for the good behaviour of the culprit; and whipping by way of school discipline. In 1903 there were 1,168 boys in reformatory schools. At the beginning of that year there were seven such schools in British India, and another was opened at Delhi in October. Until I899 these schools were, except in Madras, under the administration of the Jail department, and it was found that they were conducted too much on jail principles and without sufficient regard to reformation. To remedy these defects the control of the schools has been transferred to the Education department; and the authorities have been directed to improve the industrial education of the inmates, to help the boys to obtain employment on leaving school, and as far as possible to keep a watch over their careers. Only 290 girl criminals were admitted to jail in 1903. The Girl social conditions of native life do not permit of girls being criminals. detained for considerable periods in reformatory schools, and no such schools have therefore been established for them. Magistrates have been directed to apply, when possible, the power conferred on them by law to discharge on admonition or to deliver to the parent or guardian. In Bengal and the United Provinces a special dep6t for girl criminals has been established in a Central jail as an experimental measure. Transportation is an old punishment of the British Indian Tianspor- criminal law. Bengal Regulation IV of 1797 authorized the tation. The Port Blair nizamat addlat (or superior criminal court) to sentence criminals penal to transportation beyond the seas. Several places were appointed settlement. for the reception of Indian transported convicts, and in 1838 Singapore, Penang, Malacca, Tenasserim, and the Mauritius were used for this purpose. The treatment of the convicts was lenient, and the discipline lax. The Prisons Commission of 1838 approved of the transportation of life convicts, largely on the ground of the terror inspired by banishment to a distant and unknown land. This terror has in a great measure disap- peared, but on the other hand the rigour of the system has been much increased. Port Blair in the Andaman Islands is now the only penal settlement. It was first used in 1858 for D d 2