JB/116/539/001

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Letter 3d

23 Nov 1802

Improved prisons

1
Differe State of improved
prisons not
to be spoken of
with certainty—
1 as to Members
2 as to accounts

XVI. Penitentiary System in England—Improved local
prisons.

So much having been said of what has been done in
this way in foreign parts, countries the omission might well seem
a strange one, were nothing said of what has already been
done in this same way here at home. On this subject
however it would be in vain for me to attempt to speak
with any distinctness, and that for various reasons.

In the first place I know not which to which of
the existing prisons the denomination may be applicable, nor
what the number of them may be amount to on the whole. In
England and Scotland together Wales included(a) total number of prisons nearer
three hundred than two: prisons improved upon the penitentiary
plan, from between half a dozen I should suppose, to and a
dozen. Your Lordship knows precisely: or at any
rate may know,+ from those connoisseurs in prisons, who are friends of your Lordships
who, in the improvements thus made in and for the so many
in "improved Colonies"
detached parts of the country afforded a reason for having and allowing no
such improvements the benefit of any such improvements in and for the whole .

Note
Number of those
visited by Howard 257
Howard on Prisons 3d edit
1784. p. 486. Table XII.

+ from the Reports of
the gentleman, whoever
he may be, who at for
your Lordships confirmation recommendation
is paid £400
a year for looking at them.

2. In the next place, it is only in here and there
an instance that the accounts would be accessible to me: and if
they were were they even all before me, to speak of all would require a
work of itself; to speak of dwell upon one or two only, would might be a
sort of injustice to the rest.

2
General character
of improved
Space—
1. for prevention of disease
2. for work
2. for separation
3. for work.

To all these "improved" prisons, in what other respects
soever improved or supposed to be improved, one feature of improvement acquisition/accession common property
may be found belongs in common—encrease of inclosed space. In each instance,
this encrease has had one or other more of three objects: preventing of disease—affording working room—affording means
of reparation for convicts of different descriptions: in rooms sequestration in various degrees
of perfection, up to the heights pinnacle of penal luxury—total solitude in solitary
confinement.

Identifier: | JB/116/539/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1	1802-11-23	Marginal Summary Numbering	1-2
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	539	Info in main headings field	letter 3d
Image	001	Titles	xvi penitentiary system in england - improved local prisons
Category	correspondence	Number of Pages	1
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e1 / f6
Penner	jeremy bentham	Watermarks	1800
Marginals	jeremy bentham	Paper Producer
Corrections	jeremy bentham	Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public	letter was never sent; see note 8 to letter 1747, vol. 7	ID Number	38072
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