cal
attendance are, it seems, the attractions. The following are Mr
Hill's words, with the quotations he makes from the statements of
prison officials:--

'Several of the prisons continue to be attractive, to certain
classes of persons, instead of repulsive; owing, apparently in some
instances, to the better dietary of the prison as compared with that
of the workhouse; in others, to the good medical treatment generally
provided in prisons; and in others, to a practice of giving
prisoners clothing on their liberation, a practice which, did the
law permit, might be replaced by a rule enabling prisoners to earn
clothing by extra labour.

'The governor of the borough prison at Cambridge stated that many
persons were reckless about committing offences, because they
preferred being sent to the prison to going to the workhouse, owing
chiefly (according to their statements) to their getting better food
at the prison.

'The chaplain of the prison at Spilsby stated as follows:--"I am
sorry to observe that the present system of discipline here does not
deter people from the commission of crime. Several have said that
they would rather come here than go to the Union workhouse." ...

'Mr Dunn, one of the surgeons of the prison at Wakefield, states--"I
am convinced that many persons, especially females, get committed to
the prison on purpose to be cured of attacks of disease. Many of
them have admitted to me that it was so. A man from Bradford, who
went out last week, told me that he had been here before, and that
he had got committed again in consequence of his having a return of
his disease, and that he came to be cured.... One man who was here
for a month last autumn, and who came in a very diseased state, but
who left cured, required, during nearly the whole time, a pint of
wine per day, besides malt liquor. It was a case in which a very
liberal diet is necessary to preserve life; and it was requisite to
have a prisoner, acting as nurse, to sit up with him through the
night. The cost to the West Riding of this single case, counting
expenses of all kinds, could not have been less than L.6."

'The governor of the city prison at York said--"By the
acknowledgments of the prisoners themselves, I know that the
practice still continues of committing offences on purpose to get
committed to this prison. Four prisoners were liberated this morning
who had broken a street-lamp with the evident intention of being
sent to this prison.