was the
regulations which needed reform. His plea was irrefutable in its
moderation and simplicity: but it was beyond the comprehension of an
English Home Secretary apparently, for all the abuses pointed out by
Oscar Wilde still flourish. I can't help giving some extracts from this
memorable indictment: memorable for its reserve and sanity and complete
absence of any bitterness:

"... The prisoner who has been allowed the smallest privilege dreads the
arrival of the inspectors. And on the day of any prison inspection the
prison officials are more than usually brutal to the prisoners. Their
object is, of course, to show the splendid discipline they maintain.

"The necessary reforms are very simple. They concern the needs of the
body and the needs of the mind of each unfortunate prisoner.

"With regard to the first, there are three permanent punishments
authorised by law in English prisons:

"1. Hunger.

"2. Insomnia.

"3. Disease.

"The food supplied to prisoners is entirely inadequate. Most of it is
revolting in character. All of it is insufficient. Every prisoner
suffers day and night from hunger....

"The result of the food--which in most cases consists of weak gruel,
badly baked bread, suet and water--is disease in the form of incessant
diarrhoea. This malady, which ultimately with most prisoners becomes a
permanent disease, is a recognised institution in every prison. At
Wandsworth Prison, for instance--where I was confined for two months,
till I had to be carried into hospital, where I remained for another
two months--the warders go round twice or three times a day with
astringent medicine, which they serve out to the prisoners as a matter
of course. After about a week of such treatment it is unnecessary to say
that the medicine produces no effect at all.

"The wretched prisoner is thus left a prey to the most weakening,
depressing and humiliating malady that can be conceived, and if, as
often happens, he fails from physical weakness to complete his required
evolutions at the crank, or the mill, he is reported for idleness and
punished with the greatest severity and brutality. Nor is this all.

"Nothing can be worse than the sanitary arrangements of English
prisons.... The foul air of the prison cells, increased by a system of
ventilation that is utterly ineffective, is so sickening and unwholesome
that it is not uncommon for warders, when they come into the room out of
the fresh air, and open and ins