City Gaol and Bridewell, Chichester, Sussex

Over the East-gate. Has five rooms, one of which is called the dungeon, and another the bridewell. A court, now with a pump. Allowance to felons &c. two pence a day. Gaoler, a sergeant at mace: salary, £5, now £15: fees, debtors, 6s. 8d. no table.

Gaoler, John Humphreys, Sergeant at Mace. Salary 20l. No Fees.

Surgeon, from the Parish, when wanted.

Number of Prisoners, l804, Sept. 17, One.

Allowance. A Quart Loaf of bread per day; each of which, when I was here, weighed 2 lbs. 3 oz.

REMARKS.

Here is a small court-yard, of 25 feet by 13, with a sewer. A pump and bathing tub in the wash-house adjoining.

On the first floor is a good-sized room for Women. On the second floor are four rooms for Men, which open into a lobby, or passage, four feet wide. They have all glazed windows, with sloping blinds, to prevent communication with the street; and each has a straw bed in canvas on the boarded flooring, with three blankets in Winter, and two in Summer. They are well ventilated and lighted. The City furnishes straw.

None of the rooms have fire-places.

Bibles, Testaments, the Whole Duty of Man, and small devotional and other tracts, are furnished to the Prisoners, and religious Poor, by the Society in this City for Promoting Christian Knowledge, established 25th May, 1799.

The Rules and Orders are written on paper, and stuck up in the Gaol; but not being signed, I omit transcribing them.

No employment for the Prisoners. The Act for Preserving Health hung up; but not the Clauses against Spirituous-Liquors.

The whole Prison is very clean.

There appears to have been formerly a Court held in a part of the Cathedral; to which adjoins a dungeon, 15 feet by 12, totally dark, except the borrowed light which it receives from an aperture over the Cloisters.

An arrangement has recently been made between the county and city magistrates, under the Act 5 Geo. IV. cap. 85,for the reception of prisoners convicted at the city sessions into the county bridewell at Petworth, where they fulfil their sentences of hard labour at the tread-wheel. The present city gaol is a very inconvenient place. There is but one small yard for prisoners of every description: the females have the use of it at separate intervals from the males during the day. The prisoners are mostly confined in their night-cells; these are not small, and are in good order. There is but one day-room, or kitchen, which is thrown open with the yard for the alternate use of the men and women: this room appears to be very damp from a faulty drain. The number of prisoners seldom exceeds seven. A half-quartern loaf of bread is allowed daily to each prisoner, with meat twice a week.

The gaol in this city is an old building, and very ill adapted to the purposes of a place of confinement. The ground floor is occupied by the Apartments of the Keeper, in the rear of which is a small yard, in which the prisoners are allowed at certain hours to take exercise. On the first floor are two Rooms, one appropriated to Debtors, 15 feet by 8 feet 10 inches, and another, the only apartment for females, 12 feet by 11 feet. In an upper story are four small rooms or cells.

The windows of the Women’s Apartment and the Cells in the upper Story look into the High Street, and, notwithstanding they have hopper blinds, there are means of communicating with persons from without. The keeper stated that he had detected attempts of the kind, especially in the case of the female prisoners, most of whom are Prostitutes, and have connexions in the city.

The Corporation contracts with the County for the support of Prisoners sentenced to hard labour. All Prisoners of this description are sent to Petworth, a distance of 14 miles. The cost of conveying a Prisoner thither is seventeen shillings. The Town Gaol is consequently appropriated to Prisoners under examination, prisoners summarily convicted, but not to hard labour, and debtors. But few Vagrants are committed, not that there are no such offenders in the Borough, but because, as we were informed, the gaol does not admit of their being confined therein, and the expense of conveying them to Petworth is considered too serious to be incurred for such light offenders.

In the morning, the doors of the Men’s Cells are unlocked at seven o’clock, when they breakfast, and are allowed to go down into the Yard until half-past nine. They are then locked in their Rooms, and the women are permitted to take exercise in the yard until half-past ten. They are then confined in their Rooms, and the Men have again access to the Yard, until the hour for locking them in their Cells for the night. During the day and night the Prisoners have no other resource but conversation with each other. The Keeper frequently hears them talking at night.

On unlocking the cells in the morning, they are described to be exceedingly offensive. The Keeper says that if he has ten Prisoners in Gaol, four or five of them become soon ill from the want of ventilation in the Rooms. The situation of the Women is truly deplorable. Debtors, Prostitutes, persons committed on suspicion of the slightest offence, and others of criminal habits and hardened character, are placed together in one small apartment.

The Town-Council are quite sensible of the defects of this prison, and most creditably anxious to build a new gaol. We have examined a site adjoining the court-house which is in all respects very eligible, but some doubts appear to exist as to whether it can be obtained.