"The separation I am pleading for, especially at night, would prevent escapes, or make them very difficult ; for that is the time in which they are generally planned, and effected. This also would prevent their robbing one another in the night. Another reason for separation is, that it would free gaolers from a difficulty of which I have heard them com plain: they hardly know where to keep criminals admitted to be evidence for the king : these would be murdered by their accomplices, if put among them; and in more than one prison, I have seen them, for that reason, put in the women's ward.
" Where there are opposite windows, they should have shutters ; but these should be open all day. In the men felons' ward, the windows should be six feet from the floor; there should be no glass; nor should the prisoners be allowed to stop them with straw, &e.
"The women-felons' ward should be quite distinct from that of the men ; and the young criminals from old and har dened offenders. Each of these three classes should also have their day-room, or kitchen, with a fire-place ; and their court and offices all separate.
" Every court should be paved with flags, or flat stones, for the more ecmvenbent washing it ; and have a good pump, or water laid on—both, if possible ; and the pump and pipes should be repaired as soon as they need it ; otherwise the gaols will soon be offensive and unwholesome, as I have always found them to be in such cases. A small stream con stantly running in the court is very desirable. In a room, or shed, near the pump, or pipe, there should be a commo dious bath, with steps (as there is in sonic country hospitals) to wash prisoners that come in dirty, and to induce them afterwards to the frequent use of it. It should he filled every morning, and let off in the evening through the sewers into the drains. There should also be a copper in the shed, to heat a quantity of water sufficient to warm that in the bath, for those that are sickly. There should also be an oven : nothing so effectually destroys vermin in clothes and bedding, nor purifies them so thoroughly when tainted with infection, as being a few hours in an oven moderately heated.
"The infirmary, or sick wards, should be in the most airy part of the court, quite detached from the rest of the gaol, and raised on arcades. These rooms should never be without crib beds and bedding. In the middle of the floor of each room there should be a grate of twelve or fourteen inches square, for a current of air, covered with a shutter or hatch at night.
"The sewers, or vaults, of all prisons, should be in the courts, and not in the passages, and (like those in the col leges) close boarded between the seat up to the ceiling, the boards projecting ten inches before each seat.
"The infirmary and sheds will not render the court unsafe, provided the walls have parapets, or small chevaux de frise.
"Debtors and felons should have wards totally separate; the peace, the cleanliness, the health, and morals of debtors, cannot be secured otherwise.
"The ward flur men-debtors should also be over arcades, and placed on one side of the gaoler's house. This house should be in or near the middle of the gaol, with windows to the felons' and the debtors' courts. This would be a check on the prisoners, to keep them in order ; and would engage the gaoler to be attentive to cleanliness and constant washing, to prevent his own apartments from being offensive.
"A chapel is necessary in a gaol. I have chosen for it what seems to me a proper situation. It should have a gal lery for debtors, or women ; for the latter should be out of sight of all the other prisoners, and the rest may be separated below. Bibles and prayer-books should be chained at con venient distances on each side : those who tear, or otherwise damage them, should be punished." The introduction of thb separate system of confining prisoners, led to great alterations in the mode of constructing prisons; and the penitentiary at Millbank was built finr the purpose of carrying this plan of prison discipline into effect. It was completed in the year 18'21, and is calculated for the reception of twelve hundred convicts. The outer walls in closed not less than eighteen acres. The principal entrance on Millbank is a stone-front .o_ge, with a Gothic arch, and false portcullis over the gates. At the top, "Penitentiary" is written in large characters. The cells for solitary ment are arranged within the quadrangular building, which stands a considerable distance front the outer wall. At each angle of the structure there is a tower or bastion to form water-closets, to eommunirate with the different ranges of celk. Each side has three tiers of windows (twenty-seven in a tier) strongly grated with iron. The bastions are also pierced for loopholes, to give light and air. Projections, or out-works, are built ffir various departments, and the space between the building and the wall is laid out as gardens.