GAOL, gaols cannot now he erected by any less authority than an act of par liament. All prisons and goals belong to the King, although a subject may have the custody, or keeping of them. 'The justices of the peace at their general quarter-sessions, or the major part of them, not less than seven, upon present ment made by the grand jury at the as. sizes, of the insufficiency, inconveniency, or want of repair of the gaol, may con tract for the building, repairing, or en larging it, &c. or for erecting any new gaol within any distance not exceeding two miles from the scite, and in that case for selling the old gaol and its scite, the contractors giving security to the clerk of the peace for the performance of the contract. 24 George HI. c. 54. The expenses to be paid out of, and in certain cases money may be raised by mortgage bpon, the county-rate.
As there are several persons confined in the county and city gaols, under sen tence, and orders made by one or more justices at their sessions or otherwise, upon conviction in a summary way, with out the intervention of a jury; it is by 24 George III. c. 56, enacted, that any judge of assize, or two justices, within whose jurisdiction such gaol is situate, may remove such persons to any house of correction within the same jurisdic tion, there to be confined, and to remain in execution of such sentence or order.
For the relief of prisoners in gaols, justices of the peace, in sessions, have power to tax every parish in the county, not exceeding 68. and 8d. per week, le viable by constables, and distributed by collectors, &c. 12 Charles II. c. 29. But it is observed by Lord Coke, that the gaoler cannot refuse the prisoner vic tuals, for he ought not to suffer him to die for want of sustenance. If any sub ject of this realm shall be committed to any prison, for any criminal, or supposed criminal matter, he shall not be removed from thence, unless it be by habeas cor pus, or some other legal writ; or where he is removed from one prison or place to another, within the same county, in order to his trial or discharge; or in case of sudden fire, or infection, or other ne cessity: on pain that the person signing any warrant for such removal, and he who executes the same, shall forfeit to the party grieved, 100/. for the first offence, and 200/. for the second. Jus tices at sessions make regulations for the gaols of the county, and there are statutes forbidding the selling of spirits, or secret ly conveying them into gaols.