‘REPORT ON THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY FOR THE YEAR 1882-83.’ [‎102r] (212/498)

1882-83.]
PRISONS.
149
The Sessions .Courts reviewed the proceedings of Magistrates in 246 cases and declined
to interfere with the orders in 215 cases, in 18 cases the papers were referred to the High
Court, and in 9 the orders were set aside.
The District Magistrates and other first class Magistrates with appellate powers had
before them 2,324 appeals during the year under report compared with 1,842 in the previous
year. The results were as follows :—
Appellant died or escaped, or appeal transferred
Appeal rejected or sentence confirmed
Sentence enhanced or modified ...
Sentence reversed, proceedings quashed, or a new trial ordered
1881 . 1882 .
•4 ...
55-5 55-7
14-6 18-9
29-5 25-4
The revision of 472 cases by District Magistrates resulted in the sentences or orders
remaining unaltered in 415 cases, while in 8 cases they were set aside, and 19 cases were
referred to the Sadar Court in Sind.
Trial by jury or with the aid of assessors takes place only in the High Court and the
Courts of Sessions. In the High Court criminal trials are held before juries of 9 persons,
and in the District of Poona juries of 5 are used for the trial of persons accused of heinous
offences punishable with death, transportation or imprisonment for ten years or upwards,
under Chapters VIII, XI, XII, XVI, XVII, X\ 7 III of the Indian Penal Code, or under
any of those chapters taken in connection with section 75 of the Code. In other districts
trials in the Sessions Courts take place with the aid of assessors.
In the High Court 29 cases were tried by jury, in all of which the Judge accepted the
verdict. In the Court of Sessions at Poona 37 cases were tried by jury, and in all these the
verdict was accepted by the Judge.
628 cases were tried in Courts of Sessions with the aid of assessors, in 417 of which
the Judge agreed with the assessors, while he differed with one assessor in 53 cases and
with both in 140. In the remaining 18 cases it appears that the opinion of the assessors
was not taken, owing to the prosecution having been withdrawn, or the accused having
pleaded guilty.
Chap. III.
PROTECTION.
Prisons.
The only central jail is at Yerowda near Poona. A district jail is established at the
head quarters of almost every district and at Aden, and there are extra-mural gangs employed
upon the canal works at Mhasvad, Gfokak and Xara, which are treated as district jails,—in all 26.
Besides these there are 56 subordinate jails placed at convenient points all over the Presidency The name given to each of the three divisions of the territory of the East India Company, and later the British Raj, on the Indian subcontinent.
for the confinement of persons sentenced to short terms of imprisonment. The jails are
supervised by the Inspector Gfeneral of Prisons, and are regulated by Bombay Act II of 1874.
In all there were 17,433 prisoners admitted into jail during the year ; and as the number of Admissions,
admissions has been steadily decreasing for a series of years since 1877, when the number was
as high as 40,728, and has been for the last two years lower than for the three years previous to
the famine, it may be assumed that crime has returned to its normal state. It may also be said
that crime decreased as the year advanced, from the fact that on the 1st January, 1882, the
total number in confinement being 9,112 ; this number fell to 8,098 on the 31st December,—a
decrease of over 1,000 in the daily population. The daily average number in confinement
was 8,689, which appears to be a lower figure than in any of the past eight years.
The admissions into the jails in the city of Bombay amount to nearly one-sixth of the total
admissions. In 1881 the proportion of admissions to every 10,000 of population was 10'9,
which this year has been reduced to 10'6, while in the city of Bombay the proportion of
admissions to its population is 36 to every 10,000. In a large city and sea-port like Bombay
there is always a steady criminal class, chiefly petty thieves, who are admitted over and over
again into jail; and though they are subjected to tread-mill, shot-drill, and the most severe
torms of penal labour, it seems to have little effect in deterring them from a life of crime,
the admissions this year being considerably in excess of the preceding year. They are, with
tew exceptions, admitted in a wretched physical state of health, and are not fit to undergo the
hardship and exposure incidental to extra-mural labour, so that it has not been possible to try
h the labour exacted at the gangs would have any deterrent effect upon them. There is a
considerable decrease in admissions in Sind, the Konkan and Aden, and a slight increase in
tnrjarat and the Deccan, the general decrease on the whole being small as compared with
lormer years.
Including the prisoners in confinement at the beginning of the year, 26,545 prisoners had
0 be accounted for. 17,238 were released on expiry of sentence, 444 on appeal, 264 under the
remission rules, 14 on account of sickness, &c. 291 died, 67 were executed, 30 escaped, 4 were
ransferred to lunatic asylums, and 98 were transported beyond seas. The transfers from
3 a il to another were more frequent—due chiefly to the transfer of every available prisoner
tor a fair hard day’s task work to the extra-mural gangs at Mhasvad, Gfokak and Hara.
^be release of prisoners under the remission rules has only been fully carried out since Remission Rules
81, and in this year 264 prisoners, or 16'6 per cent, of the whole number, were released,
ttie educated prisoners recognize the benefits of the system, but the majority would prefer
£ 594—38
Disposal of Con
victs.