'ANNUAL REPORT OF THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE BOMBAY PRESIDENCY, FOR THE YEAR 1862-63’ [‎14r] (23/266)

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JUDICIAL.
of work for private individuals. The work done on the public roads and
for the jail is estimated at the value of Rs. 2,862-15-6 for the year.
53. The principal handiworks which are being carried on in the jails
are “ husking rice, grinding attah and dall, and tailoring; the making
of blankets, cloth, table-linen, towelling, carpets, paper, bamboo, rattan, and
reed articles; the breaking of stones, and gardening.”
54. The average number of prisoners employed upon manufacture was
697 out of a total of 2567, which was the average number of those sentenced
to labour. The gross out-turn of the year amounted to Rs. 49,664-12-8,
the net produce Rs. 15,125, the net profit Rs. 13,839-8-6, and the average
earning of each prisoner employed on manufactures Rs. 19-13-8. #
55. The prisoners in all the jails, with the exception of one or two
special cases, supply their own immediate wants in the way of contingent
services. For the complete success, however, of jail manufactures, it is
necessary, the Inspector of Prisons thinks, that Government, besides abandon
ing the present system of drafting gangs of able-bodied prisoners from the
jails for out-door employment in public works, should employ convict-labour
to supply the wants of the principal State departments. Great success,
in the event of this being done, may be expected from a systematic
attempt to make convicts maintain themselves. The example of the Alipore
jail in Bengal is referred to, where there are two great branches of prison
industry, viz. the typographic and lithographic A lithograph is an image reproduced from a printing plate whose image areas attract ink and non-image areas repel it. presses, and the manufacture
of gunny-bags. The keeper of the prison receives a heavy commission on
the out-turn, which on an average amounts to a charge of Rs. 600 per
mensem against the incomings from both branches of industry. Yet of the
Printing department the net profits amounted in 1861 to Rs. 2,09,605-5-3,
the average earning of each prisoner being Rs. 2-13-0 daily. Gunny-bags,
which require care rather than skill, and great previous outlay of
money or of instruction in the preparation, and the jail supply of which does
not equal the demand, have returned (1861-62) in the way of net profit
Rs. 59,952-1-1 If, each prisoner engaged in the manufacture earning on an
average Rs. 59-15-3.
56. Bombay and Kurrachee are both supplied with a quantity of
gunny-bags from Calcutta, which far surpasses what could be furnished by
the jails on this side. The introduction of their manufacture, therefore,
would be the introduction of a source of sure profit were the supply of
labour unaffected by the fluctuating demands of road gangs, and were *
* In other tables occur the variations Rs. 21-11-3 and Rs. 20-3-0.
5 ju c
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