(2) The same Censor complains strong]; elarrerer yr proc sreptontan Only the worst class of offenders should, he explains, be committed to prison, the remainder being either released on bail or placed under strict surveillance. Unfortunately, however, the latter are exposed task. to all the maltreatment, and extortion which go on in the prisons, Under regula tions recently issued all Magistrates were required to furnish monthly returns of criminals detained within their jurisdictions, distinguishing between old and new offenders, and those kept in and those under surveillance. A list of discharges was also to be added. The arrangement is securing accurate returns of the criminals in prison. The same cannot however be said of persons in temporary detention or under surveillance. People who have thus been detained for years are entirely omitted from the monthly reports, while long and circumstantial accounts of purely fictitious cases are drawn up so that the offenders this month may appear on the discharge list the next. What was therefore an excellent idea in itself has come to be regarded as a mere matter of form, and it is requested that the high provincial authorities should be directed to depute Commissioners to hold investigation into the judicial procedure in their respective districts. To facilitate inquiry, Magistrates should be required to post periodic lists of all cases at the city gates, On taking over office a new incumbent should within a fortnight forward a list of all prisoners handed over to him by his predecessor, and certify at the same time to the genuine nature of the record,
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.