Exceedingly interesting experiments in prison administration are being undertaken at Wakefield Gaol.
The prison, which was closed in 1916, has been - reopened under the supervision of Captain A. E. Scott as an adult training centre and already several short-term prisoners, whose sentences vary up to two years, have been drafted to Wakefield from Armley Prison for a course of training.
The underlying idea of the experiments is to teach the men to "play the game."
Scarcely a warder is to be seen. To maintain order the prefect system of the public schools has been adopted, the prison prefects being given the title of "strokes."
Solitary confinement has been abolished and there is no restraint on conversation at mealtimes in the common dining-rooms except that order must be maintained.
The men all have allotments. They work in pairs—a man who knows something of gardening coupled with a man who knows nothing about it. Every prisoner who does well is allowed to grow a border of flowers to decorate his "room," as the cells are now called. Entertainments are often arranged.
There is plenty of hard work to be done—nine hours' manual, two hours' mental is the daily average.
Work is arranged under expert instructors in the weaving shed, foundry, builder's yard, joiner's shop, and other workshops.
The mental work is mostly educational. A scheme is being awn up in consultation with Professor John Strong, of Leeds University. One hour a week is devoted to a discussion of happenings in the outside world on all topics—except crime.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.