IRLF 
 
 STATE of PRISONS 
 
 in 
 SPA IK & PORTUGAL 
 
SOME ACCOUNT 
 
 OF THE 
 
 STATE OF THE PRISONS 
 
 SPAIN AND PORTUGAL 
 
 BY JOHN BOWRING, ESQ. 
 I? 
 
 LONDON : 
 1824. 
 
 VOL. XXIII. -Pam. NO. XLVI. T 
 
 W 
 ^ 
 
SPAIN. 
 
 f ROM the epoch in which the Inquisition refined upon and 
 perfected all the horrors of imprisonment, the state of the gaols 
 in the Peninsula had until lately been most dreadful. During the 
 French invasion, though the immediate melioration of the prisons 
 was frequently discussed, the whole nation was too incessantly 
 occupied by the terrible struggle in which it was engaged, to give 
 any efficient attention to this, or indeed any other subject uncon- 
 nected with that devastating war. Something, however, was done ; 
 and the abolition of the "Holy Office" released many victims 
 from that "awful thrall," which placed them beyond the reach 
 even of benevolent curiosity, and left them to the arbitrary decrees 
 of secret tribunals, and to the unseen vengeance of irresponsible 
 and unknown judges. 
 
 Many of the leading characters of Spain have at one period 
 or another learned, by 6a{l and $ev/eret experience, the miseries of 
 the former prison- systeitt t tiey \haye teen "taught to sympathise 
 with the wretched prisoner, for, they have b.een^the witnesses of, 
 and the sharers inj.tbeihfcfrdrS pfhiS ihipHsfo'nmept. 
 
 At Madrid, I have seerrcefis from*which* '^prisoners have come 
 forth in utter and incurable blindness : there were others in 
 which the body could rest in no one natural position, neither sit- 
 ting, nor standing, nor kneeling, nor lying down. 
 
 Though numberless Instances of cruelty rush upon my mind, 
 their recital might be ill-placed here ; but it may be well, for the 
 sake of illustration, to refer to the sufferings of two individuals, 
 well known in this country, who have since occupied high and im- 
 portant offices in the state. One of them declared", that in the 
 three first days of his arrest he employed himself in counting 
 the number of vermin which he destroyed on his body; they 
 amounted to thirty thousand ! Another deputy assured me, that 
 when allowed to change his linen, it had on every occasion 
 become so pestiferous, that nothing which he could offer would 
 induce any individuals, however poor, to receive it into their 
 houses ; and it was washed from time to time by a benevolent and 
 respectable lady, who, in her open balcony, undertook a task 
 which her lowest menial had refused to perform. 
 
3] On the State of the Prisons in Spain, $c. 291 
 
 In truth, no sufferings can be conceived more intolerable than 
 those of many a prisoner confined in former times in the gaols of 
 the Peninsula. 1 In a moist, miserable and dreary dungeon, 
 oppressed with heavy chains, without a book to console him by 
 day, without even a handful of straw on which to stretch him- 
 self at night ; supplied with bad and insufficient food ; shut out 
 from all notice, from all sympathy, and in the hands of those 
 whose hearts were as cold and as hard as the walls that enclosed 
 him what situation can be more terrible ? I once noticed, on 
 the walls of a Spanish prison, an admirable picture, drawn with 
 charcoal, of an old and exhausted victim (pourtrayed perhaps 
 by the sufferer himself), his beard unshorn, his body wasted, his 
 countenance betokening despair, his fetters insupportable ; and 
 beneath were these lines : 
 
 " () deem not, in a world like this, 
 
 That the worst suffering is todte! 
 No ! dying were a privileged bliss 
 To the tired sons of misery/' 2 
 
 And to such sons of misery death must have been a blessing. 
 
 Immediately after the re-establishment of the Constitutional 
 Government in Spain, the first Cortes occupied themselves in 
 
 1 An extract from a recent publication on Prisons, by Dr. Jacobo Villa- 
 nova y Jordan, one of the Spanish Judges, may here be added : 
 
 " In 1814, the king, for the first time, visited the prisons of Madrid. At 
 this period those frightful chains were in use, which he ordered to be de- 
 stroyed. There, also, were to be seen the cells, under ground, destitute of 
 ventilation, where, to the ruin of health and morals, many poor wretches 
 were obliged to sleep together, and respire the most impure and noisome 
 atmosphere : and the courts whence, at the close of day, legions of immense 
 rats issue forth, spreading into every corner, robbing the poor prisonerof his 
 scanty allowance, and disturbing his rest. The criminal, the lover, and the 
 murderer, the debtor and the robber, the forger and the ruffian, were herded 
 indiscriminately together, and he who was guiltless, along with them. Among 
 the keepers, some were found who hardly knew the persons of their prisoners. 
 In the prison called the Town Gaol (which is shortly to be abolished, and 
 the prisoners sent to that termed " De la Corte"), there was a square room, 
 about eight yards in length, and nine feet high ; it was entered by an ex- 
 tremely dark and narrow passage, at each end of which were two doors. The 
 prisoner confined within this space never saw the light of heaven. The pave- 
 ment was of sandstone, and in the centre there was an iron collar, with a 
 chain to confine the prisoner down to it. Although I have not seen the 
 grille of this gaol, I imagine it was as bad, or even worse than that of the 
 Town Gaol. It was an instrument used for torture, for such prisoners as 
 did not confess, to compel them to do so. v 
 
 2 "No es verdad que la muerte, 
 Sea el mas malo de los males; 
 Es un alivio de los mortales 
 Que son cau^ados de penar." 
 
 M78919 
 
292 Mr. Bowring on the State of [4 
 
 applying remedies to some of the most obvious evils of the 
 prison-system. They speedily decreed, that no prisoner what- 
 ever should, on any pretence whatever, be confined in any un- 
 wholesome or subterraneous dungeon, or in any place not visited 
 by the natural light of day. They also ordered, that no chains 
 or fetters of any sort should, on any occasion, be employed ; and 
 I confess it was no small satisfaction to me, in my progress 
 through Spain, to witness the destruction of those .dismals cells 
 which had been the scenes of so much calamity. The Cortes 
 proceeded to form a prison-committee, whose attention is espe- 
 cially directed to the state of the Spanish gaols; and several 
 writers have sprung up, who have been directing the public at- 
 tention to the subject, and who have excited a spirit of inquiry, 
 and a desire of useful exertion throughout the Peninsula. Several 
 of the public journals have lent themselves cheerfully to the im- 
 portant object ; and I have remarked, indeed, in every quarter, 
 that anxiety for information which is the herald of benevolent 
 action. In most of the towns in Spain the prisons are placed 
 under the inspection of citizens elected by the popular suffrages ; 
 and their attention to their charges has greatly tended to stop the 
 arbitrary proceedings which had been sanctioned, as it were, by 
 the habits of centuries. 
 
 Don Jacobo Villanova, now a Judge at Valencia, proposed to the 
 Cortes the adoption of Mr. Bentham's Panopticon plan of a prison, 
 with sundry modifications. His scheme was referred to the Prison 
 Committee, who requested a report from the Royal Society of 
 Madrid. That report being favorable, the Committee proposed 
 that in all the capitals of the kingdom, and in all the towns in 
 which there resides a Judge of the first rank, viz. between three 
 and four, hundred prisons shall be constructed on the central-in- 
 spection plan, of a size suited to the population, in which security, 
 ventilation, salubrity, and an abundance of water, shall be pro- 
 vided for ; that these prisons shall be constructed remote from 
 all other buildings, and at the extremity /of the towns or cities 
 referred to. They declare that the government of a prison shall 
 be deemed honorary, and be given to military officers: in the 
 provinces, captains in the capital, colonels whose salary shall 
 be, in Madrid, 24,000 rials ; ' in the chief towns, 16,000 rials ;* 
 in the small towns, 10,000 rials ; * and that he shall be personally 
 responsible for the security and discipline of the prisoners, and 
 for carrying into effect the prison-regulations. The magistrates 
 shall elect all other officers of the prison, and shall form the re- 
 
 1 About 240. a About 160. 3 About 100. 
 
5] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 293 
 
 gulations, which must be submitted to the government for ap- 
 proval. They propose that all prison-fees whatever shall be 
 abolished ; that there shall be classification dependent on age, 
 crimes, signs of penitence, &c. j that the untried shall not be 
 confounded with the condemned ; that labor shall be introduced, 
 the severity of which shall depend on the character of the crime, 
 and other circumstances connected with the criminal; that a 
 committee be appointed for visiting the prisons, and for seeing 
 that the proposed regulations be carried into effect. * 
 
 The Committee of the Cortes Introduce the subject with the fol- 
 lowing melancholy details, in which there is no exaggeration, 
 nor attempt to delude. 
 
 The prisons of Spain, beginning by those of Madrid, are hor- 
 rible caverns, in which it is impossible that health should be long 
 preserved. It seems impossible that men should ever have been 
 found so fierce and inhuman as to construct such edifices for 
 their fellow-men. But if this appear incredible, how much more 
 so is it that in the nineteenth century these dwellings should be 
 still kept up the shame and the execration of humanity ! Dark 
 dungeons, without light or air, are found in the two prisons of 
 Madrid, of the Corte and of the Villa ; nothing but a miserable 
 and insufficient ration provided for human beings ; condemned 
 to live for years in utter darkness ; breathing mephitic air; 
 hearing nothing but the noise of bolts arid fetters; having no 
 companions but the swarms of vermin which cover the walls of 
 their gloomy abode, and which incessantly prey upon their persons ; 
 and condemned to sleep upon a mat, covered with a few filthy 
 rags. 
 
 The doom of those who occupy the courts is hardly better. 
 Exposed through the day to the intemperance and inclemency of 
 the seasons ; lazy, wearied with their own existence ; obliged 
 constantly to listen to oaths and curses, grossness and obscenity 
 they suffer in an earthly hell and to them the terrible denuncia- 
 tions of religion can have no anticipated terrors. And if in the day 
 their fate is horrible, by night it is worse. Condemned to subter- 
 raneous dungeons, damp, and full of vermin, shut out from the 
 common air these are the scenes of their repose ; and the hour 
 which brings to other mortals rest and sleep, prepares for them 
 only mortification, shame, and misery. 
 
 Such is the gloom and insalubrity of the prisons of the kingdom. 
 In Andalusia there is not one which humanity can approve. 
 Of the 1,285 towns of the Chancelleria of Valladolid, only 167 
 have safe and wholesome prisons, ' so that 1,118 towns are without 
 
 1 " This is said by way of contrast j there is no prison that can be called 
 wholesome."" 
 
294 Mr. Bowring on the State of [0 
 
 prisons, or possess such as are unhealthy and insecure ; and almost 
 all are without sufficient means of subsistence. In Grenada there 
 are but twenty-two prisons which can be called capacious, secure, 
 and tolerably salubrious ; there are four hundred and ninety-one 
 small, insecure prisons, dependant on charity. Those of Gallicia 
 are in the worst condition. In Asturias there is not one which 
 is safe, nor which possesses the means of serving food to the pri- 
 soners. In Estramadura there are only a few, and those Unhealthy. 
 la Arragon the only secure and healthy prisons are those of 
 Alcantz, Calatayud, and ^aragoza j the rest are so bad, that it is 
 impossible to say which is the worst among them ; and there are 
 1,280 towns and villages without any prison. In the whole king- 
 dom of Valencia, where there are a million of inhabitants, there is 
 scarcely one secure and wholesome prison. In Catalonia there 
 are many districts without prisons ; the number of tolerably safe 
 and healthy prisons is forty- five ; but they have no funds for the 
 maintenance of the criminals : but the prisons of the Balearic 
 Isles are worse than all. They are mazmorras (Moorish dungeons), 
 and holes, where the stench, the humidity, and want of air, have 
 caused more mortality than the virulent pestilence. 
 
 The loss of liberty, and the punishment imposed by the law, 
 are surely enough for the unfortunate^ criminal. What right has 
 society, by its neglect or indifference, to superadd these horrors ; 
 to confirm all that is atrocious in vice j to eradicate every thing 
 that is left of virtue , to mingle the swindler with the homicide ; 
 the young and timid practitioner with the old and daring, and 
 irreclaimable criminal , and in a situation where, to do them any 
 justice, every individual prisoner requires an individual guard ? 
 
 It is, indeed, high time that such scenes of outrage should exist 
 no longer; that such horrors should be blotted from the very 
 memory of man. It is, indeed, high time that the light of civi- 
 lisation should penetrate those deadly dungeons dungeons un- 
 visited as yet by the pure light of day, or the beams of the vivifying 
 sun. 
 
 For the Cortes this work was reserved, and to them its glory 
 will belong ; and it will bear their memory down to future 
 grateful generations. " Is it possible," said some of the prisoners 
 in the Madrid gaol, to one of the Committee who visited them ; 
 " is it possible that the fathers of the country are already assembled 
 in the sanctuary of the laws, and that they will not meliorate our 
 situation ? We ask no pardon for our crimes ; * we will suffer 
 with resignation the penalties of the law j but why this unneces- 
 
 1 When I was at Seville, the following verses were put into my hands by 
 the prisoners, in which the same sentiments are expressed, but in language 
 less polished : 
 
7] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 295 
 
 sary bitterness ; why these anticipated punishments, worse than 
 death itself ? If crimes have made us responsible to the law ; if 
 error, if ignorance, if a defective education, have dragged us into 
 crimes, it is just that we should pay the price of our excesses ; but 
 it is not just that we should be treated with inhumanity and bar- 
 barity. Whatever our crimes have been, we were born men, and 
 ought still to be looked on with the respect due to human nature. 
 We are Spaniards ! Our blood is your blood ; we are of one 
 religion with you ; we are part of our country's great family." 
 The Committee couM not hut sympathise with such expressions of 
 misery ; they request that Government do immediately meliorate 
 the state of the prisons, giving ventilation to the apartments, 
 abolishing all subterranean dungeons ; and they recommend the 
 adoption of the central-inspection plan ; that the prisoners be 
 always within sight ; that no light and air be wanting j that there 
 be a classification of crimes and sexes ; that the internal arrange- 
 ments be simplified ; that idleness be succeeded by industry ; that 
 food, cleanliness, and clothing be provided for the prisoners ; and 
 that every prison contain an apartment for the arrested before 
 committal, a hall of audience, an hospital, and a chapel. 
 
 Hitherto, by a barbarous and criminal custom, the prisons of 
 Spain have been a pecuniary possession, let out to the best bidder, 
 who, in the ill-treatment and exactions on the prisoners, made 
 their fortunes by the miseries they created. The taxes on entering, 
 
 V. S. condecorados 
 A esta carcel an benido 
 Que asin podran desbalido 
 Imploran buestra piedad. 
 Buestra liberalidad, 
 Creo no a de permitir, 
 Dejar los presos salir; 
 De buestro bien desirado, 
 Antes hiran remediado 
 Los infelicez de aqui. 
 
 Lo dice un Desgraciado Forastero. Q. S. M. B. G. P. 
 
 Ye chosen ones, whose footsteps bend 
 In mercy towards this prison celJ, 
 Where we, the sons of sorrow, dwell ; 
 
 Your pity to our accents lend. 
 
 We dare not ask for liberty, 
 
 However liberal ye may be ; 
 But we will hope your generous care 
 Will feel our wants, and hear our prayer, 
 
 And soothe the prisoner's misery. 
 
 Drawn up by the Unfortunate Foreigner. 
 
296 Mr. Bowring on the Stale of [8 
 
 for exemptions from irons, for better or worse apartments, and on 
 leaving the prison, made the criminal the victim of injustice, in 
 innumerable forms. 
 
 In this spirit of humanity did the Committee discharge their 
 duty. Their names deserve to be recorded Vargas Ponce, 
 Ramos Arispe, Alvarez Guerra, Villanueva, Priego, Canabal, 
 Navarro, Ugarte, and Isturiz. The multiplicity of business which 
 crowded on the Cortes, prevented the adoption or the discussion 
 of their plan ; but the present Cortes will be engaged ere long 
 in carrying into effect the benevolent schemes of their prede- 
 cessors. 
 
 I will now venture to give some details respecting the prisons 
 at Madrid, Cordova, Seville, Cadiz, and Lisbon. 
 
 MADRID. 
 
 THE great prison at Madrid is called La Carcel de la Corle. 
 It was originally built by Philip IV. in 1636 ; but the greater 
 part of the edifice, which was employed as a prison, was destroyed 
 by fire in 1791, and rebuilt in 1792, when the Salvador Convent 
 was added to it. It is situated in the midst of the capital, sur- 
 rounded by streets, which are composed of very high houses, 
 from whence communication may be held with many of the cells. 
 The form of the prison, which occupies a large space, is wholly 
 irregular, and its internal arrangements are ill-adapted to its ob- 
 jects, for which indeed only a part of it was originally intended. 
 The general average of prisoners is about three hundred, though 
 it might be made to contain five hundred. In August, 1821, 
 there were only two hundred and seventy, of whom seventeen were 
 women. 
 
 There are two yards, one of which has rather a handsome ap- 
 pearance, being supported by pillars, and having colonnades and 
 arches. It is paved, and occupied by the industrious part of the 
 prisoners. The other yard is damp and unwholesome. In each 
 of the yards there is a cistern of good water. Till very lately, 
 the state of the privies was most intolerable , but arrangements 
 are now being carried into effect for cleaning them, and for their 
 removal from the rooms occupied by the prisoners. The walls 
 and passages are all exceedingly neglected ; they are covered with 
 filth and vermin. There is no arrangement made for washing or 
 cleaning the interior of the prison, except an order that it shall be 
 swept weekly ; but the state of the apartments is as bad as can be 
 conceived. The situation of every prisoner depends not at all on 
 his crimes, but on his purse. Twenty-five to thirty dollars are 
 paid by every individual to the gaoler for removal to the better 
 
9] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 297 
 
 apartments, and this sum is exacted, whether the imprisonment be 
 for a day, or for life. In this way all crimes become confounded ; 
 and the assassin or the robber, who have retained the profits of 
 their crimes, are blended with individuals confined for misde- 
 meanours or political offences. I found, for example, the chiefs 
 of banditti, imprisoned for ten years or for life, in the same 
 apartment with respectable public writers, as yet untried and un- 
 condemned. 
 
 The prisoners pass the whole of the day in the patios, or courts. 
 This is universal in Spain, and accords with the climate and with 
 the habits of the people, who are always accustomed to spend the 
 great part of the day in the open air. They leave their night-rooms 
 at sun-rise, and return to them at sun- set. The night-rooms are 
 close, even to suffocation. Many of them had formerly no light : 
 windows have been introduced since the decree of the Cortes ; the 
 light is, however, very insufficient. There is little ventilation, and 
 the stench is intolerable. Oil is allowed for light till midnight ; 
 the daily quantity for the whole prison is 2| pounds. From 
 thirty to forty individuals sleep in the same apartment* No bed- 
 ding or straw is provided ; but the prisoners sleep on raised 
 places, formed by bricks, about a foot high, two feet wide, and six 
 feet long ! 
 
 As many of the religious orders in Spain interest themselves 
 particularly in the relief of the infirm and diseased, the sick pri- 
 soners seem generally to obtain prompt attention. An apothecary 
 and surgeon are in daily attendance, who make reports to the 
 Ayuntamiento, when they deem it necessary. In case of insanity, 
 the prisoner is removed to the lunatic-infirmary. 
 
 The salary of the gaoler is 15 rials, = 2s. sterling per day. He 
 has also the money paid for admission into the privileged apart- 
 ments, and a fee exacted from the prisoners when they leave the 
 prison, which is called the carceleria. I urged the abolishment 
 of these perquisites, and an equivalent increase of the gaoler's 
 salary ; and I understand this improvement is about to be intro- 
 duced. Formerly, the gaoler was allowed to claim 30 rials, =: 6 
 shillings, for the privilege of wearing no fetters, and 25 doubloons, 
 15/. for an admission into the better apartments of the prison. 
 There are no printed regulations for the government of the prison, 
 nor has the gaoler any other than verbal instructions from the 
 Ayuntamiento. 1 He visits the prison thrice a day j he is a married 
 
 1 The gaols in Spain are now wholly under the direction of the Ayunta- 
 mientos, or corporate bodies, who are annually chosen by the whole body of 
 the citizens, and of whom the alcalde, or mayor, is the president. They 
 
298 Mr. Bowring on the State of [io 
 
 man, but his wife takes no part of the duties of his office. The 
 other officers of the prison are : 
 
 Three turnkeys, paid . . 8 rials per day, = 206?. 
 One key- keeper . . .5 . .126?. 
 
 Two turnkeys of the passages . 3J . . 8d. 
 
 Three messengers . . .11 quartos . 46?. 
 
 A water-bearer, himself a prisoner, who is paid 2 rials, n 5d. 
 and one sweeper, who receives 1 rial, or 2|6/. per day. 
 
 The number of prisoners who have entered the two prisons of 
 Madrid in the year 1821 is about 1,400. Of these, only a small 
 part have been confined in the Carcel de la Corona ; and it is now 
 intended only to employ the larger prison, or the Carcel de la 
 Corte. 
 
 The daily ration of every prisoner is one pound of bread, six 
 ounces of garbanzos (large peas), and a certain allowance of oil, 
 salt, and wood, to the whole prison. The daily cost of every indi- 
 vidual is 40 maravedis, ~ 36?. 
 
 In the year 1799 a charitable association was formed in Madrid, 
 under the title of " El Buen Pastor," " The Good Shepherd/; 
 for alleviating the situation of the prisoners, and for introducing 
 habits of industry. Hitherto all labor is voluntary. The earnings 
 of the prisoners in the two prisons at Madrid amounted to 
 37,347 Rs., 1 of which 21,163 Rs. was paid to them in money, and 
 the rest in extra rations, or clothing. For the latter the Ayunta- 
 miento make no provision. The only manufacture introduced hi- 
 therto is that of the esparto, or bapweed, which is used in Spain 
 to a great extent for mats, ropes, sandals, &c. 
 
 This Society's annual accounts state, that the following sums 
 have been received in the year 1821 : 
 
 Rs. Ms. 
 
 Voluntary subscriptions . . . 5,693 . . 12 
 
 Collected by domiciliary visits . . 1,945 .. 16 
 
 Religious observances (jubileo) . . 1,133 .. 21 
 Alms in various churches . . . 3,074 . . 6 
 Individual donations . . 61,879 . . 20 
 
 Produce of manufactures sold . . 58,159 .. 4 
 
 Previous balance . . 100,003 ., 21 
 
 Us. 231,888 . . 32* 
 
 choose among themselves a prison-committee, who attend weekly at the 
 prison, and sometimes more frequently, at Madrid; and the whole Ayiinta- 
 miento visit the prison four times a-year, at fixed periods. 
 1 Rs. 100, = 20s. sterling. z Equal to about 2,319/. 
 
1 1] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 299 
 
 THEIR EXPE^ES. 
 
 Purchase of esparto, for manufacturing Us. Ms. 
 
 4,964 arrobes, = 1,241 cwt. . . 19,737 . . 10 
 
 Paid to prisoners for labor . . . fit, 163 . .32 
 
 Extra rations to ditto . . . . 7,546 . . 10 
 
 Clothing to ditto .... 8,636 . . 25 
 Salaries to the clerks and officers-of the 
 
 charity . v 16,537 . . 
 
 Presents to the officers of the gaols . 1,260 .. 
 Extra expenses, warehouses, fumigations, 
 
 &c. 6,915 .. 21 
 
 Rs. 81,796 . . 30* 
 
 The quantity of manufactures sold[ to the public, in 1821, is 
 stated to be : 
 
 1,167 pieces of matting. 
 119 half pieces of ditto. 
 382 made into coverings for rooms. 
 340 arrobes of waste esparto. 
 
 There is no watchman at night, but an armed force is always 
 kept in the prison ; escapes are very rare, and almost impracti- 
 cable without subornation. In 1821 no individual escaped: 
 
 On the arrival of a prisoner he is placed in a solitary apartment 
 of the prison, remote from the rest, where he is kept till his final 
 examination, and the drawing up the bill of indictment, which by 
 a decree of the Cortes must be prepared within twenty-fdur 
 hours after his arrest : his person is searched, and he is allowed, 
 on the payment of a certain sum, to enter the better apartments of 
 the prison. The time of admission of the prisoners' friends is 
 from nine to one, and from four till sun-set. The communication 
 is through two gratings, at the distance of two or three feet, and 
 between them is always posted a guard, or some officer of the 
 prison. No admission is granted to the interior but by order of 
 the Ayuntamiento, or of the prison-committee. I could not ascer- 
 tain the per-centage of those who return to the prisons of Madrid 
 for new offences after being discharged, but I conclude, from my 
 very imperfect data, they amount to from ten to fifteen per cent. 
 There, as in every part of Spain, the state of the prisons has a most 
 baneful effect upon conduct and character. A prison is a moral 
 pest-house, a lazaretto where no means are used to guard against 
 the ravages of contagion. Gaming, robbery, and bloody disputes 
 are of constant occurrence. A majority of the prisoners, I was 
 
 1 Equal to 818/. 
 
300 Mr. Bo wring on the State of [12 
 
 assured, can read and wrfte, though generally very imperfectly. 
 
 Classification, and every thing connected with moral discipline, 
 have been almost wholly neglected. There are no means 'of in- 
 struction, few motives to industry, still fewer to reform. Mass 
 is said on Sundays and saints' days. The chapel is handsome and 
 commodious ; the ecclesiastic is paid for his service at so much 
 per mass, arid is called in when the criminal wishes to confess ; 
 but I have nowhere seen (and yet I am far from denying its exis- 
 tence because I have not seen) any active anxiety to communicate 
 religious counsel, or to administer religious consolation, except 
 when the criminal is doomed to public execution : then, indeed, 
 nothing can be more striking than the unwearied, the sleepless 
 zeal of the Spanish ecclesiastics, and the efforts they make to give 
 the terrible and final scene the most affecting and effective solem- 
 nity. It may not be amiss to remark here, that the mode of exe- 
 cution in Spain the garrote y or strangling with an iron collar 
 seems to ibe almost instantaneous, and consequently humane, and 
 unaccomp anied with the horrible associations which connect them- 
 selves with the sometimes lingering execution of the gallows, and 
 the dismembering operation of the guillotine. In Spain, executions 
 are happily very rare. 
 
 The present construction of the prison at Madrid is very 
 unfavorable to any radically meliorating changes, but the present 
 prison-committee seem honestly and sincerely at work, and are at 
 considerable expense in erecting new apartments, and introducing 
 improvements in the internal arrangements. It is ardently to be 
 desired, especially considering the large space of ground which the 
 prison occupies, its situation in the capital and centre of the king- 
 dom, its being immediately under the eye and influence of the go- 
 vernment, and the Cortes, that Madrid should be fixed on as the 
 spot for carrying into immediate effect the benevolent schemes of 
 the Spanish legislature. That legislature is, I believe, inclined to 
 co-operate with you, and with our other philanthropic societies, 
 in every plan of public utility ; and how important is it to strengthen 
 inter-national sympathies by all the impulses of humanity and 
 beneficence ! 
 
 CORDOVA. 
 
 THIS prison has been in many respects improved since the es- 
 tablishment of the constitution. It is a large and imposing building, 
 situated on the borders of the Guadalete, at a small distance from 
 the city. It is ample in extent and security, possessing a great 
 number oi. : unappropriated apartments, but is unprovided with 
 sufficient attendants. 
 
13] ifo Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 30 1 
 
 The building was erected by the Moors during their possession 
 of Spain, and was one of their castles. It afterwards became the 
 seat of the Inquisition, and continued to be employed for this 
 purpose till the overthrow of that horrid tribunal. Only two in- 
 dividuals, very old women, were found in its dungeons, when the 
 Constitution was proclaimed. They had been thrown there on 
 some superstitious and idle charges. It was hoped that the records 
 of the Cordova Inquisition would have been preserved as curious 
 historical matter 5 but, for the security of the Inquisitors, one of 
 the secretaries gathered them together the day before the doors 
 were thrown open, and consumed them in the flames. 
 
 The prison is removed from every other building, and contains 
 about 120 prisoners, though sometimes as many as 180 are con- 
 fined there. There are two yards ; one large unpaved ^0/2*0, or court 
 for the men, and a small damp flag- stoned court for the women. 
 Both have fountains, and a sufficient supply of water. The privies 
 are, as they generally are in Spain, in an intolerable state. A num- 
 ber of new apartments are being prepared, but there does not seem 
 anxiety to fit them up, in consequence of several prisoners having 
 escaped through the roof, from some of them. Around the yards 
 are the night-apartments ; they contain from thirty to forty prison- 
 ers each ; neither beds nor straw are provided. They have no 
 windows. 
 
 The apartments of the infirmary are toletably good. There is 
 a medical man who attends daily, with a salary of 850 Rs. per 
 month. The Hermandad del buen pastor takes care of the sick, 
 and provides medicines for them. All remarkable events are re- 
 ported to the Ayuntamiento ; they appoint a committee for the 
 prison, who visit it every Saturday. The salary of the gaoler is 
 6,600 Rs. per annum, and the turnkey (there is but one) has 2,200 
 Rs. The food is insufficient, and is contracted for at the rate of 
 twelve quartos, 3d. per head per day, bread excepted, of which the 
 allowance is, I believe, |lb. There is no classification and no 
 species of labor in the prison ; and of ten individuals discharged, 
 the gaoler informed me, six usually return. There is a chapel in 
 the gaol, but the prisoners are not compelled to attend, and the 
 congregation is often very disorderly ; the gaoler and his assistant 
 do not always join in the religious service. The whole time of the 
 prisoners is passed in idleness in the yard, or in the suffocating 
 closeness of the sleeping dungeons. No attention is paid to their 
 cleanliness, to their comfort, or to their behaviour. They are all 
 mingled in a common mass, to learn crime from the hardened, to 
 teach crime to the inexperienced. 
 
 The Ayuntamiento of Cordova have been lately awakened to a 
 
302 Mr. Bowring on the State of [14 
 
 sense of the absolute necessity of a change in their prison-disci- 
 pline, and Dr. Rafael Mariano Pabin has drawn up new regulations 
 which have been approved. He proposes that all the prisoners be 
 divided into three classes : 1st, those detained for capital crimes, 
 and to these are to be added the unruly and insubordinate ; 2d, 
 those whose crimes merit transportation ; 3d, all misdemeanours. 
 To the first, the upper floors are to be applied, and each individual 
 to have a separate cell ; to the second, the apartments on one side 
 of the yard ; to the third, those on the other : that the third class 
 shall be allowed to exercise themselves in the yard one half of the 
 day, the other two classes one quarter of the day each, varying the 
 hours from week to week ; disobedience to be punished by solitary 
 confinement not exceeding eight days, and a diminished ration ; 
 and that every prisoner shall be compelled to make good the damage 
 he shall do to the prison, or every inhabitant of the apartment, 
 when the individual cannot be ascertained. That the apartments 
 shall be swept every day in winter, and watered in summer, by the 
 prisoners in turn ; that every apartment shall have a jar of water, 
 and a vessel for ordure, &c. to be cleaned every day ; and that four 
 rials, two for cleaning these vessels, and two for light, shall be paid 
 by every prisoner on his entrance. 
 
 The imperfections and the hasty compilation of these rules are 
 but too obvious. I have quoted them, however, to show that some 
 attention is paid to the* subject, and to prove how little the duties 
 of society to the prisoner are understood, and how important it is to 
 enlighten the minds and direct the course of men really disposed to 
 listen to and to profit by the counsels of those who have gone more 
 deeply into the inquiry. 
 
 SEVILLE. 
 
 THOUGH Seville is the city in Spain in which inquiry was first 
 actually engaged on the subject of prison-discipline, little or nothing 
 has hitherto been done for its improvement. Dr. Manuel Maria 
 Marmol, an eminent ecclesiastic, published a tract, about twelve 
 months ago, insisting on the absolute necessity of some changes, and 
 recommending the adoption of a system of discipline likely to pro- 
 mote reformation. It has been proposed to remove the prisoners 
 to the building lately occupied by the Inquisition ; which from its 
 extent would allow of some classification, and of the introduction 
 of employment. Of the dreadful state of disorganisation and 
 abandonment of the great prison at Seville, some idea may be formed 
 from the circumstance that extensive coining was carried on there 
 as lately as 1820, and that it has sometimes been necessary (such 
 was the insubordination or rebellion of the convicts) to call in the 
 
15] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 303 
 
 soldiery, and fire upon them, in order to reduce the ringleaders. 
 The character of the southern Spaniards adventurous and roman- 
 tic, a mingling of native pride and oriental chivalry has spread, 
 very universally, a contempt of death ; and made it an instrument 
 but little effective in the hands of the legislature. During the late 
 discussions in the Cortes on the penal code, several of the most 
 distinguished members proposed, that the punishment of death 
 should be wholly abolished. It was not abolished ; but the num- 
 ber of crimes to which it is applied is now very few. And in Spain, 
 as in every country which has fallen under my notice, the diminu- 
 tion of the severity of punishment has universally led to the dimi- 
 nution of crime. That which is taken from the harshness of the 
 penal law is, in a vast number of cases, added to the certainty of 
 its infliction, and in consequence to the salutary dread excited in 
 the mind of the evil-disposed. Spain is a country in which, in the 
 course of half a century, I expect that the humanity of the Tuscan 
 code, which abolished capital punishment, will obtain a permanent 
 establishment. In Portugal, the abolition has already taken place. 
 
 Neither Marmol, nor any of those Spaniards who have interes- 
 ted themselves in the prison question, knew of the existence of your 
 Society. He offers himself to your correspondence, and will be 
 most gratified to be a fellow-laborer with you. 
 
 The great prison of Seville is most inconveniently situated in 
 the Calle de la Serpa, one of the busiest streets of the city. It is 
 close, noisome, and gloomy. It was formerly a nobleman's palace, 
 has no wall to surround it, and, from several parts of it, the pri- 
 soners can communicate with the street. Its form is irregular. 
 The number of prisoners varies from 250 to 400. It has two 
 gravelled yards, provided with water. In the yards the prisoners 
 pass the day wholly unoccupied, and at night are locked up in 
 apartments, whose offensiveness is most intolerable. The walls 
 are covered with the filth of years. The stench of the drains is 
 suffocating. No printed rules exist ; and of the written ones the 
 gaoler complained, that it was impossible to carry many of them 
 into effect. There is one, for instance, which directs, that six pri- 
 soners shall be chosen to clean the prison : there was an obstinate 
 resistance, and in consequence 15 Rs. (35.) per month has been 
 paid to an individual for, what is called, performing this duty. 
 Though the first regulation prohibits all mal-treatment, or additio- 
 nal restraint from the gaoler, I found that secret orders existed, 
 enabling him to employ fetters, if he should deem them necessary. 
 In summer, the prison is daily sprinkled with vinegar. Some of 
 the apartments are miserably damp ; and in the smaller prison the 
 criminals called my attention to the wet floors, the walls, their own 
 
304 Mr. Bo wring on the State of [i(] 
 
 nakedness, no blanket or bed, in language of pitiable and 
 heart-rending energy. Only a fourth part of the rooms have any 
 ventilation, and this in a climate where from 90 to 95 of Fahren- 
 heit's thermometer is a common temperature. All sorts of abuses 
 seem sanctioned in the prison. Stalls are kept, where a variety of 
 articles are sold. Smoking is universal. Some individuals have a 
 rug, provided by their friends ; others have scarcely a fragment in 
 which to wrap themselves, and the quantity of vermin appeared 
 dreadfully great. 
 
 Here, as generally elsewhere, the sick obtain more attention than 
 the situation of the healthy would promise. There is regular at- 
 tendance on the part of the apothecary, and I did not hear any 
 complaints from the prisoners in the hospital of want of care or 
 kindness. All particular cases are reported to the Ayuntamiento, 
 who appoint two prison-deputies, to have special authority over 
 the prison. The Ayuntamiento never visit in a body. The gaoler 
 has held his situation about two years. The former was discharged 
 for his rapacious exactions. The salary is 20 rials per day = 4>s. ; 
 that of his assistant 15 rials. Corporal punishment was formerly 
 inflicted by the gaoler, whose rule was arbitrary, almost without 
 control. It has now ceased to be so. Solitary confinement is 
 sometimes employed ; but I imagine that the internal administra- 
 tion of justice requires much attention and restraint. The daily 
 allowance to the prisoners is one pound and a half of bread, two 
 ounces of bacon, and one quarter of a pound of minestra, the charge 
 for which is 21 quartos, or about 6\d. Of late, no prisoners have 
 escaped. The strong military guard, which is always present, 
 must make this difficult, or almost impossible, unless subornation 
 is employed. 
 
 No provision is made for clothing the prisoners, and their situa- 
 tion, in this respect, is often most deplorable. They are allowed 
 to see their friends through the gratings, but access to the interior 
 of the prison can only be obtained through the prison-deputies. I 
 had, on one or two occasions, some difficulty in penetrating some 
 of the Peninsular prisons, and was obliged to use the threat of 
 publicity, and to express a conviction that something like self-con- 
 demnation threw difficulties in the way. I do not imagine that 
 any opposition would be now made to the inquiries of any respec- 
 table foreigner, and would recommend, if personal acquaintance 
 be wanting, a direct and formal application to the prison- deputies. 
 In general, I am bound to add, that I experienced every attention ; 
 that I was accompanied, on most occasions, by the deputies them- 
 selves ; that no parts of the prison were concealed ; that no ques- 
 tion of mine was denied a reply; and that different suggestions 
 
17] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 305 
 
 which I ventured to make, were listened to with attention and 
 sympathy, arid, in many cases, with a promise that reformation 
 should be introduced when its necessity was most glaring. 
 
 At Seville, mass is said every Sunday, and on every saint's day, 
 and the masses are paid for out of the general fund. The eccle- 
 siastics appear to take little interest in the moral improvement of 
 the prisoners. They require the criminal to confess at Easter, when 
 they administer the sacrament, and with this their religious duties 
 are supposed to be discharged. 
 
 Besides the sale of various articles of food within the prison, 
 the convicts confined for minor offences are allowed, on their 
 parole, and on the gaoler's responsibility, to leave the prison on 
 general errands for the rest. Wine and spirituous liquors are 
 sold by the gaoler, and form one great item of his profits. Though 
 drunkenness is a very rare vice in Spain, yet the exceeding cheap- 
 ness of fermented liquors makes their introduction a very serious 
 calamity, and often leads to disputes and bloodshed. There is no 
 provision for the cleanliness of the prisoners, who shave only when 
 they can afford to pay a barber. On their discharge, there is an 
 exaction for prison-fees, the amount of which I could not ascertain ; 
 but I was assured that no prisoners had ever been detained for 
 their non-payment. 
 
 The moral effect of such a system as this can but be fatal. 
 Instead of reformation, more confirmed profligacy virtue itself 
 could hardly resist the contagion of such an atmosphere ; and to 
 this atmosphere are to be introduced, and in it are to be con- 
 founded, the young and the old, the innocent and the guilty, the 
 public writer and the bandit, those who have erred but once, and 
 those whose lives are but the records of crime. I saw in the 
 same apartment Mejia, an eminent political journalist, confined 
 for a libel, the noted Abuelo, chief of one of the southern hordes 
 of banditti, several assassins, and criminals of every degree, from 
 trifling fraud., up to the most atrocious enormities. 
 
 CADIZ. 
 
 THE prison is conveniently situated at one of the extremities 
 of the town, in a high and healthy spot, on an isthmus, and visited 
 by constant sea-breezes. The whole building is not completed ; 
 and though the form is regular, the division into courts and apart- 
 ments is injudicious and unfortunate. The larger court, which 
 has a chapel in the middle, where mass is performed, might be 
 adapted to the principle of central inspection, without much diffi- 
 culty. The internal arrangements were formerly better than of 
 late , and several trades were carried on within the prison ; but 
 
 VOL. XXIII. Pom. NO. XLVI. U 
 
306 Mr. Bowring on the State o,. (lg 
 
 every thing good had been allowed to decay, and every thing bad 
 had been allowed to florish. 
 
 The present Committee of the Ayuntamiento seem quite dis- 
 posed to listen Jo any plans of improvement, and to carry them 
 into effect. There is no external wall to the prison, and no streets 
 near it. It was intended to hold five hundred prisoners ; the usual 
 number confined varies from 1 50 to 200. On the 1 st of January, 
 1822, there were 199 prisoners, of whom four were women ; on 
 the 15th of January, 170, of whom six were women ; and on the 
 3 1st, 180, among whom only two were women. There are two 
 yards, both paved, each having a fountain of good water. The 
 state of the privies is most offensive, and in the heats of summer, 
 must be absolutely intolerable. There is much filth in many of 
 the apartments ; and though there is a regulation, ordering the 
 prison to be white- washed twice a-year, it is only partially carried 
 into effect. The rooms which are crowded, are most loathsome, 
 with the exception of some in the higher story, which are spacious 
 and comfortable j but the arrangement of the prisoners is alto*, 
 gether arbitrary. In the lesser yard are no less than from 70 to 
 120 prisoners, and from forty to fifty are crowded into some of 
 the sleeping-rooms, where the stench and filth are abominable ; light 
 is allowed throughout the night , the windows are not glazed, nor 
 is this either necessary or common in Spain. Though fire is pro- 
 hibited by the regulations, yet I observed the prisoners had intro- 
 duced it. The medical attendant visits every day. r l^he number 
 of sick is generally about sixteen or eighteen. The common 
 disease is the itch, but wounds are often given in the squabbles of 
 the prisoners ; and I was surprised at seeing twenty or thirty 
 plasters prepared, which, I was told, would be sufficient only for 
 a day or two. 
 
 The gaoler has occupied his present situation two years ; his 
 salary is 12,000 Rs. now , but formerly the profits and extortions 
 were so great, that a considerable sum was given for the office. 
 I saw no severity or injustice, nor did I hear any complaints of 
 him from the prisoners locked up in solitary confinement for 
 misconduct in the prison. He says, he visits the prison once, 
 twice, or thrice a-day , but, from the want of printed rules, the 
 conceptions of the gaolers as to their duties, are usually very vague 
 and imperfect. There are eighteen turnkeys and dependants a 
 strange contrast to the Cordova gaol, where there is only one. In 
 Cadiz, as elsewhere, there is always a military guard, who are 
 relieved, I believe, every four hours. No one prisoner has escaped 
 in the last year, and attempts at escape are rare. The accounts of 
 
IP] the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. 307 
 
 daily disbursement of the prison, which are paid by the Ayun- 
 tamiento, are as follows : 
 
 One loaf of bread per day, weighing three quarters of a pound, 
 and one quarter of a loaf for soup to each prisoner ; 12lbs. of coals, 
 12lbs. of rice, 25lbs. of French-beans, 61bs. of pease, H lb. of 
 pepper, lib. of butter, 7lb. of oil per day, for the whole prison ; 
 180 rials' worth of vegetables, 19 measures of salt, and 8 trails of 
 garlic per month. Their food is distributed twice per day. On 
 the 31st of January, there were fifteen prisoners in the hospital, 
 the total being 180. There is no difficulty in conversing with the 
 prisoners through the grating ; but their friends are not allowed 
 access to the interior. On application to the Ayuntamiento, 
 strangers may obtain a view of the whole. 
 
 Of the prisoners who leave the gaol, a great number return. 
 The exact proportion I could not ascertain. 
 
 The rewards for good-behaviour consist in the appointments 
 to some of the prison offices. The punishmeift for offences is 
 solitary confinement, the longest period of which is three or four 
 days. The dark and subterranean dungeons are now destroyed, 
 and fetters are no longer used. In other respects, few improve- 
 ments have taken place ; though I think no committee would be 
 more likely to listen to any hints than that which attends to this 
 prison. 
 
 LISBON. 
 
 THE great prison of the Limoeiro, at Lisbon, is a horrible place 
 of confinement. It is a representation, on a grander scale, of all 
 the filth and misery of which I have given some details in speaking 
 of the Spanish gaols. Its situation is on one of the mountainous 
 streets in the Portugueze capital, and was formerly the Arch- 
 bishop's palace. There is nothing to prevent constant communi- 
 cation with the street through the double iron bars ; and, in fact, 
 through these, the meals of the prisoners are served. A great 
 proportion of the crimes committed in Lisbon are plotted between 
 the confined and the unconfined criminals, by whom a constant, 
 unchecked and unobserved communication, is kept up. Through 
 these bars any thing can be conveyed, food, raiment, liquors, 
 weapons, tools whatever, in a word, can pass through a square, 
 several inches in extent. The number of prisoners has been as 
 great as 700 ; the usual number is 400. The state of the apart- 
 ments in which the prisoners pass their time is horrible. The 
 stench overpowered me ; and though I remained in the rooms only 
 a few minutes, I felt seriously indisposed. 
 
 The Portugueze Cortes have already taken some steps to reform 
 
308 Slate of the Prisons in Spain and Portugal. [20 
 
 the intolerable and disgusting state of the prisons of their country. 
 A committee of six individuals has been appointed, with directions 
 from the Cortes to occupy themselves in the immediate improve- 
 ment of these scenes of shame and sorrow. They have already 
 begun their good work ; and a place is nearly completed, in which 
 the prisoners will have the benefit of daily exercise ; for hitherto 
 they have been shut up, as it were, in constant suffocation, and as 
 many as a hundred in an apartment ; and this in the climate 
 of Portugal ! 
 
 The expense of maintaining the prisoners is about 8,000 cruzados, 
 rr 1,OOOZ. per annum. Of this, one-half is paid by the city, and 
 the other by the Miserecordia^ a benevolent association, possessing 
 considerable funds from sundry bequeathed estates. The kitchens, 
 &c. are separate from the prison, and the servants of the Misere- 
 cordia provide and prepare the victuals during one-half of the year, 
 and those of the city (in a different part of the building) through 
 the other half. The food appears insufficient, and little nutritious ; 
 it consists principally of a soup made of rice , the allowance of 
 bread being also one pound and a half per day for four persons. 
 The number of sick, on the 2d March last, was 48. 
 
 The present Minister of Justice, Senhor Jose de Silva Carvalho, 
 has expressed an earnest wish to introduce a wiser system of 
 prison- government. I am sure he would lend all the weight of 
 his authority to any practicable amelioration. It is fortunate for 
 their country it is fortunate for the world, when such men. 
 possessed of the wish to do good, and the power to give that wisn 
 effect, occupy the exalted stations of society. 
 
 
 
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