Page:Siberia and the Exile System Vol 1.djvu/121

This page has been validated.
THE TIUMÉN FORWARDING PRISON
99

But the mortality in the Tiumén prison has been, at times, even greater than this. Below will be found a table that I have compiled from the annual reports of the inspectors of exile transportation for the eleven-year period from the 1st of January, 1876, to the 1st of January, 1887.[1]

DEATH-RATE IN TIUMÉN FORWARDING PRISON

FOR ELEVEN-YEAR PERIOD FROM 187G TO 1886 INCLUSIVE.

Year. Whole number
of prisoners
for year.
Average
daily
umber of
prisoners.
Whole
number
of
deaths.
Percentage
of
deaths.
1876 20,482 813 284 34.9
1877 19,042 756 279 36.9
1878 19,972 793 329 41.4
1879 20,174 801 354 44.1
1880 19,975 793 256 32.2
1881 19,063 757 219 29.9
1882 18,580 738 175 23.7
1883 22,010 874 311 35.5
1884 21,014 834 224[2] 26.8
1885 19,250 764 182 23.8
1886 19,016 755 254 33.6

From the above table it appears that, in the course of the eleven-year period from 1876 to 1886 inclusive, the death-rate in the Tiumén forwarding prison ranged from 23.7 per cent. to 44.1 per cent.; and that in seven years out of the eleven it was higher than 30 per cent. This would completely annihilate a fixed population in from two and a half to four years. The record of our convict camps, and the

  1. The average daily number of prisoners is computed from the total annual number upon the basis of 14½ days' detention for every prisoner. This is not absolutely correct, but the error, as may be seen by comparison with the foregoing tables, is not great enough to make any material difference.
  2. As regards this number there is a discrepancy in the original report which I am unable to rectify. In one table it is given as 219, in the other 224.