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LXXX.
THE STATE PRISONERS.
(From The Age, February 14th, 1855.)
The following is the copy of a letter addressed by the state prisoners now awaiting their trial in the Melbourne Gaol, to the Sheriff, complaining of the treatment they have received.:——
"February 6th, 1855.
"To the Sheriff of the Colony of Victoria:——
"Sir——As the chief officer of the government, regulating prison discipline in Victoria, we, the undersigned Ballaarat state prisoners, respectfully beg to acquaint you with the mode of our treatment since our imprisonment in this gaol, in the hope that you will be pleased to make some alterations for the better.
"At seven o'clock in the morning we are led into a small yard of about thirty yards long and eight wide, where we must either stand, walk, or seat ourselves upon the cold earth (no seats or benches being afforded us), and which at meal times serves as chair, table, etc., with the additional consequence of having our food saturated with sand, dust, and with every kind of disgusting filth which the wind may happen to stir up within the yard.
" We are locked in, about three o'clock in the afternoon, four or five of us together, in a cell whose dimensions are three feet by twelve, being thus debarred from the free air of heaven for sixteen hours out of the twenty-four. The food is of the very worst description ever used by civilised beings. We are debarred the use of writing materials, except for purposes of pressing necessity; are never permitted to see a newspaper; and strictly prohibited the use of tobacco and snuff. We have been subjected to the annoyance of being stripped naked, a dozen men together, when a process of 'searching' takes place that is debasing to any human being, but perfectly revolting to men whose sensibilities have never been blunted by familiarity with crime——an ordeal of examination, and the coarse audacity with which it is perpetrated, as would make manhood blush, and which it would assuredly resent, as an outrage upon common decency, in any other place than a prison. And again, when the visiting justice makes his rounds, we are made to stand bareheaded before him, as if——etc.
"We give the government the credit of believing that it is not its wish we should be treated with such apparent malignity and apparent malice; and also believe that if you, sir, the representative of government in this department, had been previously made acquainted with this mode of treatment, you would have caused it to be altered. But we have hitherto refrained from troubling the government on the subject, in expectation of a speedy trial, which now appears to be postponed sine die.
"We, each of us, can look back with laudable pride upon our lives, and not a page in the record of the past can unfold a single transgression
