Brecon Gaol
Powys County Archives
Page 4
Rhys Williams
(1849-1930)
The life story of an old Elenydd shepherd
Life inside Brecon jail
Prisoners were placed in such positions that it was impossible for them to talk to each other . . . It was in these conditions that prisoners both male and female went mad with many having to be restrained in the straight jacket . . . It was for this reason that the silent and separate system was (eventually) abolished [15]
Life inside Brecon Goal for Rhys Williams must have been hard and uncompromising.
It was only during 1874 that a true account of the regime behind the great wall of the County Goal was described in the County Times. At the time, Brecon Goal was described as being the most rigid ‘School of Discipline’ in the county. Of the hundreds that lived in and around Brecon only a few would have known what it was like behind the tall daunting wall and the silent routine within. Silent it was, as the goal now employed the Separate and Silent System. The silent system allowed no prisoner to talk and punishment was employed on those who broke the rule. To enter the goal,the visitor had to ring the bell outside the main gate and on gaining entry to the outer yard the true realization of life inside befell the visitor. The interior showed a life where prisoners were employed from morn to eve on all manner of tasks. It is true that all who entered the goal and any goal for that matter must have thought of the line;
Abandon all hope all ye who enter here
This was, in effect, solitary confinement and according to the County Times, the idea behind all this was that prisoners could not ‘infect’ each other with criminal ways :
Life inside Brecon jail
Prisoners were placed in such positions that it was impossible for them to talk to each other . . . It was in these conditions that prisoners both male and female went mad with many having to be restrained in the straight jacket . . . It was for this reason that the silent and separate system was (eventually) abolished [15]
The distinguishing feature of the system . . . is to bring about the perfect isolation of prisoners so that, no one man in confinement should know anything about another. During our visit we heard no one word spoken by any prisoner, everything seemed to be stamped with mechanical air ; this latter is the most deterring or terrifying part of the punishment. Everything seemed to be done with the regularity and precision of clockwork, one terrible round of monotonous labour.
The prison cells were pretty bare with just basic furniture and utensils – a table, a water pitcher and a few shelves for storing essential crockery, wooden spoons, soap, comb, etc. Prisoners slept on a hammock (hung from hooks in the wall), but those serving hard labour had the hammocks replaced by solid boards.
The day at prison started at 6 o’clock in the morning, with hard labour prisoners put to work, mostly on deliberately pointless tasks. There were various kinds of dull, mind-
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Another pointless exercise was the “treadmill”, where prisoner simply ‘walked the wheel’ (see picture on the left). Sometimes this could be channelled for a useful purpose, but for most of the time it simple served as prison punishment. At Brecon, in the first hour or so in the morning, the treadmill was actually used to pump water from a well to storage tanks in the roof.
Oakum-
To read more click image
The food for those on hard labour was intentionally monotonous with a daily allowance of eight ounces of bread with a pint of oatmeal for breakfast and supper and just bread for dinner – barely enough to sustain life. Clearly, with this diet coupled with the tedious daily tasks, life behind bars was not a particularly happy one.
As is the case today, magistrates were required by law to appoint (from their midst) representatives to visit prisons on a regular basis and to report on any problems or grievances. Every visit had to be recorded in the Visiting Magistrates’ Journal ― understandably perhaps, there were rarely many complaints. Hugh Bold (Rector of Llanfihangel Talyllyn and living at Broughrood Castle) inspected Brecon prison on the 7th August 1875 when Rhys Williams was serving the final couple of weeks of his sentence ; he wrote [16] :
Visited the prison and found everything in good order and the prisoners – 31 – all well and orderly.
The situation may have been ‘orderly’ but hardly ‘well’ under the conditions in existence at that time, particularly, for those serving hard labour. Further information about the Brecon goal may be found in Peter J.R. Goodall’s book entitled ‘Ring the Bell in the Goals of Brecon’ [17]
To read about Rhys Williams’ time after prison, click here or Page 5 below
Notes
| [15] | Peter J.R. Goodall, Ring the Bell in the Goals of Brecon, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2006, p 56 |
| [16] | Powys County Archives, Brecon County Goal (Vol 3), Visiting Magistrate Journal, 7th August 1875 |
| [17] | Peter J.R. Goodall, Ring the Bell in the Goals of Brecon, Gwasg Carreg Gwalch, 2006 |