In answer to enquiries at the Home Office, as to Vaccination amongst prisoners, I am informed that the following are the only regulations which have been issued by the Prison Department :—
"STANDING ORDER No. 504.
"PRISON DEPARTMENT,
"Home Office, 54th of April, 1881.
"VACCINATION OF PENAL SERVITUDE CONVICTS IN LOCAL PRISONS :— The increase of
small-pox in the general population having been brought under the notice of the
Commissioners, it has been recommended that all persons sentenced to penal servitude, who
do not present good marks of Vaccination, should be re-vaccinated before removal from
Local Prisons to Convict Prisons. Medical Officers are therefore enjoined to carry this
recommendation into effect.
"By order of the Commissioners,
"R. ANDERSON, Secretary."
"STANDING ORDER No. 119.
"PRISON DEPARTMENT.
" Home Office, 11th of November, 1882.
"VACCINATION OF CHILDREN BORN IN PRISON :—The following instructions respecting
vaccination of children born in prison, are, after consultation with the Local Government
Board, issued for the guidance of Governors and Medical Officers. All such children are to
be vaccinated as soon. after birth as the medical officer thinks it safe and desirable to
perform the operation.
"When, from any cause, a child remains unvaccinated at the time of
the mother’s discharge, the vaccination paper which is left at the prison by the
Registrar must be delivered to the mother, whose intended address, so far as is known at
the prison, is to be communicated to the vaccination officer whose name appears on the
outside of the notice.
"By order of the Commissioners,
"R. ANDERSON, Secretary."
That these regulations are often exceeded in practice, is generally allowed, and also that in this—as in certain, other departments—no marks are considered good enough to permit the convict to escape the ordeal when he enters prison, and I am informed that general re-vaccination is the rule. Some convicts have a double allowance of the state prophylactic to begin with, and many subsequent inflictions, as will be seen by the following narrative from, The Englishman, November 18th, 1882:—
Here a new trouble befel the ‘Claimant,’ for after he had been taken to the weighing-room, and there weighed by medical order, he was taken—with a crowd of other prisoners—to the infirmary, and there subjected to that dread and abomination of all prisoners—the vaccination process. The ‘Claimant’ was now vaccinated on both arms—probably on account of his bulk—Vaccination perhaps being the Pentonville Prison Medical Officer’s panacea for wasting debility, and when he returned to his place, in the rank of his half-naked vaccinated fellow-prisoners, after being "done,’ he was duly impressed—in a subdued whisper—with the necessity to ‘rub plenty ov salt an’ sliver inter th’ bloomin’ holes, when yer gits back ter yer cell, guv’ner, an’ yer’ll soon kill th’ nasty wacksination pison, or like yer’ll be as all th’ rest ov us bloomin’ ole lags is, an’ ‘ve nasty sores come out on yer hide, an’ if them bloomin’ sores once comes out, yer’ll never be clear on ‘em.’ [Salt is the convicts’ panacea for destroying the vitality of the vaccine virus, and is used by all prisoners under the idea that they will thereby be freed of those repulsive and painful sores which seem to be incurable in the convict prisons, as they certainly are when prisoners are released from prison.] Probably the rough and ready mode of inoculating one prisoner from the other may have something to do with these universal sores, and small-pox is now almost the regular annual visitant to the convict prisons, as proved by the now almost regular closing of these establishments for nine months out of each year to all visitors to the wretched prisoners. Outsiders will say ‘But the prison death-rate is exceptionally low?’ Yes, that part of the affair is ‘managed’ by the ‘Released by Medical Order’ system, now so much in vogue at all the prisons."
The official report of the Officer of Health for Leicester, for the year 1882, mentions that three cases of small-pox were sent to the Borough Small-pox Hospital from the prison, the ages being 24, 32, and 40, respectively. Sometimes an attempt has been made to vaccinate imprisoned anti-vaccinators. Mr. CHARLES W. NYE, of Chatham, lost two children thrrough Vaccination, and refusing to vaccinate his other children, he was served with thirteen summonses, between October 15th, 1869, and May 10th, 1881. In each case, the magistrate inflicted a fine with costs, and as these were not paid, the defendant was sent to prison. He suffered imprisonment five times for one child in about 12 months, and nine imprisonments in all. In December, 1870, while undergoing one of these incarcerations, the doctor told NYE that he must be vaccinated. NYE has furnished me with the following brief narrative of what occurred. "I replied to the doctor that I did not want to be vaccinated, and did not mean to be vaccinated. My blood was up, and it was only by the greatest effort that I restrained myself from knocking him down, and probably I should have done so had he not become scared and left me. He went off in such haste that the warder had to call after him to know whether I was to go to my proper cell. When I got to my cell the warder said to me, ‘NYE, NYE, whatever has caused you to have such an objection to Vaccination?’ and I could see that my determination had astonished him. I imagined I had only been put in my cell until they could obtain more assistance; and, as soon as the door was closed, I unhooked one of the hammock chains, with which I meant mischief as soon as the doctor came into the cell. He did not come, however, and I heard no more about being vaccinated while in prison." Mr. CANDLISH, M.P., brought this case before the Select Committee of the House of Commons on Vaccination in 1871.
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