At Exeter he found two sailors in gaol, having been fined one shilling
each for some trifling offence, and owing L1 15s. 8d. for fees to the
gaolers and clerk of the peace. When he visited Cardiff he heard a man
had just died in prison after having been there ten years for a debt
of seven pounds. At Plymouth he found that three men had been shut up
in a little dark room only five and a half feet high, so that they
could neither breathe freely nor stand upright.
Hundreds of cases as bad or worse than these did he discover and bring
before public notice.
He gave evidence before the House of Commons of what he had seen. Then
Acts of Parliament were passed, providing that gaolers should be paid
out of the rates, that prisoners who were found not guilty should be
set at liberty at once, that the prisons should be kept clean and
healthy, and the prisoners properly clothed and attended to.
Determined that these Acts should not remain a dead letter, he went
about the country seeing that what Parliament required was actually
carried out.
Not contented with what he had already done, he travelled abroad,
inspecting the prisons of France, Russia, Holland, Switzerland,
Germany, and other countries, in order to see how they compared with
those in Great Britain.
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