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For providing distinct apartments, yards, and other accommodations for different prisoners.
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6. Every goal, bridewell, marshalsea, penitentiary house, house of correction, sheriff’s prison, and other prison in Ireland, of what nature or kind soever the same shall be, shall consist at the least of two separate parts, one for male and one for female prisoners, with a complete division between them, so as to prevent any intercourse between the said male and female prisoners; and to each of the said parts there shall be annexed and belong a yard of sufficient dimensions to enable the said prisoners to have the benefit of fresh air and exercise therein; and in every such yard there shall be a necessary house or privy to which such prisoners respectively shall have free access at all times, so far as the same can be consistently with the safe keeping of such prisoners; and there shall be in every such yard a supply of good water; and in every such prison there shall be a common hall for males, and another for females; and in every county goal or house of correction the most effectual means shall be adopted for the security, classification, health, inspection, employment, and religious and moral instruction, of the prisoners; the building shall be so constructed or applied, and the keepers and officers apartments so situated, as may best ensure the safety of the prison, and facilitate the controul and superintendence of those committed thereto; distinct wards and dry and airy cells shall be provided, in which prisoners of the several descriptions and classes herein-after enumerated may be respectively confined; and it shall be considered as a primary and invariable rule that the male prisoners shall in all cases be separated from the female, so as to prevent any communication between them; provision shall be made for the separation of prisoners into the following classes:—If a goal, first, debtors and persons confined for contempt of court on civil process; secondly prisoners convicted of felony; thirdly, those convicted on trial of misdemeanors; fourthly, those committed on charge or suspicion of felony; fifthly, those committed on charge of misdemeanors, or for want of sureties:—If a house a correction, first, prisoners convicted of felony; secondly, prisoners convicted upon trial of misdemeanors; thirdly, those committed on charge or suspicion of felony; fourthly, those committed on charge of misdemeanors; fifthly, vagrants:—Places of confinement shall also be set apart in every gaol and house of correction for such prisoners as are intended to be examined as witnesses in behalf of the crown in any prosecutions; and such further means of classification shall be adopted as shall be deemed conducive to good order and discipline; separate infirmaries shall be provided for the two sexes; and warm and cold baths or bathing tubs shall be introduced into such parts of the prison as may be best adapted for the use of the several classes; separate common halls and yards shall be allotted to the different classes for air and exercise, and each class shall have the use of a privy, and be furnished with a supply of good water; a separate sleeping cell shall, if possible, be provided for every prisoner; but as the numbers may sometimes be greater than the prison is calculated to contain under that arrangement, and as it is expedient that two male prisoner only should never be lodged together, a small proportion of cells or rooms shall be provided for the reception of three or more persons; every prison shall contain rooms and places properly fitted up for the exercise of labour and industry, and also a competent number of cells adapted to solitary confinement for the punishment of refractory prisoners, and for the reception of such persons as may by law be confined therein; one or more chapel or chapels shall be provided in every prison, in such a convenient situation as to be easy of access to all the prisoners, it shall be fitted up with separate divisions for males and females, and also for the different classes, and shall be strictly set apart for religious worship, or for the occasional religious and moral instruction of the prisoners, and shall never be appropriated to or employed for any other purpose whatsoever.
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