Chapter 16
ABOLITION OF THE CONVICT DEPARTMENT AND DISPOSAL OF THE CONVICTS
On the separation of the Straits Settlements from British India in 1867, it was arranged that the Indian life convicts at Singapore should be transferred to Port Blair in the Andaman Islands. In the course of correspondence which took place on the subject, His Excellency the Governor of the Straits Settlements proposed, in respect of those convicts who were to continue in the Straits, that a liberal use of the power of pardon should be made in the case of such convicts, the nature of whose crimes and whose subsequent character warranted it.
The Government of India agreed to this proposal, with the proviso that pardon should be conditional on convicts not returning to India, or in the case of Burmese to Burmah, without the special sanction in each case of the Government of India; and that this sanction would not be given in any cases in which the crime was "Thuggee" or "Dacoity," or robbery by administering poisonous drugs, or other form of organized crime, or in the case of mutiny or rebellion accompanied with murder.
Accordingly, the Straits Government authorities submitted lists of convicts whom they recommended for pardon. After consulting the local governments concerned, the Government of India issued orders in each case, authorizing the release and return to India of some of the convicts, granting conditional pardon to others, and refusing release on any account to the remainder.
This decision did not commend itself to the Straits Government, and His Excellency the Governor suggested the deputation of a special officer from India to inquire into the matter.
Mr. Brodhurst, of the Bengal Civil Service, was accordingly deputed. This officer extended his inquiries to the cases of other convicts brought specially to his notice by the Straits Government; and on receipt of his report, the Government of India granted unconditional releases in certain cases, while in others the convicts were pardoned conditionally on their not leaving the Straits.
On this representation by the Straits Government, His Excellency the Governor-General in Council, having reconsidered the subject, decided that any Indian or Burmese, who had completed twenty-five years' imprisonment and bore a good character, should be released, with permission to return to India or Burmah, provided he, or she, as the case might be, was not convicted of one of the offences enumerated below, viz.:--
1. Thuggee.
2. Dacoity.
3. Professional poisoning.
4. Belonging to a gang of Dacoits.
5. Belonging to a gang of Thugs.
6. Mutiny or rebellion with murder.
Of those who did not come under this category, some were pardoned unconditionally; others were released after they had completed twenty-five years' imprisonment, on condition that their conduct continued satisfactory. Of those who were pardoned unconditionally many returned to their own country; but when they arrived there they found things so uncongenial that they returned to the Straits and settled down as shopkeepers, cowkeepers, cartmen, etc., and most of them sought and obtained employment either with private individuals or in the Public Works Department. Several of the skilled artificers, who had been petty officers, were employed as sub-assistant overseers and gangers on public works, where their services proved to be of great utility, their prison training having rendered them much more to be relied upon than free men, and, as far as we have been able to ascertain, none of them have been reconvicted.
Of the total number of convicts in the Straits at the time when the convict establishment was broken up in 1873--
256 had been transported for Thuggee.
581 " " " " Dacoity.
21 " " " " Professional poisoning.
269 " " " " Robbery with murder, including highway robbery and gang robbery. ----- 1,127
The remainder were nearly all for murder, for being accomplices in murder, or for robbery with violence, and for felony.