Prison

a gaol, or place of confinement, See GAoL. Lord Coke observes, that a prison is only a place of safe custody, salva custodia, not a place of punishment. Any place where a person Is confined may be said to be a prison: and when a proce is i ued against one, he must, when arrested thereon, elther be committed to prison, or be bound in a recognizance with sureties, or else give bail, according to the nature of the case, to appear at a certain day in court, there to make answer to what is alleged against him. Whena person is taken and sent to prison in a civil case, he may be released by the plaintiff in the suit; but if it is for treason or felony, he may not regularly be discharged until he is indicted of the fact and acquitted. The good policy of imprisonment for debt has been frequently called in question (probably by those who were most in danger of suffering from it). We are of opinion, however, that it is in the whole productive of salutary consequences in a state, and the terror of a gaol is in many cases an useful moral restraint. The fol- lowing paper, however, set forth by the laud a- ble society for the discharge and relief of per- sons imprisoned for small debts, will excite va- rio us reflections in different readers; and with- out ‘any comment we submit it as a curious document to the statesman, or political arithme- 4 tician, as throwing some light on the manners and character of the age. The following is a summary view of the mo- ney annually expended by the society for the © discharge and relief of persons imprisoned for small debts, Craven-street, Strand, from the in- stitution in 1772, to the 31st of March 1804. 1772 No. of debtors discharged 727 IMG:tbl727_1.webp:Table (PDF page 727) children fited for 547811. The average for the debts of the above 20,906 debtors is 2/. 1¢s. 44d. each, and for each individual relieved 15s, 1d. ToPri‘son. ov. a. (from the noun.) 1. To ‘Imprison; to shut up in hold; to restrain from liberty. 2. To captivate; to enchain (Milton). 3. To confine (Shakspeare).