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First Courthouse and Gaol of the Cariboo: Williams Lake (1930s) BC Archives (A-04060)

Begbie recommended that confined prisoners
be shackled with leg irons and handcuffs.

Changes in the colonial government occurred
eatly in 1864. James Douglas opened the first
Legislative Council of British Columbia in
January. Later in the year, Douglas retired from
his position as governor of the two colonies.
Meanwhile, the British Government decided to
separate administration of the two colonies.

Two governors were appointed:

a Arthur Edward Kennedy for Vancouver
Island; and

» Frederick Seymour for British Columbia.

Separation and segregation of offenders was
practically non-existent in the colonial period.
Remand prisoners, petty offenders and
offenders who committed more serious crimes

were housed in the same gaol. Although few
were imprisoned, male juvenile offenders were
occasionally kept in the same gaol as adults.

Women were not sentenced to gaol during the
colonial period, although some women were
locked up. In fact, no women were imprisoned
with the exception of Indian women who were
confined “for their own protection and the
public decency” until they were sober.'®
Because there were no institutions for the
insane, so-called lunatics were kept with the
ptison population.

The government officially recognized the
importance of religious programs for prisoners
in 1865, Although a chaplain provided services
to the Victoria Gaol almost since its inception,
these services were not formally recognized in
the colonies until this date.

18 Dispatch from Governor Frederick Seymour to the colonial office in London, May 1, 1865.

12

Corrections in British Columbia