The Freeman’s Journal - Thursday, June 6, 1895
This report was originally published in English. Machine translations may be available in other languages.
LONDON CORRESPONDENCE
(FROM OUR OWN CORRESPONDENT.)
(BY SPECIAL WIRE.)
London, Thursday Morning. [...] I understand that their is no truth whatever in the alarming story published as to Oscar Wilde's mental condition since his incarceration at Pentonville. As a matter of fact I am informed on the most reliable authority that Wilde is both physically and mentally quite well, and is doing the usual term of first-class hard labour, of which the treadmill forms the principal part. It is quite true that on the night of his conviction he was in a semi-comatose condition, but he was practically well the next day. Those who are accustomed to dealing with criminals know that in a case of this kind, where the guilt of the prisoner is beyond question, his condition after the passing of the sentence is almost always much better than immediately before. This has been the experience of Oscar Wilde. He is quiet, and performs his allotted tasks with average energy and docility. The statement that he is or has been confined in a padded room was apparently a mere effort of the imagination.
The London Correspondent of the Freeman writing on Thursday morning says :—I understand that there is no truth whatever in the alarming story published as to Oscar Wilde's mental condition since his incarceration at Pentonville. As a matter of fact I am informed on the most reliable authority that Wilde is both physically and mentally quite well, and is doing the usual term of first-class hard labour, of which the treadmill forms the principal part. It is quite true that on the night of his conviction he was in a semi-comatose condition, but he was practically well the next day. Those who are accustomed to dealing with criminals know that in a case of this kind, where the guilt of the prisoner is beyond question, his condition after the passing of the sentence is almost always much better than immediately before. This has been the experience of Oscar Wilde. He is quiet, and performs his allotted tasks with average energy and docility. The statement that he is or has been confined in a padded room was apparently a mere effort of the imagination.
The recent departmental committee on prison rules made a recommendation which, if adopted by the Home Secretary, would probably result in a considerable modification of Wilde's sentence. Heretofore the rule under which a remission of time is granted to convicts who have earned a certain proportion of marks for work and good conduct has been applied only to prisoners sent to penal servitude, and those who have been sentenced to two years' imprisonment like Oscar Wilde have been compelled to serve their full term. The committee recommend that a proportionate remission of time shall be granted under the same conditions in future to all prisoners, and if this alteration were made in the rule it would affect all such criminals now under detention.