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SECTION XIV.: DOORS. - Jeremy Bentham, The Works of Jeremy Bentham, vol. 4 [1843]

Edition used:

The Works of Jeremy Bentham, published under the Superintendence of his Executor, John Bowring (Edinburgh: William Tait, 1838-1843). 11 vols. Vol. 4.

Part of: The Works of Jeremy Bentham, 11 vols.

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SECTION XIV.

DOORS.

The only ones that need any very particular notice are the folding-doors that form the grating to the cells. These folding-doors open outwards: 1. Because by this means they may be made so as, when unlocked, to lift off the hinges, in order to give admittance to machines and bulky packages; and this, as I am assured by my professional guide, without prejudice to the security they afford: 2. Because the opening of them inwards would be productive of continual embarrassment, unless within each cell a space, equal to that required for one of the leaves to turn in, were left vacant and of no use. The two leaves I make unequal: the lesser something less than 4 feet, the width of the gallery; the larger will of course take the rest of the space, viz. about 6 feet. The lesser is the only one I design to open on ordinary occasions: were it equal to the other, that is, were it about 5 feet, its excess of length, when open, beyond 4 feet (the width of the gallery into which it opens) would prevent its opening to an angle so great as a right angle; whereby the passage it would afford to bulky packages would be proportionally narrowed.

As to locks, those contrived by the Rev. Mr. Ferryman, for the late Mr. Blackburn, and by him made use of in the construction of the Gloucester gaol, I trust to, upon the report of that ingenious architect, as incapable of being picked: as such, if they are not dearer than ordinary ones in a proportion worth regarding, they will of course demand the preference. But the inspection principle, without detracting anything from the ingenuity of the invention, takes much from the necessity of that and many other prison contrivances. For in a Panopticon, what can be the necessity of curious locks? what are the prisoners to pick them with? by what means are they to come at any sort of pick-lock tools, or any other forbidden implements? And supposing the locks of these doors picked, and the locks of more than one other set of doors besides, what is the operator the better for it? Lock-picking is an operation that requires time and experiment, and liberty to work at it unobserved. What prisoner picks locks before a keeper’s face?

An appendage which will have its use in the instance of every door to which the prisoners have access, is a warning-bell attached to it in such a manner as to ring of itself upon every opening of the door. The door should likewise be made to shut to of itself, for instance, by the common contrivance of a weight with a line passing over a pulley. By the former of these implements, the attention of the inspector is drawn upon the prisoner; by the latter, the prisoners are prevented from rendering the bell useless by leaving the door open by design or negligence.