Ruthin County Gaol Rules For Prisoners.
[Rule] 3.- Every prisoner shall attend prayer and public worship, except in case of illness, or other reasonable cause, to be allowed by the governor or a visiting justice.
(Ruthin County Gaol Rules for Prisoners, circa 1850.)Church attendance was compulsory. Every prisoner attended services in the prison chapel. In 1833 Samuel Lewis recorded:
"...divine service is performed twice, and a sermon delivered once, on every Sunday by a Chaplain; prayers are read daily by the gaoler to the prisoners, who are supplied gratuitously with bibles and religious tracts..."
Leaving the chapel during a service "unless in case of sickness, which
must afterwards be certified by the surgeon..." and "irreverent behaviour
in chapel either before, during or after the service..." were punishable
offences. Strict rules of silence and male / female segregation were also
enforced.
(Topographical Dictionary of Wales by Samuel
Lewis, 1833.)
(Criminal Prisons in London and Scenes of Prison Life gan H. Mayhew a J. Binny, cyhoeddwyd gyntaf yn 1862.)
"The Chapel, on the 'Separate System', in Pentonville Prison, during Divine Service."
(Criminal Prisons in London and Scenes of Prison Life by H. Mayhew and J. Binny, first published in 1862.)