[Transcribers' notes are placed after the text.]
VOL. VIII. TERMS:--ONE DOLLAR A YEAR IN ADVANCE. NO. II.
THE
PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE
AND
PHILANTHROPY.
PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
UNDER THE DIRECTION OF "THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING THE
MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS," INSTITUTED 1787.
"The separation of one prisoner from another is the only sound basis
on which a reformatory (prison) discipline can be established with any
reasonable hope of success."--_Fifth Report of Inspectors of English
Prisons._
APRIL, 1853.
PHILADELPHIA:
E. C. AND J. BIDDLE,
SOUTHWEST CORNER OF FIFTH AND MINOR STREETS.
LONDON: CHARLES GILPIN.
1853.
Isaac Ashmead, Printer.
CONTENTS OF NO. II.
Art. I.--Moral and Religious Instruction of Convicts, 53
II.--Report of the Discipline and Management of the 61
Convict-Prisons, and Disposal of Convicts, (England,)
III.--Sources and Checks of Juvenile Delinquency, 70
IV.--Pennsylvania Penitentiaries, 78
V.--Should Convicts be Received into the State Lunatic 82
Hospital at Harrisburg?
VI.--Report of the Condition of the New Jersey State Prison, 89
VII.--An Extraordinary Document, 93
VIII.--A Philanthropic Perplexity, 96
MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.
Vagrant Children of New York, 98-99
Street Begging in New York, 99
New York Prison Association, 100
New York State Prisons, 100
Be beforehand with the Tempter, 101
New Penitentiary in Massachusetts, 101
State Prison at Charlestown (Mass.,) 101
Illinois Penitentiary, 102
New State Reform School, 102
Juvenile Offenders, 102
Singular Avocation and Mode of Life in London, 103
Death from Separation, 103
Murders in Philadelphia, 104
Missouri Insane Asylum, 104
Missouri Penitentiary, 104
Items of general Information, 105-107
Acknowledgments, 107
Premium for an Essay on Juvenile Delinquency, 108
NOTICE OF THIS JOURNAL.
"It embodies more information on the subject of prisons, arranged and
expressed in the spirit of literature and science, than any other
publication of our country and will compare with any Journal devoted
to this department of knowledge in Europe."--_Hon. Charles Sumner's
Speech, in debate on prison question in Boston, May, 1847._
RECENT NOTICES.
_From the North American and United States' Gazette._
We have received from Messrs. E. C. & J. Biddle the last number of
the Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline, which is published
quarterly, under the direction of the Philadelphia Society for
alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. A glance through its pages
shows what is well understood--that it is a highly valuable periodical,
communicating much and various important information upon the subject
of which it treats. It is the only publication of the kind in the
country, is certainly a very much needed one, and ought, therefore, to
be well sustained by the public.
(See 3d page of Cover.)
THE
PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL
OF
PRISON DISCIPLINE.
VOL. VIII.--APRIL, 1853--No. 2.
ART. I.--MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF CONVICTS.
The readers of this Journal need not be told that we are not very
sanguine in our expectations of the permanent reformation of the mass
of convicts. There are doubtless instances enough of success in such
efforts to warrant and encourage them, and we are not to suppose that
they are ever wholly useless. The true position for us to take is this.
The earlier we address ourselves to the cultivation of right principles
and habits in a human being, the more hopeful is the prospect of
success; but there is a power in truth and love, which has not seldom
overcome the most sturdy depravity; and while we have the precept and
example of Him who "came not to call the righteous but sinners to
repentance," to prompt and stimulate our efforts in that direction, we
have His promise too, that whatever is done in His name, and out of
love to Him, shall in no wise lose its reward.
It is under the influence of these views that we have looked with
interest and anxiety to the religious and moral influences which enter
into the discipline of our penitentiaries. To no section of their
annual reports, do we turn with more eagerness than to that from the
chaplain or moral instructor; and though now and then a well-digested
and satisfactory account is furnished, we are often compelled to be
content with very vague generalities. A specimen of the religious
discourses addressed to these unhappy congregations; a true sketch of
a dialogue on some religious or moral topic held with one of them in
his cell; a synopsis of a month's labors, showing the various methods
employed, direct and incidental, to reach the sympathies, and awaken
better motives and desires of the heart, or a brief analysis of those
obstacles to moral and religious influences, which may be properly
regarded as peculiar to prison life,--all these, or any of them would
greatly relieve the monotony of the reports of chaplains and moral
instructors, and would add materially to our means of judging of the
fitness of their labors to the character and circumstances of those
on whom they are bestowed. We are often favored with such specimens
of the various methods in which instruction in secular knowledge is
conveyed to the ignorant, and enabled to choose between them according
to their apparent appropriateness. Why should not the like opportunity
be afforded in respect to the more difficult and perplexing task of
enlightening adult ignorance, counteracting deeply-depraved tendencies,
and up-rooting established habits of evil?
It was with the hope of bringing this important department of our
penitentiary discipline more distinctly to view, and of making its
principles more practical and definite, that the Prison Society
recently took the subject up, and referred it to a committee for
consideration and report.
At the meeting in January last a full report was submitted, from which
we make the following extracts:
It will be conceded on all hands, we presume, that moral instruction
is an important element of every system of Prison Discipline. We
are aware that in some of the largest prisons of Europe little, if
any, importance is attached to it; but whenever there is any hope of
reforming the character of a convict, or of establishing a permanent
restraining principle, it must be founded on some improvement in his
moral feelings and habits.
That peculiar difficulties and embarrassments should attend any
approach to this unhappy class of our fellow beings, with a view to
mould moral character, would seem very natural; but is it not possible
that we exaggerate the difference between them and the mass of the
world, in respect to their susceptibilities of good impressions? May
we not easily forget that between a score of men in our prison cells,
and twenty score of men that may be selected from society at large, the
only difference is that the former are detected rogues, and the latter
are (perhaps greater) rogues undetected? The _ins_ and the _outs_ are
equally open to moral influences, and yet we should be very likely to
think of the _ins_ as almost hopelessly beyond their reach, while the
_outs_ might be esteemed fair subjects of them.
It is moreover surprising how much farther a conviction of crime goes
to exclude men from the pale of sympathy and the offer of assistance,
than crime itself. The guilt of hundreds of men at large is as
fully established in the public mind, as that of any convict in our
penitentiary; yet we do not regard it as at all impracticable to reach
them with appropriate moral influences. We should not hesitate to
commend books to their attention, to invite and urge them to attend
some place of worship, nor to counsel them to abandon all evil courses.
Why should we have less faith in the like means when employed upon
no worse men, after their character has been defined by a judicial
sentence? For though true it is that the presumption of innocence is
only taken away by the proof of guilt, yet when looking at men as the
subjects of moral influences and sympathies, the fact that one is in
prison and another at large really makes much less difference than is
generally supposed.
Thus much it seemed needful to say, by way of answer to those who
distrust all efforts for the reformation of convicts, regarding them as
visionary, if not Quixotic. It is to be regretted that such incredulity
sometimes possesses the minds of those who have the chief oversight and
direction of the discipline of our penal institutions. The deception,
hypocrisy and treachery of convicts, which they so often witness,
naturally confirms their distrust and may very easily excite prejudices
against any attempt to improve their moral condition.
We are far from representing the moral and religious instruction of
convicts as an easy task. It requires much patience, simplicity, tact
and earnestness, a rare knowledge of human nature, and a combination
of adjunct influences which are not always at command. We only mean to
affirm that whatever force lies in the argument against efforts for
the moral reformation of convicts, may be used against such efforts for
any other class of men.
It would be a happy thing for our prisons, if the spirit of Christian
benevolence were sufficiently awakened and active to ensure the needful
measure of sympathy, instruction and moral culture from voluntary and
unpaid service. But necessity seems to be laid upon us to provide a
more permanent and reliable system of agencies and influences. One or
more officers appointed to this specific work of giving instruction to
the ignorant, and presenting motives and encouragements to a better
life to those who are accustomed to do evil, seems to be indispensable
to secure any thing like a proper attention to this important
department. Hence the call for a chaplain or moral instructor.
In looking at the condition of our two Philadelphia prisons in respect
to the provision for moral instruction, we are constrained to say, that
it is not such either in efficiency or success, as we think desirable,
attainable, and indeed absolutely necessary. Instead of bringing to
view, however, what some of us might regard as grave defects in the
present incumbents of the moral instructor's office, we will suggest
what we cannot but regard as indispensable requisites in such a
functionary, and leave those who have the appointing and removing power
to exercise it at their discretion.
I. _A moral instructor should exemplify in the minutest particulars
the moral principles he inculcates._--Any obvious neglect or evasion
of duty, any appearance of hypocrisy or inconsistency, any sallies
of ill-humour or fretfulness, any impatience of contradiction and
unteachableness in his pupils, the most trivial breach of promise,
or in a word, any departure from an upright, open and ingenuous
deportment, will detract sensibly from his power to do good.
II. _He should possess the faculty of adapting himself to the various
characters and temperaments of convicts._--We do not mean by this that
he should have any other faculty than such as shrewd men of common
sense ordinarily possess, and on which they depend for much of their
success in business. But it is by no means a rare thing to find a
prison chaplain, or moral instructor peculiarly deficient in this
point, and there is nothing which is likely to strike the class of
people with whom he has to deal more quickly or more unhappily than a
weakness of this kind, especially in one who is set to be their teacher
and guide.
III. _In such an office, the motive of benevolence and sympathy
should be seen to have the predominance over the motive of
self-interest._--The laborer in this department, as well as in all
others, is worthy of his hire, but if those he would influence discover
in the manner of doing his work, or in his general intercourse, that
he acts the part of a mere functionary, having his beat like a police
officer, and fulfilling an appointed task like a delver or ditcher, his
usefulness will be greatly circumscribed. And this suggests
IV. A fourth quality in a chaplain or moral instructor, viz.: _a warm,
glowing, personal, enthusiastic sympathy with the population of the
prison_.--He is a physician among a company of diseased and dying
patients. They are bidden to look to him for direction and to confide
in his prescriptions, (though not in his power or skill,) for a cure of
their maladies. If he has felt in his own person the presence of the
same disease, (though perhaps in a less offensive and aggravated form,)
and has known the value of a remedy, he will not look with indifference
on their symptoms, nor hear unmoved their sighs and groans. He will
have a tear of sympathy for the suffering; a helping hand for the weak
and trembling, and will deal honestly but gently with the impatient and
froward. They are guilty, and is he without sin? They are suffering
the penalty of a wholesome law, and what but an unseen hand has
restrained him from violating it? While therefore, he sets before them,
honestly and faithfully, the evil of their ways, he will give power and
persuasiveness to his words by the tender and sympathizing tones in
which they are uttered. While he points them to a merciful and faithful
high priest that has past into the heavens, and ever lives to make
intercession for guilty, penitent men, he shows that, like that same
high priest, he is touched with the feeling of their infirmities and
sympathizes in their bondage.
V. A chaplain or moral instructor _should have good judgment in the
selection of subjects of conversation and instruction, and in his
methods of illustration_.--It is not unfrequently the case, that
the most harsh and repulsive views of moral and religious truth are
presented to those whose minds are already filled with prejudice and
hostility, as if it were needful (as it is said to be in some bodily
diseases) to make them worse before attempting to make them better. A
man of ferocious temper is the last person to tame a wild beast; nor
will a severe and offensive presentation of the most precious truth be
likely to win an already alienated mind. To charge home their guilt on
convicts, and make them feel that they have as good as they deserve,
even if their situation were much worse than it is, will never pave the
way for moral influences.
It requires good judgment to select topics for the moral and religious
instruction of convicts, and much skill and tact to illustrate them.
A false position on a moral subject will be quite as likely to strike
a congregation of rogues as a congregation of honest men; and it is
wonderful how the faith of a disciple is weakened by a single material
error in a teacher. The moral instructor of prisoners, having nothing
to do with points of polemic theology or subtle casuistry, has a plain
and easy path if he is only willing to keep it. The elementary truths
of religion and morality, which lie within the comprehension alike of
a child and of an angel, and which are recognized by all sober-minded
men as the basis and stamina of all true moral reformation, are to be
explained and enforced, and their influence in promoting happiness,
respectability and prosperity in this life and in preparing us for the
future, is to be clearly exhibited.
In illustrating these truths, much depends on a seasonable reference
to those things within the knowledge or present consciousness of the
convicts. Incidents of daily observation--the familiar phenomena of
nature, their own history in its social and moral relations, (with
which the teacher is supposed to have made himself acquainted) will
furnish topics appropriate in character and abundant in variety.
VI. _It is very important that a moral instructor should possess
the faculty of casual teaching._--It is an easy thing to occupy ten
or fifteen minutes in talking with a convict, but if he would leave
something behind him for the man to ponder and reflect on when the
cell-door closes again, the visitor or instructor must weigh well what
he says, and seize the opportunity to drop a casual word of admonition,
or encouragement, or intimidation, as the condition and habits of each
individual may warrant.
These casual suggestions often have far more weight than a studied
sermon, or an elaborate and earnest exhortation. The methods of
exerting an influence over others, and especially over thoughtless and
perverse persons, would be much more appropriate and effective were
they governed less by the teacher's own state of mind, and more by
the state of the mind which he wishes to change. Moral instructors of
all grades are oftentimes in the dark respecting the mental condition
and habits of their catechumens; and prison chaplains or instructors
not unfrequently err in occupying so much of their interviews in
expostulation, reproof and entreaty, as to leave no proper opportunity
to hear, much less to draw out, an expression of the convict's own
feelings. In such a case their labors, however well meant, lose much of
their value, and are sometimes worse than wasted.
VII. _It is highly desirable that instruction in sound learning should
be combined with instruction in religious and moral duties._--He who
opens our minds to the apprehension of new and valuable ideas, gains
an important ascendancy over us. The labors of a faithful and skilful
teacher are always remembered with gratitude. Now there are a thousand
opportunities in the course of ordinary instruction, even in the simple
branches of reading and writing, to throw out suggestions of duty and
interest, which a watchful teacher will eagerly improve. In the setting
of a copy, in the reading of a paragraph, and even in the spelling of
a word, such an opportunity may present itself. Powerful and lasting
associations are often established in this way. The familiar sentence--
"_Evil communications corrupt good manners_,"
which has for a century perhaps, been used as a copy in writing-schools
and classes, and which was originally selected, probably, because
there is so large a proportion of letters of the simplest formation,
has doubtless been fixed in the minds of thousands by the use of it in
such a connection. When it is remembered how transient, uncertain and
unfavorable is the opportunity to impress at all the minds of convicts,
we may well insist upon the strictest economy in the use of such as we
have.
VIII. As a library has become an almost indispensable appendage to
our prisons, _the moral instructor should be competent, not only to
select the most appropriate book for the use of the convicts, but
also to distribute them with judgment when under his care_.--The most
preposterous errors are often detected in some of our prisons on
both these points. Where books are kindly given for such a purpose,
reference is seldom had to the appropriateness of them. They are not
wanted by the donor, and are therefore given to the prison. The moral
instructor should be held responsible for every book that goes upon the
shelves of the prison library, and he should be so familiar with the
general character and design of each volume, as to determine as to its
appropriateness to the condition, capacity and present habit of each
prisoner's mind.
IX. _We are clear that the moral instructor should reside within the
prison walls_, and be expected to have the same constancy in duties and
responsibilities _as the warden_, or any other resident officer. There
is no hour of the day in which he may not find or make an opportunity
of doing good, and it is only by identifying himself with the daily
routine of prison-duties, and with the interests of all concerned in
their administration, that he can properly execute his work.
X. _The character and position of the moral instructor should be
such as to command the respect and confidence of the officers and
inspectors._--There is no such thing as hood-winking prisoners on such
a subject as this. They soon discover how much respect the executive
authorities feel for the man who is appointed to such an office, and
it is vain to suppose their estimation of him by those within the
cells will be any higher. The moral thermometer on the outside and the
inside of the partition wall, will indicate a similar temperature on
this, and on most other subjects. There are prison chaplains and moral
instructors in the world, whose characters and opinions challenge the
regard and respect not only of prison officers and visitors, but of
the public at large; and such have uniformly exerted a most sensible
and happy influence on the wretched congregations committed to their
charge. If the moral instructors in our State and County prisons are
of this stamp, we may well congratulate ourselves that so important
a post is adequately filled. If they are not possessed, in some good
degree, of the qualities which have been enumerated, the sooner they
are removed the better shall we regard it for the prison and for the
public, for we are clear that an incompetent incumbent of such an
office is an instrument of more evil than good.
ART. II.--REPORT OF THE DISCIPLINE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE CONVICT
PRISONS AND DISPOSAL OF CONVICTS, 1851-2, with notes on the
Construction of Prisons, Treatment and Disposal of Juvenile
Offenders, &c. By Lieutenant Colonel Jebb, Surveyor General of
prisons of England, &c., pp. 218, with numerous plates.
This document is dated in June last, and came to hand since our January
number was issued. In a cursory reading of it, we have noted several
points of general interest, and without attempting a classification of
the topics, we will imagine our readers to be looking over our shoulder
as we rapidly turn the leaves, making now and then a brief comment or
two.
In the ten prisons for separate confinement in England proper, there is
room for 2,459 convicts, and 2,193 were in prison, leaving unoccupied
accommodations for 266. In the three prisons for labor on the public
works there were 1,931 confined, and only 17 more could have been
received. In the hulks, there were 1,780 and only two vacancies; and
in the Juvenile Prison at Parkhurst, there were 577 tenants and 29
vacancies. The total convict population of the year was 9,033, and
there were 355 more on hand December 31, 1851, than at the same date
in the previous year. Of the whole number, 13 were removed to Lunatic
Asylums during the year, 147 were pardoned, (of whom 76 were on medical
grounds,) and 111 died.
In the report of the Millbank prison, we have an incidental testimony
from the chaplain to the moral advantages of separation, which we think
valuable.
Of _moral improvement_, however, as regards the _many_, embracing
change of principle and _real amendment of character_, he feels (he
says) considerable diffidence. Bearing in mind the circumstances of
the prison,--the period of separate confinement, rarely exceeding
six months, being somewhat brief to be _permanently effective_
for reformatory purposes--the danger of any good impressions
made during that period (the seed-time of reformation) being
effaced when prisoners are transferred to the _large rooms and
general ward_, where the opportunity is withdrawn from those
under incipient convictions of being ever _left alone with their
conscience_, and the spiritual exercises of the more advanced in
religion, both meditation and prayer, are subject to disturbance.
If this opinion is the result of intelligent and long continued
observation, (as we suppose it to be,) it is certainly very conclusive
as to the value and indispensableness of convict-separation as a means
of reform. The italic words are all found of the same character in the
original document. They form, when read by themselves, a memorable
sentence, and one which we respectfully commend to all those who stand
in doubt on the subject.
"Moral improvement or real amendment of character, to be permanently
effective among the many, is not to be expected in large rooms and
general wards. They require to be left alone with their conscience."
From _Pentonville_, we have a very favorable report, especially as it
regards the health, physical and mental. Only two cases of insanity
have occurred during the year among 561 prisoners, and of these one had
low intellectual development, which made him incapable of learning a
trade; and the other, though only 26 years of age, had been previously
convicted and imprisoned three times. He was suddenly seized with mania
three weeks only after commitment, and cerebral disease was presumed by
the physician to have been upon him when received. Concerning both of
the cases the physician remarks, that the "insanity was not traceable
to the operation of separation on the minds of the prisoners."--p. 11.
We venture to say that no prison on any plan or system can show cleaner
papers respecting the health of an equal number of convicts.
It seems that immediately succeeding this year of remarkable health,
in the course of the first half of the year 1852, "an unusually large
number of cases of mental affection" occurred, which led to the
substitution of brisk walking in concentric rings for exercise in
separate airing yards--the abolition of the mask or peak which was
found useless as a preventive of recognition, and the doing away of
the chapel stalls. It is well known that these three features of the
Pentonville system were designed to carry out the principle of strict
separation. If they were found ineffectual for this purpose, their
abandonment is a matter of no moment; and as the term of imprisonment
in this penitentiary is regarded as probationary, and is moreover
restricted to twelve months, we can scarcely suppose that such changes
were required by way of relaxing the discipline. Colonel Jebb gives
us to understand that the prejudices of the public against separate
confinement are gradually subsiding, and he thinks it "of greater
importance to the more general introduction of the system that every
effort should be made to secure its great advantages without again
raising the question of its safety." Is there no danger, however, that
its efficacy may be so far diminished by needless relaxation, as to
make it scarcely worth the trouble of introducing it?
We have not a shadow of evidence, nor even an intimation that the
supposed increase of insanity was in the slightest degree the result
of severe discipline; nor have we any report from the medical officer,
visiting or resident, as to the existence of such "an unusually large
number of cases of mental affection." But whether they existed or not,
"they were believed to exist," and the Board of Commissioners directed
the changes to which we have above adverted. In the progress of the
inquiries on the subject, it was suggested to the visiting director,
that he should obtain the joint opinion of the Governor, Chaplain and
Medical Officer on sundry points, among which were the following:
1. Whether it appears necessary to reject any particular
description of prisoners as being unfit subjects for separate
confinement, such, for instance, as those of dull intellect, or
others who do not speak the language, and are, therefore, less
capable of instruction.
2. Whether the arrangements at Wakefield and Leicester, with regard
to assembling for public worship, school instruction, exercise in
association, &c., are likely to be the cause of a more favorable
effect of separate (?) confinement on apparently the same class of
prisoners.
3. Whether a greater stimulus or a greater degree of vigor cannot
be imparted to the trades and occupations in the cells.
4. Whether it will be necessary and desirable, after a certain
period of confinement, to exercise all prisoners in association,
and whether the removal of both the long ranges of exercising-yards
will be sufficient for such purpose.
5. Whether the garden at the back of the prison might not be
advantageously cultivated by prisoners selected from those who may
have been a certain period in confinement.
6. Whether dispensing with the mask would be likely to be attended
with a beneficial effect.
We should have been gratified to know the answers which were returned
to these pertinent and important inquiries. We think the second
question would puzzle the wisest commissioner that could be found,
whether association will be the cause of a more favorable effect of
separate confinement on apparently the same class of prisoners! Or to
vary the phraseology, what is likely to be the effect of association
upon separation! In the absence of any report from the medical officer,
and with the health report of the preceding twelvemonth before us, we
cannot doubt that some misapprehension has arisen from exaggerated and
possibly fictitious representations.
A new chapter of observations and conclusions is opened to us at
Millbank by Dr. Baly, the visiting physician. It will be remembered
that no little discrepancy of opinion occurred a short time since
between the resident and visiting physician of the penitentiary at
Pentonville,[A] and hence we should feel disposed to suspend full
confidence in the present statement, till we know what the other doctor
has to say. But one or two facts may be safely cited, which will serve
to show how entirely irreconcilable some theories on this subject
are with each other, and with the actual phenomena. Of eight insane
convicts transferred during the year 1851 from Millbank to the Lunatic
Hospital, five were decidedly insane when received into the prison. The
aggregate of eight years gives us sixty-five cases of insanity among
7,393 convicts, of whom thirty-five were insane when received, and nine
of the remainder were of very low intellect, and only twenty-one were
of sound mind; of these twenty-one, thirteen recovered in the prison,
leaving only eight all told, or about one in 1,000 as sufferers, in
this form, from their incarceration! What prison or what mode of
discipline can show a better result than this?
[A] See Journal of Prison Discipline for April, 1852.
Among the very remarkable things disclosed in this report of Dr. Baly,
we find that during the first four years of the period of time embraced
in it, when the average term of imprisonment was less than one hundred
days, the cases of insanity were 11 or 3.28 per 1,000 prisoners, and
that in the last four years, in which fifty-six days were added to the
average length of confinement, the cases of insanity rose to 19 or 4.70
per 1,000! So that, omitting those who recovered in prison, the ratio
in the first four years was 1.49 per 1,000, and, the last 2.72, or
nearly double! It has been generally conceded even by the most zealous
opponents of separation, that its tendencies are quite harmless and
even wholesome, when not extended much beyond twelve months; but Dr.
Baly's report presents an entirely new view of the case. He tells us
that the ratio of insanity is twice as high in the second three months
of confinement, and more than three times as high in the third, as it
is in the first. His table is as follows:
-----------------------------+-------------+------------+---------------
|Approximative| Number | Annual
| Number |of Cases of |ratio per 1,000
Periods of Imprisonment. |of Prisoners | Insanity | of Cases of
| who passed |occurring in| Insanity for
| through |each Period.| each Period.
|each Period. | |
-----------------------------+-------------+------------+---------------
First Three Months | 16,000 | 9 | 2.25
Second Three Months | 8,400 | 9 | 4.28
Third Three Months | 4,200 | 8 | 7.61
Fourth Three Months, or later| 1,200 | 4 | --
-----------------------------+-------------+------------+---------------
But it unfortunately happens that the reasons assigned for these
results would go to disprove them. "The various feelings of remorse,
shame and despondency," and the "withdrawal of the external sources of
excitement," would be much more likely to work upon convicts' spirits
during the first three months, than during the third three months,
especially when the termination of the sentence is so near at hand. But
the whole statement is so extravagant, and so contrary to the received
opinions of even anti-separatists themselves, that we are disposed to
give it very little weight. Dr. Given, late resident physician of the
Eastern State Penitentiary, whom we must all regard as at least an
uncommitted party, expresses his conviction of the entire safety of
separation for the term of twelve months, even in the case of minors;
but beyond that, in their case, he would seldom extend it. See his
Report for 1852.
We have yet to be informed of the first case of the loss or serious
impairment of a convict's mental or bodily health from the judicious
and faithful administration of the separate system of discipline; but
whatever real or fancied dangers to body or mind attend it, one thing
is made clear by the report before us, viz., that it is wonderfully
efficacious.
We infer from several passages in this document, what we have not
seen more specifically stated elsewhere, that "the principle of the
discipline now established in the English prisons, contemplates a
confinement of the convict in strict separation twelve months, to
prepare him for a term of labor in association;" and this latter stage,
from its "exposing prisoners to many temptations, which they would have
to encounter on their final release from penal restrictions in England,
is to prepare them for that event." So that we have three grades or
stages in the process; separation follows conviction and introduces to
association, which is preparatory to transportation.
The convict, having passed the appointed term in separate
confinement, is removed to the establishment in Portland Island
(or, it may be, when suitable arrangements are made, to one of our
Dockyards), to labor in the formation of the harbor of refuge, or
on some public work. There, although he is still under religious
instruction and very judicious superintendence, his principles and
the reality of his reformation are subjected to a severe test. He
is associated with other convicts, and, as it cannot be supposed
that all have been reclaimed, he meets with many temptations.
The officer in charge of the Portland Island establishment, says:
The subdued, improved, and disciplined state in which the
convicts generally arrive at Portland, from the stage of separate
confinement, appears to be an admirable preparative for their
transfer to the greater degree of freedom unavoidable on public
works. Those convicts who have been for a considerable time at
Portland, have not usually indicated any falling off in morals or
conduct, but, on the contrary, several instances have occurred in
which men, on whose conduct the comparative degree of liberty here
alluded to, appeared to have at first an unfavorable effect, have
afterwards become orderly and industrious, and content to work
their way cheerfully to the prospective advantages held out to
convicts of that character.
Such strong testimony to the efficiency and powerful reformatory
influence of separation, is of great value.
Some interesting items are furnished on the extent and expenses of
transportation. The number of convicts sent to the Australian colonies
from Great Britain in 1847, was 938, in 1851, 1568. The average number
transported annually from Great Britain, is given at 1750--1300 males,
and 450 females.
The estimates for 1852-53 for services connected with the
transportation of convicts amount to the gross sum of 101,041_l._,
which provides for the removal of 3,100 males and 800 females from
Great Britain and Ireland to Australia, and of 800 to Bermuda and
Gibraltar.
Deducting the probable expense devoted to the latter service, there
might remain about 95,000_l._, as the amount required for the
removal of 3,900 convicts, or 24_l._ per head.
From various movements in the present parliament, we are led to infer
that transportation will soon be abandoned. This event is more than
intimated in the report before us. It is inferred from the tenor of a
brief discussion of the scheme of the select committee of the House
of Commons, announced two years since, in the form of three specific
propositions, viz.:
I. That after prisoners under long sentences have undergone a
period of separate confinement, the remainder of their sentences
ought to be passed under a system of combined labor, with effectual
precautions against intercourse.
II. That this object would be greatly facilitated by the erection
of district prisons, at the national cost, for the reception of
prisoners under long sentences after they have undergone such
previous separate confinement.
III. That such district prisons should be maintained at the
national cost, and the government of such prisons, and all
appointments and salaries of officers, ought to be under the
control of Her Majesty's Government.
Col. Jebb regards these plans with unqualified favor. "If it were only
to avoid the inconvenience and expense of transportation," he says, "it
is well deserving of attention, especially in an economical point of
view."
It seems that lengthened "periods of imprisonment have not hitherto
been resorted to, partly from there being no existing prison where
sentences exceeding twelve months could be properly carried into
effect, and partly, from a sentence of transportation in former times
affording so easy a solution of all difficulty both as regarded expense
and final disposal." And Col. Jebb expresses the opinion, that "if
facilities existed for carrying into effect sentences of imprisonment
extending from eighteen months to three years without expense to the
counties and boroughs, a large proportion of the present sentences to
seven years' transportation would be changed to imprisonment." Allowing
the average sentences to be from two and a half to three years, nine
months would be past under the discipline of separation, and from
twenty-one to twenty-seven months in the district prison.
As a general conclusion of the whole matter, Col. Jebb copies and
adopts the opinion of the Parliamentary committee, that "if conducted
under proper regulations and control, separate confinement is more
efficient than any other system which has yet been tried, both in
deterring from crime and in promoting reformation."
It is quite evident that he is no convert to Dr. Baly's views, for he
does not propose to reduce the average term of separation below nine
months, within which all the mischiefs of it, (according to the Dr.'s
theory or statement,) are experienced. Indeed, if we are not under
great misapprehension, Col. Jebb has over and over again expressed his
confidence in the principle of separation, when applied to periods
varying from twelve to eighteen months.
So far from yielding to a suggestion of relaxation, the present
report urges _a uniform system of discipline_ in all prisons, and the
enforcing of separate confinement alike to the tried and the untried.
It endorses the declaration of a committee of the House of Commons,
that "the combination of hard labor with individual separation, has
been remarkable in its effect to decrease the number of committals."
The prison of Leicester is cited as an example.
In one section of the report, the subject of enforcing hard labor is
discussed; Lord Denman's remarks are cited, in which he speaks of "the
only legitimate end of punishment being to deter from crime; but I
think I perceive," he says, "in some of the theories of benevolent men,
such a mode of administering the criminal law as to encourage instead
of deterring. I greatly dread the effect of giving convicts benefits
and privileges which they never could have hoped for but from the
commission of crime."
In allusion to this subject Col. Jebb, in his report for the preceding
year, suggests whether among "the means of increasing the stringency
of the discipline, and bringing it to bear with greater effect on the
lowest class of prisoners, and on such as prove to be incorrigible,
also on prisoners re-committed to prison, giving them a less
comfortable bed for certain periods, or on alternate nights,--might
not be desirable. The physical comforts of a prison are of necessity
greater than the majority of prisoners enjoy when at liberty; and if,
without injury to health, these can be abridged, a more deterring
effect will be produced by the discipline, both on the individual
himself and the criminal population generally."
We have often and earnestly contended for a more liberal use of those
methods of discipline which apply to the sources or organs of criminal
indulgence. Moral diseases have corresponding remedies. No more
suitable remedy can be prescribed for idleness and indolence than hard
work. Nothing is more irksome to a man given to depraved appetite, than
short commons. The difference between a good dinner on corned beef and
potatoes, and a ration of bread and water, is felt at points which
reproof and the shower-bath, and even the cat-o'-nine-tails, will none
of them reach. The former, by itself, will subdue a spirit which the
three latter combined will only rouse to indomitable stubbornness.
On the whole, we regard this document as decidedly confirmatory of the
views which have been uniformly advocated by the Philadelphia Society
for the Alleviation of the Miseries of Public Prisons, and in the
pages of this Journal. It contains not a statement nor a tittle of
evidence that impairs in the slightest degree our confidence in the
safety, efficacy and humanity of convict-separation. That it has been,
and may be abused or ill-administered, and that it requires judgment
and discrimination to adapt its provisions to the various classes of
persons who are subjected to it, is not more true of this than it is
of the gregarious or any other system. The only substantial fault that
we have ever known to be found with it, is that it costs more than
association, and the only answer to be made to this is, that (admitting
the statement to be true) it is worth as much more as it costs.
ART. III.--SOURCES AND CHECKS OF JUVENILE DELINQUENCY.
When the farmer finds his fruit trees exposed to the ravages of the
caterpillar, he makes but slow and unsatisfactory work, if he takes
the worms one by one as they are feasting on the leaf, or crawling
along the stem, or dangling in the air. There is a period of the day,
however, when they are all in their nest, and if he can apply a torch
to their curious fabric and consume it, or riddle it with shot, or wind
it and its wriggling population upon a brush or broom well besmeared
with pitch or tar, to be forthwith put into the fire or under the foot,
the work is thorough and the tree safe.
Not inaptly does this illustrate, or serve to point out the true
process for the diminution of crime. The arrest, conviction and
punishment of here and there a rogue, is scarcely felt. It is but a
unit subtracted from the appalling aggregate of crime. If we would
have the ratio of our criminal population palpably and permanently
lessened, we must lay hold of the young ones in the nest, and whatever
the trouble or cost, we may rest assured it is by all odds the cheapest
and only effectual way of dealing with the pest.
Among the prominent causes of, or excitements to a criminal life
which are operative upon childhood, especially in cities and populous
towns, have been reckoned 1, and chiefly drunkenness. 2. The
absence of education and industrial training. 3. The inadequacy of
home-accommodation to secure the ordinary decencies of life. 4. The
demoralizing influences of cheap theatres, and other low places of
amusement, association with fire companies, and the liberty to dispose
of the whole or a considerable portion of their own earnings. 5. The
example, instruction or orders of parents constraining them to vicious
acts, and 6, the connivance or co-operation of receivers of stolen
goods to prompt them. We might indefinitely enlarge this catalogue, but
these causes are adequate to account for the greater part of juvenile
crime.
The readers of our Journal cannot fail to be aware of the unusual
interest which has recently been awakened on this subject. Our present
number contains sundry evidences of it, and by referring to the cover,
a notice will be found, the design of which is to provoke inquiry and
discussion, with a view to reformatory measures. As human nature is
substantially the same all the world over, and as like causes produce
like effects, we have transferred to our pages several interesting and
important passages from the last report of the inspector general of
English prisons, bearing particularly on this subject.
In respect to the first cause of juvenile depravity, which we just
commented on, drunkenness--
"Statistical returns show that the amount of money expended in
intoxicating drinks of one kind or another in Great Britain, is
between fifty and sixty millions of pounds sterling per annum,--a
sum fully equal to the whole national revenue.
"Now such an enormous expenditure on any one object must produce
a noticeable effect upon our social condition. Were such a
sum annually expended on the reclaiming of waste land and the
improvement of what is but partially cultivated, and the erection
of comfortable dwellings, in a few years our whole island would be
a garden of beauty and fertility.
"But what are the results produced?
"The physicians of our lunatic asylums tell us that intemperance is
the cause of a large proportion of the cases of insanity.
"The medical officers of our infirmaries and dispensaries tell us
that many diseases are caused, and more are made fatal, by habits
of intemperance.
"The masters of our poor houses tell us that they can trace the
pauperism of most of their inmates to their own intemperance, or to
that of their parents.
"The governors and chaplains of our prisons tell us that most of
the crime in our gaols is directly or indirectly caused by strong
drink.
"If the offences to which habitual drinking has ultimately led
could be ascertained, I believe we should find that four-fifths of
the recorded offences have sprung from it."
Although the remedy for this enormous evil is justly regarded as lying
to a considerable degree in the hands of educators, it is maintained
that "much may be done to abate the evil by reducing the number of
licensed public houses both in town and country, and by greatly raising
the expense of strong drink."
As an evidence of the effects of cheapening strong drink, it is stated
that in 1825, the duty on whiskey was greatly reduced in Scotland, and
that as a consequence, intemperance began to increase, so that "in the
twenty-seven years which have since elapsed, the consumption has become
nearly _five-fold_ greater; crime, disease, and death have increased in
similar proportion; and the sober, religious Scotland of other days is
now _proved_, by its consumption of spirits, to be, without exception,
the most drunken nation in Europe."
As to the connection between intemperance and the other causes of
juvenile depravity, "the records of the prison-house, if fully
analyzed, would show that the _first penny or the first pound_ taken
by a son from his parents, or abstracted by the young man from his
master's desk, is for the theatre, not for the public-house. But
youth, being corrupted by the pleasures of sin, drunkenness follows,
and becomes the associate or the substitute of licentiousness, and
completes the ruin. Money becomes indispensable, and it is gotten by
some desperate and wicked means, at the possibility of which a few
months before, the mind would have recoiled with indignation, like that
of Hazael, when reproached by the prophet: 'Is thy servant a dog, that
he should do this great thing?'"