which the reformation of such can be rationally expected is by their
thorough and permanent severance from those scenes and associations in
which their evil habits were formed. Although suffering from hunger
and misery, it must not be supposed that the lives led by these
delinquent children are void of pleasurable sensations; "the very
alternation from one extreme to another keeps the mind in a state
of feverish excitement; the want of a penny to buy food on one day,
is more than compensated by the reckless profusion of the next; and
the despondency created by privation and long suffering is speedily
supplanted by exultation on the success of some criminal feat of daring
and dexterity."
None will deny another position of the report, viz.:
"That it is impossible for children to be brought up as Christian
children ought to be, when huddled together, male and female, old
and young, like pigs in a stye; and yet this revolting expression
is not too strong to designate the dwellings of tens of thousands
in our land.
"How many of our honest industrious artisans have only one
apartment, or, at most, a room and a closet for father and mother,
and grown up sons and daughters!
"The physical condition of the poor cannot be viewed as separated
from the moral. The want of a proper dwelling place for the
working man is one of his greatest trials, and is as injurious
to his spiritual as to his bodily health. The crowding together
of a whole family in one room weakens domestic virtue, destroys
all self-respect, modesty, and delicacy of feeling, and utterly
removes all opportunities for self-improvement. A home which is
miserable from physical or moral causes is the half-way house to
the gin-palace or beer-shop."
The inquiry might be opportunely raised, whether the _habits_ of
life which constitute such a social state as is here described, are
not formed long before the state itself is entered. A girl or boy
accustomed to street-associations either in the pursuit of some trading
employment, as selling papers, matches, &c., &c., or from mere neglect
and idleness, will soon fall into habits which no degree of loathsome
infamy or social degradation will shock. The origin of the evil, in
such cases, lies far back of its present stage and locality. It dates
from the _childhood_ of those who now act as the head of this filthy
and brutalized little community.
Of the penny theatres, it is truly remarked, that "they present almost
irresistible attractions;" and the annals of juvenile delinquents are
full of cases of petty thefts committed in order to procure the penny
or twopence required for admission.
Even if the price of admission be honestly obtained, as one of the
reports says, the scenes to which the youthful spectator is there
introduced are understood to be of the most flagitious and depraving
nature, calculated only to inflame the passions, and deaden every
virtuous feeling.
Singing-rooms and dancing-rooms, too, are represented as training up
boys and girls to familiarity with vice in every shape. A magistrate
sent two of his officers to visit one of them. Their report describes
seven hundred boys and girls collected together to have their bodies
poisoned with smoke and drink, and their minds with ribaldry and
obscenity! Can any one have a doubt that the evil wrought in such a
singing-room in a single night, outweighs all the good that can be
effected by a dozen Sunday-schools in a whole year?
And finally the part played by the receivers of stolen goods is
described as a profession.
So much for causes, and now as to remedies. These are emphatically
_preventive_ in their nature, "lying at the very foundation of our
social arrangements, and until very recently, wholly disregarded and
uncared for, viz., 'organized and adequate means for EDUCATION and
INDUSTRIAL TRAINING.'"
It is remarkable how many of the prominent features of some of our
modern schemes of juvenile reform here, have been long ago presented to
the public eye. More than half a century ago, (1796) the renowned Earl
of Chatham introduced to the British Parliament a bill, which had for
its object the establishment of a school for work in every parish or
incorporated district, for the purpose of instructing the children in
different trades and manufactures. The parishes were to be at liberty
to maintain their poor children in the working schools, or to lodge
them there or keep them only during the hours of labor, and then
feed them there or give them work to do at home. The overseers were
to be charged with the direction of these schools, and were required
to supply them with materials and utensils, &c. Parents burdened with
infant children, and in the receipt of out-door relief, were required
to send their children to the working school as soon as they were five
years old, to be instructed and maintained there. It was provided that
those fathers who might prefer to keep their children at home, should
bring them up and employ them, receiving some direction and assistance
from the local authorities until the children were in a condition to
gain their livelihood. Upon leaving the working school, those children
who could not return to their families were to have been apprenticed at
the expense of the parishes, or provided with some means of service.
It has long been our conviction, as the volumes of this Journal will
show, that no very radical reform of the vicious children and youth
of the land will be accomplished, so long as the government is so
reluctant to enforce parental obligations, or to take upon itself all
due attention to such obligations in those points where the welfare and
safety of society are put in jeopardy by the disregard of them. Though
our institutions are based on a principle of the utmost liberty, they
are, for that very reason, peculiarly dependent on the proper education
and training of children for their preservation. No country on the
face of the globe has so much staked on the intelligence, industry and
virtue of each succeeding generation as ours. We are fully satisfied
that the timidity which our government manifests in laying fast and
earnest hold of this great evil, PARENTAL NEGLECT, exposes us to the
loss of all that is worth preserving.
"Society has surely the right to guard itself against the evil
practices of those neglected children; and, having the right, it
ought also to have the power; but if such power exist, it seems
very difficult to tell in whose hands it is vested. The child
convicted of theft is whipped or imprisoned, but if he stole to
appease the cravings of hunger which his worthless parent failed
to satisfy, it is clear that chastisement has not fallen upon the
proper party, and that the really guilty has profited by the vices
prompted by his culpable neglect, while the whole cost has been
defrayed by the public."
"Power must be given," says our report, "to send to school
all _neglected_ children--all found loitering in streets and
lanes--whose parents take no charge of them, but leave them to grow
up as they may, untutored and untaught, save in the practice of
crime. If the parents neglect to perform their bounden duty, then
the State may properly step in, _loco parentis_, and do the needful
work; and surely this is no unjustifiable interference with the
parental authority--it is only saying to the parent, 'if you will
not discharge the duty you owe to your child, both in the sight of
God and of man, we, the public, will do it for you; we will not
suffer your child to grow up a torment to himself and to all around
him; we would much rather you did your duty yourself, but if you
_will not_, then _we must_.'
"By law, the burden of uncared-for pauper children falls at present
on the workhouse, but the poor-law authorities are not entitled
to expend their money, unless under their own immediate control;
and power must be given to them to do so, through the medium of
industrial school managers. This will be as advantageous as it is
economical. Better for the public, who must eventually pay in one
form or other, to maintain the child in an industrial school at
4_l._ a year, than in a poor house at 10_l._ or 12_l._, especially
as the smaller expenditure gives every prospect of making him a
useful member of the community, and the larger gives little hope of
ever raising him above the pauper class.
"A good education," says one of the inspectors of the English
National Schools, "so infallibly dispauperises, and raises its
recipient above the necessity of ever again applying for relief,
that except under gross mismanagement of the guardians in other
points, we may be tolerably certain that vicious habits, easily
eradicable by sound early training, have brought the great
majority of those who burden the parochial rates to their state
of dependence. Could this truth be more universally impressed on
the managers of the poor, the difficulties in the way of forming
industrial schools would vanish!
"It was said by the late stipendiary magistrate at Liverpool, that
he had ascertained that ten such children, under fourteen years
of age had cost, in apprehension and imprisonment, upwards of six
hundred pounds; and, with so little effect, that all of them were
then in prison, and one, only about ten years of age, lay under
sentence of transportation for seven years.
"The remedy for these enormous evils appears simple and obvious.
Let the committee or the magistrate be empowered to send all such
mendicant children to the schools of industry at the expense of
the parent or the parish, and let the worthless parent be punished
if he neglects the sacred duty of maintaining his child, which at
present he is allowed to do with impunity."
We think the friends of our Houses of Refuge could scarcely ask a more
sensible and cogent argument in support of such establishments, than is
furnished in these brief extracts; and yet cogent and sensible as it
may be, it fails to convince gainsayers, or at least, to constrain them
to prompt and liberal action. Within a twelvemonth a project for such
an establishment was lost in a neighboring State, (as it was alleged,)
in some political whirlpool; and the public prints tell us, that a like
wholesome measure was lately defeated in St. Louis by the jealousy
or arrogance of a religious party. We do not vouch for the truth of
either of these statements, but we hazard nothing in saying, that the
problem, how to restrain and suppress crime, will never be solved, till
politicians and religionists lose their selfishness and their bigotry
in an earnest and efficient effort to provide for vicious and neglected
children.
The following good old Saxon principle is adverted to in a report on
Parochial Union Schools for 1851.
"Guardians are not always so open to considerations of ultimate
as of immediate economy; and many a pauper who now, before his
death, costs his parish one or two hundred pounds, might have lived
without relief, had a different education, represented perhaps by
the additional expense of a single pound, been bestowed upon him
in his youth! This is strictly retributive justice; and I think it
would be good policy to increase its effect, and it would give a
prodigious stimulus to the diffusion of education, if the expense
of every criminal, while in prison, were reimbursed to the country
by the parish in which he had a settlement. What a stir would be
created in any parish by the receipt of a demand from the Secretary
of State for the Home Department for 80_l._ for the support of
two criminals during the past year! I cannot but think that the
locality where they had been brought up would be immediately
investigated, perhaps some wretched hovels, before unregarded,
made known, and means taken to educate and civilize families that
had brought such grievous taxation on the parish. The expense of
keeping criminals, as of paupers, must be borne somewhere; and it
seems more just that it should fall on those parishes whose neglect
has probably caused the crime than on the general purse."
We would gladly pursue the discussion of these interesting topics did
our limits allow, but we have indicated one important, and as it seems
to us indispensable preliminary inquiry, viz.: Can we effectually
carry out any general scheme of reform, except we withdraw neglected
and vicious children from the associations and habits of their
miserable and degraded homes, and put them upon a course of involuntary
moral and industrial training, before they become what are technically
called juvenile delinquents? Is not a compulsory process (much earlier
in its application than the discipline of a House of Refuge) essential
to the accomplishment of any general or comprehensive reform? Will such
a process be authorized by any popular legislature in our country? If
the question implies an answer, is the answer true?
ART. IV.--PENNSYLVANIA PENITENTIARIES.--
Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern State
Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, dated January 1, 1853, pp. 36.
Report of the Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary of
Pennsylvania, dated January 10, 1853, pp. 24.
These two documents embrace the details of the convict-discipline of
the State of Pennsylvania for the year 1852. It is well known that both
the institutions are established on one and the same principle, and
are administered, so far as the discipline is concerned, under one and
the same law. It may not be uninteresting to review them briefly in
connection.
-----------------------------+----------------------------------+
| E. State Penitentiary. |
+-------------+-------------+------+
| Whites. | Blacks. | |
+-----+-------+-----+-------+ +
| | | | | |
|Male.|Female.|Male.|Female.|Total.|
+-----+-------+-----+-------+------+
On hand January 1, 1852, | | | | | 310 |
Received during the year, | 109 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 126 |
In custody at date of report,| 219 | 12 | 48 | 4 | 283 |
Disch'd by exp. of sentence, | 56 | 5 | 28 | 8 | 92 |
" by pardon, | 40 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 45 |
" by death, | | | 2 | | 2 |
Removed, | 12 | | 2 | | 14 |
-----------------------------+-----+-------+-----+-------+------+
-----------------------------+----------------------------------+------+
| W. State Penitentiary. | |
+-------------+-------------+------| |
| Whites. | Blacks. | | |
+-----+-------+-----+-------+ | |
| | | | | | Grand|
|Male.|Female.|Male.|Female.|Total.|Total.|
+-----+-------+-----+-------+------+------+
On hand January 1, 1852, | | | | | 174 | 484 |
Received during the year, | 84 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 96 | 222 |
In custody at date of report,| 165 | 3 | 18 | 1 | 181 | 470 |
Disch'd by exp. of sentence, | | | | | 56 | 148 |
" by pardon, | | | | | 24 | 69 |
" by death, | | | | | 3 | 5 |
Removed, | | | | | | |
-----------------------------+-----+-------+-----+-------+------+------+
In the Eastern State Penitentiary, the labor of the prisoners has
nearly defrayed the expense of their subsistence; while in the Western
State Penitentiary, the labor of the convicts has not only earned their
support, but has paid four-fifths the salaries of the officers.
The number of commitments to the Western State Penitentiary has
increased so much, as to require the erection of a new range of
cells--for want of which in the crowded state of the prison, the
required separation has been in some cases impracticable. But no
departure from the strict observance of the discipline has been
allowed, except where a necessity which knows no law, required it.
If it should be supposed that the apparent increase of crime betokens
the inefficiency of the discipline, it would be an unwarranted
inference. The increased number of convictions might tend to show the
increase of crime, or of sagacity and thoroughness in detecting and
prosecuting it; but there is another and abundantly adequate cause
to account for the increase in the present case, and it is the one
assigned by the inspectors, viz.--the intemperate use of intoxicating
drinks. Of the ninety-six received during the year, eighty-nine
are regarded as having been brought to the felon's home by such
indulgence! Of one hundred and twenty-six received into the Eastern
State Penitentiary during the year, only thirty-two are registered as
temperate, leaving ninety-four on the list of drinkers, moderate or
immoderate.
Of the one hundred and twenty-six admissions to the Eastern State
Penitentiary, ninety-eight were never apprenticed to a trade; and
of one hundred and eighty-seven in custody at the Western State
Penitentiary at the date of the report, forty-one were never bound;
and of the one hundred and forty-six that were bound, ninety-seven (or
two-thirds) ran away from their masters!
Among the 126 admissions to the Eastern State Penitentiary, there were
fifty-six different trades or occupations, and of thirty-eight of these
only one representative. The largest of any class were laborers, 27;
the next, boatmen, 10; shoemakers, 7; and store-keepers, and farmers,
and butchers, 5 each. Of the 187 in custody at the Western State
Penitentiary at date of report, 67 were laborers, 18 shoemakers, 12
boatmen, of farmers and blacksmiths 6 each, cooks, 5.
The Warden of the Eastern State Penitentiary gives us, as the result
of another year's experience, an increased conviction of the unabated
confidence and regard to which the system of separate confinement is
entitled; and the Warden of the Western State Penitentiary speaks of
the success of the past year "as having proved the separate system to
be what its earliest friends desired."
In the report of the medical officer of the Eastern State Penitentiary
we have the following testimony:
I think I may state without hesitation, that there has never been,
during the history of the institution, so great an exemption from
disease for so long a time, as during the period for which I now
report. There are but four men in the Infirmary who are not at
work. It is true, there are some others in delicate or infirm
health, but the greater part of these were received in that state,
of whom again the majority are greatly improved.
And from the medical officer of the Western State Penitentiary we
have a similar report of the uniform prevalence of good health. There
has been less indisposition within the prison during the year just
terminated, he says, "than during any similar period of time since my
professional connection with this institution, and yet the number of
prisoners has never been so great."
As to the mental health of the convicts in the Eastern State
Penitentiary, the physician reports it to be "no less satisfactory than
their physical condition;" and of the Western State Penitentiary the
medical report is, that "no case of insanity has originated within the
prison during the year."
Of the sentences of the one hundred and twenty-six admitted, ninety-one
were for three years or less. And of ninety-six received into the
Western State Penitentiary, seventy-five were sentenced for three years
or less.
Of the one hundred and twenty-six commitments to the Eastern State
Penitentiary, ninety-six were for offences against property, only seven
of which were accompanied with violence; twenty-five were for offences
against the person, and five for violation of marriage laws. While of
the ninety-six admissions to the Western State Penitentiary, eighty
were for offences against property with and without violence, and
sixteen were for offences against the person. The general summary of
the two Institutions is as follows:
East. West.
State Peni. State Peni.
23 years. 26 years.
Of the whole number received, there
were disch'd by expira'n of sentence, 2005 1061
Pardoned, 422 305
Deaths, 230 81
Removed, 31 4
Escaped, 1 10
Remaining December 31, 283 187
---- ----
Total, 2972 1648
A very slight examination of this statement reveals some singular
differences, especially in the items of pardons and deaths, which an
analysis of the annual returns would doubtless satisfactorily explain.
The moral instructor in the Eastern State Penitentiary adverts to the
circumstance that only nineteen of the one hundred and twenty-six
commitments were over thirty-five years of age, and that twenty-eight
were under twenty. He very justly regards the ignorant, vicious and
depraved YOUTH of the land as the reservoir of convicts. The moral
instructor of the Western State Penitentiary says, "there is a larger
proportion of mere youths in the prison than at any former time. More
than three-fourths of the prisoners confined within these walls have
confessed to me that their early youth was passed almost entirely
without moral teachings. The records of our Courts bear ample testimony
to the fearful and distressing increase of crime among our youth. There
are in this prison, received within the past year, nineteen convicts
not over twenty-one years of age!"
These considerations show the seasonableness and importance of a
proposition from the Managers of our House of Refuge, which will be
found on our last page.
A large section of the report of the inspectors of the Eastern State
Penitentiary is occupied by a discussion of the provisions of the Act
of Assembly of May 4, 1852, and the proceedings under it, to which we
shall make more particular reference in a separate article.
ART. V.--SHOULD CONVICTS BE RECEIVED INTO THE STATE LUNATIC HOSPITAL AT
HARRISBURG?
The General Appropriation Act of 1852, provides $25,000 to complete
the unfinished range of cells of the Western State Penitentiary, and
for the payment of gratuities to convicts discharged from the two
penitentiaries, $1417, viz.: $667 to the Eastern, and the remainder
($750) to the Western. Then follows §42. "That the further sum of
ten thousand dollars be and the same is hereby appropriated to the
Eastern State Penitentiary, for the purpose of grading, curbing and
paving the street adjoining, preserving the buildings from decay, and
altering and repairing a part of them for the suitable accommodation of
prisoners whose mental or physical condition requires, in the opinion
of the inspectors, a temporary relaxation of the separate confinement
system. Provided, That whenever in the opinion of the inspectors of
the Eastern State Penitentiary, any of the prisoners therein confined
shall develope such marked insanity as to render their continued
confinement in said Penitentiary improper, and their removal to the
State Lunatic Hospital necessary to their restoration, it shall be
the duty of the said Inspectors to submit such cases to a Board,
composed of the District Attorney of the County of Philadelphia, the
principal physician of the Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane at
Philadelphia, and the principal physician of the Friends' Insane Asylum
at Frankford in Philadelphia County; and in case a majority of them
cannot, at any time when required, attend, a competent physician or
physicians, to be appointed by the Court of Quarter Sessions of the
County of Philadelphia, in the place of such as cannot attend, upon
whose certificate of insanity, or the certificate of any two of them
transmitted to the Governor, and if by him approved, he shall direct
that said insane prisoner shall be by said Inspectors removed to the
State Lunatic Hospital, there to be received, safely kept and properly
provided for, at the cost and charge of the county, from which they
were sent to the Penitentiary, and if at any time during the period
for which any such insane prisoners shall have been sentenced to
confinement in the Eastern Penitentiary, they shall, in the opinion
of the trustees of said Lunatic Hospital, be so far restored as to
render their return to said Penitentiary safe and proper, then the said
trustees shall cause the said prisoner to be returned to said Eastern
Penitentiary, due notice being given to the clerk of the Court of
Quarter Sessions of the County, from which such prisoners were sent to
the Penitentiary, of all such removals or transfers."