to the importance of having a certain number of rooms in the
dwelling-houses of the poor, though I am aware of the difficulty
of legislating on this matter, and of the still greater difficulty
of carrying out practically what the legislature may declare to
be its intention and will. Still it is right, that the attention
of the legislature and other public bodies should be called to
the physical deterioration and moral degradation, which results
from the want of proper room in the dwelling-houses of the poor.
Besides the evidence on this subject, which has been published in
the report on the sanitary condition of the laboring population,
a large mass of evidence to the same effect will be found in the
reports of the sub-commissioners under the Children’s Employment
Commission, and in the statements of a great number of witnesses
examined by them. Instances such as the following are given: ‘A
mother and her son, being an adult, sleep in the same bed. Grown-up
females and unmarried young men sleep in the same room. A man,
his wife, and his wife’s sister, the latter being an adult, sleep
together in the same bed.’ I have myself seen, a young man, twenty
years of age, sleeping in the same bed with his sister, a young
woman, sixteen or seventeen years old. That incestuous intercourse
takes place under these circumstances, there is too much reason to
believe; and that when unmarried young men and women sleep together
in the same room, the women become common to the men, is stated as
a positive fact; but I regard another inevitable effect of this
state of things as no less pernicious; it is one of the instances
which, for want of a better term, may be called _unhumanizing_,
because it tends to weaken and destroy the feelings and affections
which are distinctive of the human being, and which raise him above
the level of the brute. I have sometimes checked myself in the
wish, that men of high station and authority, would visit these
abodes of the less fortunate fellow-creatures, and witness with
their own eyes the scenes presented there; for I have thought the
same end might be answered in a way less disagreeable to them. They
have only to visit the Zoological Gardens, and observe the state of
society in that large room, which is appropriated to a particular
class of animals, where every want is relieved, and every appetite
and passion gratified, in full view of the whole community. In the
filthy and crowded streets, in our large towns and cities, you see
human faces retrograding, sinking down to the level of those brute
tribes; and you find manners appropriate to the degradation. Can
any one wonder that there is among these classes of the people so
little intelligence--so slight an approach to humanity--so total an
absence of domestic affection, and of moral and religious feeling?
The experiment has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful
success, affording the demonstration, that if, from early infancy,
you allow human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them
down to their level, leaving to them scarcely more intellect, and
no feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts.”
Dr. Lyon Playfair adduces instances of the crowding of persons in the
same room, without even the plea of necessity. They are not, he informs
us, the most extreme cases of the kind.[3]
In Preston, out of 442 dwellings examined in unhealthy localities, and
inhabited at the time of the inquiry by 2400 persons sleeping in 852
beds, it appeared that
In 84 cases 4 persons slept in the same bed,
In 28 “ 5 “ “ “
In 13 “ 6 “ “ “
In 3 “ 7 “ “ “
In 1 “ 8 “ “ “
“Amidst the dirt and disease of filthy back courts and alleys, vices
and crimes are lurking,” says the Rev. Mr. Clay, “altogether unimagined
by those who have never visited such abodes.” The inspectors of prisons
in Scotland, from separate inquiries, have also come to the conclusion,
that the physical causes of disease, indirectly become the causes of
crime.
_Public Lodging Houses_, are another prolific source of disease and
vice. They are, in nearly all large cities, the nightly resorts not
only of the migrating laborer, and travelling artisan, but, also, of
the lower mendicants, thieves, and prostitutes. These resorts are well
known to the criminal police. In 1831, Mr. James knew a house of this
description in London, to contain 126 persons, many of them women
and children, and perhaps not more than a dozen beds in the place.
At the census of 1841, there were not more than 30 to 40 in any of
these houses; “still these numbers crowd the houses most annoyingly.”
It is no uncommon thing, as we learn from Dr. Duncan, (_Report on
the Sanatory State of Liverpool_,) for the keepers of lodging houses
to cover the floor with straw, and allow as many human beings as can
manage to pack themselves together, to take up their quarters for the
night, at the charge of a penny each. The havoc made by the cholera in
the lodging houses at Manchester, in 1832, was terrible. In some of
these houses, as many as 6 or 8 beds were contained in a single room,
which are crowded promiscuously with men, women, and children. Dr.
Howard, after showing the lamentable extent to which they become the
hot-beds of _febrile_ diseases of the most violent and fatal character,
owing mainly to their filthy and unventilated condition, thus describes
the morals of their frequenters, and their malign influence in this
way on the young and inexperienced. “They serve as open receptacles
of crime, vice, and profligacy, and as nurseries in which the young
and yet uninitiated, become familiar with every species of immorality.
They are the haunts of the most depraved and abandoned characters,
as well as the most miserable and suffering objects of the town,
(_Manchester_,) and constitute one of the most influential causes of
the physical and moral degradation of our laboring population.”
Unless we are misinformed, the investigations now making by the Board
of Health of Philadelphia, will reveal a state of things, not much
behind, although on a smaller scale, those described in the foregoing
extracts; and as regards New York, Dr. Griscom’s report, made a few
years ago, exhibits a still darker picture. With the warnings on the
other side of the Atlantic to deter us, we ought to have kept clear of
these nuisances entirely. Let us, as we have imitated the people of
Great Britain for evil, imitate them also for good, by instituting the
same searching inquiries into the nature and extent of these physical
and moral corruptions, that are recorded in the proceedings of the
various Parliamentary committees and Royal Commissioners.
In Glasgow, the lodging houses have been subjected to regular municipal
supervision and ordinance, and, as we are told, with excellent effects.
ART. III.--STATE PENITENTIARIES.
I. _The Twentieth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern
State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, transmitted to the Senate and
House of Representatives._ March 1849, pp. 36.
II. _Report of the Board of Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary
of Pennsylvania, for the year 1848, with the accompanying
documents._ Pittsburg, 1849, pp. 21.
III. _Report on the condition of the New Jersey State Prison,
embracing the Reports of the Joint Committee, Inspectors, Keeper,
Moral Instructor and Physician._ Trenton, January 1849, pp. 44.
IV. _Documents relating to the State Prison._ Senate of
Massachusetts, Document No. 5, pp. 24.
I. The first document in the above list is worthy of a much more
extended notice than our limits allow us to give. We shall notice its
constituent parts in their order.
(1.) In their report the inspectors refer with natural interest to the
opening of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is expected to be completed
as early as January 1851. For want of it, “instances have occurred in
which the sheriff has been the medium of a message from the judge who
pronounced the sentence, to the chief officer of the prison, informing
him that the prisoner was insane, but that no other mode of providing
for the case existed.”
The subject of pardons occupies a prominent place in their report. It
appears that but a fraction over six per cent. of the pardoned have
been recommitted; and the percentage of pardons in relation to number,
sex and color, cannot be so well set forth in any other way as by
transferring the table to our pages.
_Table showing the whole number of pardons granted from the
establishment of the prison in 1829 to 9th July, 1848._
+-------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+
| | _Whole number in confinement._ | _No. of pardons._ | |
| | | | |
| +-----------------+---------------+-------+--------------+--------------+ Annual |
| | Whites. | Colored. | | Whites. | Col’d. |average |
| | | |Total, | | | per |
| +-----------------+---------------+ both +----+----+----+----+----+----+centage.|
| YEAR. | M. |Fem.|Total.| M. |Fem.|Tot.|colors.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| |
+-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+
| 1831 | 75 | | 75 | 25 | 4 | 29 | 104 | 1 | | 1 | | | | |
| 1832 | 90 | | 90 | 27 | 4 | 31 | 121 | 4 | | 4 | | | | |
| 1833 | 129 | | 129 | 41 | 4 | 45 | 174 | 2 | | 2 | | | | |
| 1834 | 189 | | 189 | 81 | 2 | 83 | 272 | 8 | | 8 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1835 | 261 | 8 | 269 | 155 | 11 |166 | 435 | 10 | | 10 | 4 | | 4 | 2.38 |
| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1836 | 278 | 11 | 289 | 179 | 19 |198 | 487 | 2 | 1 | 3 | | | | |
| 1837 | 320 | 8 | 328 | 199 | 19 |218 | 546 | 4 | 1 | 5 | | | | |
| 1838 | 333 | 11 | 344 | 199 | 22 |221 | 565 | 10 | | 10 | | | | |
| 1839 | 241 | 6 | 247 | 150 | 16 |166 | 413 | 2 | | 2 | | | | 1.26 |
|to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 15th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1839 | 335 | 9 | 344 | 214 | 30 |244 | 588 | 9 | | 9 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1840 | 331 | 8 | 339 | 203 | 31 |234 | 573 | 19 | | 19 | | | | |
| 1841 | 293 | 6 | 299 | 171 | 32 |203 | 502 | 11 | 1 | 12 | 1 | | 1 | |
| 1842 | 298 | 5 | 303 | 153 | 21 |174 | 477 | 20 | | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | |
| 1843 | 319 | 6 | 325 | 146 | 16 |162 | 487 | 15 | | 15 | | | | |
| 1844 | 332 | 12 | 344 | 136 | 17 |153 | 497 | 39 | | 39 | 4 | 3 | 7 | |
| 1845 | 230 | 10 | 240 | 97 | 11 |108 | 348 | 23 | 1 | 24 | 2 | | 2 | 5.37 |
|to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 21.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 1845 | 305 | 15 | 320 | 113 | 16 |129 | 449 | 5 | | 5 | | | | |
| 1846 | 321 | 14 | 335 | 110 | 16 |126 | 461 | 24 | 1 | 25 | | | | |
| 1847 | 297 | 9 | 306 | 113 | 13 |126 | 432 | 20 | | 20 | 5 | | 5 | |
| 1848 | 245 | 8 | 253 | 97 | 12 |103 | 356 | 6 | 1 | 7 | | | | 4.08 |
|to July| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
| 9th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | |
+-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+
During the year 1848, there were received 121 convicts, viz., 88 whites
(two females), and 33 colored (three females), and 128 were discharged.
Of these, 83 served out their time; 13 were pardoned; 11 discharged by
order of law; 15 died from disease, and one was a suicide. The whole
number of convicts in confinement during the year was 415, viz., 299
white and 116 colored. Of the 16 deaths, 10 were whites and 6 colored.
(2.) The warden’s report shows that of the 121 convicts received, 32
were foreigners, and 56 were natives of Pennsylvania. Ninety-one were
under middle age; 96 were of intemperate habits; 76 could read and
write; 60 were unmarried. Only 14 were bound and served their time out;
13 were bound and broke their indentures; and 96 were never bound.
Some curious facts appear in the various summaries which these details
embrace. For example, of the 2,421 prisoners received into the
institution from its opening in October 1829, 619 could neither read
nor write; 2,020 were addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks; 460,
or more than one-sixth, were foreigners; and of these last, Ireland
supplied 199 and Germany 112. Seventeen hundred and twenty-nine were
first convictions; 1,451 were never married; and 18 had been married
and separated; 1,631 were whites (48 females) and 790 colored (86
females); 467 broke their indentures, and 1,569 were never bound. Of
the 2,421 crimes, 2,000 were against property.
(3.) Next in order is the physician’s report, in which special
reference is made to the inordinate length of sentences, when the
nature of the discipline is duly considered. Dr. Given thinks the
coloured prisoners as a class, suffer a double burden, inasmuch as
their sentences are longer and the enervating influence of imprisonment
is more severely felt by them,--and he furnishes the following items on
this subject.
Whole number of white prisoners, 1631
Whole number of colored prisoners, 790
Average length of sentences of white prisoners, 2 y., 8 ms., 2 days.
Average length of sentences of colored prisoners, 3 y., 3 ms., 14 days.
Whole number of pardons of white prisoners, 253
Whole number of pardons of colored prisoners, 25
Whole number of deaths of white prisoners, 73
Whole number of deaths of colored prisoners, 141
The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning
power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need
of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code
to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how
far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy
the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is
given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely
watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past.
It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that
the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for
the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a
doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of
the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws,
are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into
consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which
they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need
to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a
more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention
to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient
action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double
wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become
alike odious.
Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief
from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a
thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as
criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the
importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those
who may become insane during their imprisonment.
Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on
admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per
cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s
researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have
had insane relatives;--10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4
mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.
Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average
age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an
insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of
dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.
(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons
have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each
corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The
whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to
the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.
II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly
gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions
which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express
their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its
administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the
same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which
long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.
The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was
discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from
the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females;
and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in
confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were
natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32
were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers,
15 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the
year, 38 were under middle age.
The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement
during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were
thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family
and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of
intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented
by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment,
and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner,
released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears,
that, _with one exception_, they were all received and discharged
in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose
parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very
intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen
months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted,
and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good
health.
As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution,
the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts
have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and
forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number _only four
have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task
of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to
have performed their regularly allotted task._” We are not surprised
that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so
remarkable a measure of health.
From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very
sensible paragraph.
“It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been
presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the
prisoners themselves during the _daily visitation_ in their cells,
and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their
minds, when alone, that _heavenly truth_ which may ultimately bring
them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the _separate
system_, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner,
by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better
prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when
surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation
of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general
rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, _when_
and _where_ intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this
situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”
III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts
during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31,
1848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged
during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were
pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died.
Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in
1848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142
for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners.
In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and
53 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation.
The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were
upwards of six thousand dollars.
The physician’s report states, that “but _one_ death occurred during
the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the
prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average
one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved
steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and
economical.”--p. 43.
The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite
a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying
a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an
element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and
religious instruction.
“The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly
sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of
men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but,
to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a _mild severity_. The less
abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who
may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his
books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His
keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the
superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are _his
friends_. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant
look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested
in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with
the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s
self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees
that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless
outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining
his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like
benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate
plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind
offices of a sympathizing friendship.”
IV. The inspectors of the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown,
make a very favorable report of the health of body and mind of the
convicts under their care. “The favorite system of congregate labor and
lenient discipline, established in our prison,” they say, “has fully
answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every
year brings with it new proofs of its practicability, and of its great
superiority over any and every other that differs from it.”
None will dissent, we presume, from the remark of the inspectors, that
“it should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high
prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the prison
is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard
labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for
the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best
ends to be answered by it, is excessive, is beyond the sentence and
intention of the law, and is without law or justice.”
The number of convicts received during the year ending September 30,
1848, was 122; number discharged during the year 129; remaining, 281.
Of those discharged, 94 were by expiration and 27 by remission of
sentence, 2 were removed to the lunatic asylum, 2 escaped, and 3 died.
Of the 281 in prison, 22 are negroes, and 8 mulattoes, 203 are below
middle age, and 228 are for crimes against property! Seventy-one are
foreigners, of whom 30 are from Ireland. Of the employments, 72 are
stone-cutters, 20 blacksmiths, 69 cabinet-makers and upholsterers, 21
brush makers, 9 “solitary prison-sweepers.”
The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during
the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing
well--are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming
respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes
have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among
which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian
Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.
The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died
was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!
The prison suffered a serious loss by fire during the year, and from
this and other causes the revenue of the institution is less than the
expenses by $4,242 79.
The physician’s report is a modest and sensible document, evidently
prepared with care. The sickness of the prison would be represented
by an average of four patients a day in the hospital. Four hundred
and twenty-five days of light labor were prescribed during the year,
and about the same number of changes of labor. The general average of
convicts during the year was 287; and Dr. Bemis thinks his report shows
“a fair average degree of health fully equal to that of the community
at large, and vastly superior to what would have been enjoyed by the
same class of men in pursuit of their usual modes of living when at
large.”--p. 21.
The three deaths were of consumption.
The following remarkable statement from the physician’s report, we
cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.
“The average period of imprisonment of all those sentenced for
life to the State Prison, since 1818, (amounting to 125,) has not
exceeded seven years. Nineteen of this number have died in the
Prison after an average confinement of seven years.”
The supply of a substantial suit of clothes and a sum of money, not
exceeding five dollars, to each discharged convict, occasioned an
expenditure last year of more than five hundred dollars. In consequence
of the frequent instances in which the money thus furnished is spent
indiscreetly, it has lately been proposed in the Legislature to entrust
the dispensation of this bounty to the “Boston Society for the relief
of discharged convicts,” and a bill was introduced for that purpose.
We have not learned its fate. From a cotemporary print we learn that,
in consequence of the great increase in the number of convicts at the
Charlestown prison, it has become necessary to use other accommodations
than those which belong to the prison proper.[4] The chief cause
assigned for this increase is intemperance.
_State Prison of Michigan._--It is said that 128 convicts are confined
in the Michigan State Prison, and that the annual deficiency in the
receipts ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The Governor thinks that
this sum is not more than a reasonable profit upon convict-labor,
considering what is made in other State Penitentiaries within his
knowledge!
NOTICES.
No. 1.--_Institutions for the Insane._
We have upon our table, the reports for the year 1848-9 of the
Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, (the eighth,) of the
Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixteenth,) of the New York
State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixth,) of the Physician and Superintendent
of the M’Lean Asylum for the Insane at Somerville, Massachusetts,
(the thirty-first,) and of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, (the
second.) The first and fourth are on private, and the other three on a
public foundation.