“To do good and to communicate” should be the object of every
philanthropist, as it certainly is the aim of this Society; and it is
with pleasure that we now announce that a correspondence between the
President of the Society and several distinguished gentlemen in
different parts of this State, warrant a hope that before long,
Societies, auxiliaries to this, will be established in various counties
of the Commonwealth, and the philanthropy of the good of both sexes will
be called into new action and concentrated upon the great object of
lessening the miseries of public prisons in their neighborhood, by
suggesting improvements in the police and general administration of the
establishments, and by dealing directly and affectionately with the
miserable inmates of the cells or the crowded rooms.
The correspondence with those to whom the measure has been opened, shows
a readiness on the part of some to begin the work; but prudential
considerations have suggested a postponement of the undertaking, in some
counties, till a strong and steady co-operation can be secured from
those who are now absent in the service of the country, or till the
state of the country will allow men of public spirit and of
philanthropic principles to withdraw their attention from national
matters. Certainly a postponement upon such grounds is to be preferred
to a failure of efforts from a want of thorough co-operation.
It is desirable that auxiliary societies should be established, in order
to call into exercise, and direct into proper channels, the spirit of
philanthropy that abounds in our State, and to give object and
employment to that self-denying devotion which marks the character of
woman, and is found in a class of men that rarely are named with public
benefactors, though they are found, when opportunities present, where
humanity has its most repulsive duties and earns its highest rewards.
A correspondence between the parent Society and its auxiliaries in the
interior of the State, or with independent associations laboring to the
same end and with similar means, would diffuse information that would
stimulate exertion and promote the great object of alleviating the
miseries of prisoners. Especially would such auxiliaries often assist
the agents and committees of the parent Society, by information as to
the character of prisoners, and aid in procuring employment for the
repentant vicious and criminal, who would strengthen their good
resolution by seeking occupation where the chance of meeting old
associates would be greatly diminished, and where temptations to a
recurrence to former faults would not abound. It is now believed that
the hopes of forming these auxiliaries will soon be realized. But there
has always been found some difficulty in the first steps towards an
organization. The willingness of many needs information to strengthen
resolve; and especially is it found that where there is to be a
concurrent action, there is great need of some representative of the
views and sentiments of the parent Society, to concentrate and direct
the efforts of those who, with the best motives and most earnest wishes
for success, pause upon the initiatory step, from distrust as to their
ability to organize and direct a society, or an apprehension that they
may lack the hearty co-operation of others no less philanthropic or
energetic than themselves.
We, perhaps, then shall need, at a proper time, some representative of
the parent Society specially deputed to stir up the public mind in the
direction of humanity in prisons, and to take advantage of the effects
of his labors to unite the exertions of the good in the form of
auxiliaries, that shall have their committees in every place of
imprisonment, doing the work of philanthropy by alleviating the miseries
of prisons and improving the moral condition of the prisoners. These
auxiliaries will aid the parent Society in influencing legislation
favorable to the cause of humanity, and, in proportion to their number
and to the character of their members, they will be felt and their power
acknowledged by the Representatives of the people, not in any attempt at
dictation, but in the mild, steady presentation and advocacy of measures
of amelioration that shall triumph by their inherent beauty and mercy,
influencing public sentiment and purifying legislative enactments.
In a subsequent part of this Report, under the head of “Correspondence,”
will be found large supplemental abstracts of British Parliamentary
Reports; and it is thought that a few words explanatory of the British
and Irish system might, in this part of our Report, be made useful in
aid of the plan for auxiliaries. England has learned much from us in the
work of Prison Discipline: we might learn something of her, (more,
indeed, than we _shall_ acquire,) were our institutions more
assimilated, and especially were we as geographically circumscribed as
she is.
The “Prison Reports,” physical and moral, in Great Britain, are all to
the Government of the nation; and every part of every city jail seems to
work with as distinct a reference to the whole system of prison
regulation as the lower clerkships of a State Department do to the
administration of the whole. This, it must be admitted, is easy in that
country, where there is but one legislature to direct, and one
government to administer and execute. It would be impossible in this
country, for the National Congress to issue ordinances for the
administration of _State_, county, and city prisons. To say nothing of
State rights and State sovereignty, there would be insurmountable
difficulties in prescribing and carrying out rules for prison discipline
and dietaries for all the jails from Oregon to Maine. So that, when we
read of the happy and harmonious working of the prison laws in Ireland
and Great Britain, we must call to mind the proximity of each
establishment to the other, and of the whole to the Government, to whose
chief officers they are bound to make report, and with whose agents they
are bound to co-operate. In England and Ireland the difference of
longitude is so small, that, by the Sovereign’s command, it is made
mid-day at the same moment in both kingdoms. In the United States,
something more than human power would be required to work out that
wonder, and something more than constitutional prerogative would be
necessary to enforce it. We must take things as they are, and work with
the means and in the space which are allowed. If we cannot expect
national interference in behalf of prison discipline, we certainly may
appeal to the State in which we live to exercise and dignify its
sovereignty by legislation that will adapt prisons and their discipline
to the use of society, and while the House is one of penal discipline,
it shall be a place of moral improvement. We scarcely expect the
Legislature of the State to initiate the good work. It is the duty of
those who feel most anxious for its establishment, to prepare the means
and present the arguments; and it is believed that no means of inducing
a systematic arrangement of prison discipline throughout the State
exists outside this Society. Persons abound who see and deplore the
evils of the present want of system, but they lack the full information,
and especially do they lack concurrent action; and it is believed that
the establishment of auxiliary societies throughout the State would
produce the ends proposed, viz., properly constructed prisons, the
establishment and maintenance of proper discipline; and the whole
co-operative and correspondent, each with the other, till the system
work, with regard to the government, as perfectly in Pennsylvania as it
does in Great Britain, and much more effective in the interest of
humanity and virtue. We have little to change, excepting the structures
of our prisons, and the consequent classification and treatment of
prisoners; little to unlearn in their management; we are not wedded to
any past theory. It is generally admitted, that much of what this
Society condemns is wrong; the only doubt, or supposed difficulty, is
how it can be remedied. That doubt and that difficulty will be removed
when auxiliary Societies shall be established to correct and embody
public sentiment, and when the parent Society, through its branches,
shall be allowed to bring its moral action into co-operation with the
physical efforts of the Commonwealth, to alleviate the miseries of
public prisons.
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