After this Annual Report was prepared and accepted by the “Acting
Committee” of the Society, there were received from London several
volumes of Parliamentary Reports on the condition of the various prisons
in England and Ireland in 1862, and also a large folio volume containing
“a Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Present
State of Discipline in Gaols and Houses of Correction;” together with
the proceedings of the Committees, Minutes of Evidence, and an Appendix
for 1863. The “Reports” to which allusion is first made, are from the
Inspector General of Prisons, and they refer to the condition and
operation of all the prisons in each kingdom, and are followed by
special Reports from each prison, separately made by the proper officers
to the Inspector General. The minuteness of these Reports is truly
wonderful. Every authorized movement in each prison is set forth, the
discipline and dietetics explained in all their particulars, the
accommodations of the inmates, the number of beds and blankets, and all
the minutiæ of their management. The exact cost of each branch of
supplies is given, and the character and changes of food for each class.
We note too that in Ireland every prison is supplied with moral and
religious teachers, of various denominations. Generally there are one
clergyman of the Episcopal Church, one of the Presbyterian Church, and
one of the Roman Catholic Church. These seem to devote their services to
the moral and religious instruction of those who may, by denominational
distinction, belong to their ministry, and each makes an annual report
of the moral condition of his charge, and such remarks upon the
condition of affairs in the prison as may be the result of his
observation. He also gives the number of his visits during the year.
They are all salaried officers; each receives from $150 to $200 per
annum.
The details of the exact condition and number of every article supplied
to the prison, show the care that is bestowed upon the stores of the
prison; and the tables of the number, condition and offences of the
prisoners are instructive to those who would be familiar with prison
management, with its cost, and other requirements.
In every part of these Reports is found the reiterated opinion of the
visiting officer, (whose experience of many years entitles his views to
the greatest respect,) that no good moral results are to be expected
from social confinement; nothing but the separate system can be relied
on to give moral efficacy to imprisonment for crime.
It is noticed too, that in Great Britain and Ireland, as in this city,
and, we suppose, in most of the large cities of the Union, there is a
class of men and women, and especially of the latter, that seem to
divide their time between the prison cells, and places of debauchery and
preparation for imprisonment. In the Report for the prison in the county
of the town of Drogheda, (the district containing eighteen thousand
inhabitants,) there are females who are constant “recurrents;” and it is
said that, out of those committed during the year 1862, one had been
previously in custody ninety-two times, and the rest from twenty-eight
to forty-nine times.
Separate Reports are made upon the condition of convict prisons, both in
Great Britain and Ireland.
In the Report for common prisons of Great Britain, there is rather less
perspicacity, and there seems less attention paid to the details of the
institutions. The moral and religious instruction is ordinarily
committed to a clergyman of the Established Church; but in most of the
Reports it is stated that Dissenting and Catholic prisoners may have the
services of clergymen of their own denomination, if they desire it. In
Cardiganshire, (Wales,) it is stated, “every facility is given to
protestant dissenters for seeing ministers of their several persuasions,
but Roman Catholics are unknown in the prison.” Whether Catholics are
not admitted, or none are sentenced to its cells, or whether the
existence of such a denomination is ignored, or whether none are found
in that district, it is not stated.
The county and borough jails throughout England seem not to be in the
best condition to produce moral improvement.
We may remark here, that the Episcopal Church, being the established
denomination in England and Wales, we find all the prisons supplied with
a clergyman of that church. So far as that goes, it is laudable, and it
may be added, as an additional ground for commendation, that Dissenting
and Roman Catholic Clergymen are admitted, when their service is
required by prisoners of their denomination. We are not willing to
criticise closely, but it would seem that, as visiting clergymen are
paid by the public money, and as their office is to awaken as well as to
satisfy an appetite for moral and religious instruction, it is scarcely
within the limits of Christian charity to make no provision to call
dissenters and other prisoners to a sense of duty. And this is the more
evident, from the fact that, in Ireland, where only a very small
minority are of the Established Church, prisoners of that denomination
are supplied with a special religious teacher, as well as those of the
other two great divisions. There is, however, in some of the English
prisons, a “lecturer, who instructs his hearers not only in moral, but
in physical sciences.”
It is much however to know that the great truths of religion are taught
in the public prisons of England, and it is more to know that there are
many willing learners, who, without this means of improvement, would
remain in ignorance, if not of religious truths, at least of the
necessity and advantage of receiving and practising them.
The Report of the Directors of the Convict Prisons of Ireland, is
interesting to those who feel desirous, in this country, to do all the
good possible to convicts. The very great proportion of inhabitants of
Ireland who are not of the “Established Church,” makes it necessary to
give officially, religious and moral instruction by clergymen of
different denominations, and hence we find that the development of the
true state of the prisons, includes the Annual Reports of the Clergy of
the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic Churches, and of that denomination
of Dissenters which has probably the largest number in the prison, or
which can most easily supply from the neighborhood, a clergyman to lead
religious service. And we learn from the Reports of the different
clergy, that religious service, according to the requirements of the
several denominations represented by the clergymen, are held twice on
every Sunday and recognized religious holiday, and that the usual
instruction in doctrine and morals is also given to classes; all, of
course, without interference with each other.
In many respects these Parliamentary Reports may be regarded as of more
consequence to Boards of Prison Inspectors, than to the “Society for
Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” as they set forth the
economy of the institutions, the discipline, the means of comfort, and
the character of employment, as well as the results of all these, and
the exact cost; and thus they may become useful as indicative of what
Boards of Inspectors should carefully shun or promptly adopt, with such
modifications and adaptations as difference of circumstances renders
necessary.
But, in Great Britain and Ireland, much of the labor assumed by the
Philadelphia “Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,”
is undertaken by the Government; and the closeness of the investigation
of their affairs, and the fulness of the Reports, are consequent upon
the interest which philanthropic individuals have awakened throughout
the country, and the action which has been secured by both Houses of
Parliament. The great volume of Reports of the action of “a committee of
the House of Lords” is of deep interest, even in this country, as
showing not merely the condition of certain great prisons, but as
illustrating, especially, the effect of different systems of treatment
and labor. The elevated rank of the persons who composed the commission
of inquiry, shows the importance which the House of Lords attached to
the subject; and the constancy of attendance, and the searching
character of questions put to those under examination, show the fidelity
of the distinguished noblemen to the interests submitted to their
care.[2]
Footnote 2:
The select committee consisted of the Duke of Marlborough, Marquis of
Salisbury, Lord Steward, Earl of Carnarvon, (who was elected Lord
President,) Earl of Malmsebury, Earl of Romney, Earl Cathcart, Earl of
Ducie, Earl of Dudley, Viscount Eversley, Lord Wodehouse, Lord
Lyvedon, Duke of Richmond, Lord Wensleydale.
Of the five hundred and twelve folio pages of these Reports, there is
not one that is without interest to every active member of this Society.
There are 5,337 questions propounded by the various members of the
commission, and answers rendered by those who have been in the
administration of the prisons, or who had been exercising the duties of
visitors, inspectors, physicians, &c., of the several prisons; and those
answers present a most minute exhibit of the exact state of the prisons,
and all that relates to their administration.
In some of the prisons, we find that there is a physician employed at
_seventy-five_ dollars a year, and that he visits twice a week.
So far as we have examined the Dietary of the different prisons in Great
Britain and Ireland, we find some meals enriched with meat, in England,
but none, as far as we discover, in Ireland. Prisoners are weighed, and
their provisions augmented or improved, or diminished in quantity and
quality, according as their weight increases or decreases. And the kind
of labor is changed to suit their health and weight. They must require
much personal supervision. Ale, wine and brandy are used in the prisons,
when the prisoner is under medical treatment; and it would seem, from
some Reports, that medical treatment was more frequently called for in
the prisons where such indulgences are prescribed. It may be remarked
here, also, that consideration is given to the previous _habits_, and
pursuits of prisoners, when they enter, and the diet, with regard to
meat and ale, somewhat modified by the amount which had been used before
conviction.
The Committee are decided in their views of the necessity of uniformity
in discipline, dress and food, in the prisons of Great Britain; and as,
geographically considered, the kingdom is small, with little variety of
climate or produce, such a desideratum may be easily supplied. We cannot
hope for anything like an attempt at uniformity in our Federal
Government; but there appears no immovable obstacle to a uniform system
of prison discipline and practice in this State. But that cannot be
hoped for, till there is a general knowledge of its wants. This will
probably be the result of the establishment generally in this State of
County Societies, auxiliary to the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating
the Miseries of Public Prisons.
One spirit pervades all the Reports of the Noble Committee, and it is
aroused and sustained by the answers to questions propounded by them to
the Inspectors and other officers appointed to look after the economy
and discipline of the prisons of all kinds throughout the kingdom, and
that is _the entire necessity of the separate confinement of the
convicts_, and the full belief that the same kind of treatment would be
beneficial, so far as time would permit, for every class of prisoners.
They distinguish between solitary and separate confinement. The former
is recommended as a prison punishment,—the latter as a system of regular
treatment. On this subject the Committee say, as a result of the
testimony taken before them: “Where separate confinement exists, it
exercises both a reformatory and deterrent effect. The committee are of
opinion that the principle of separation should be made to pervade the
entire system of the prison.” And while they do not admit that the
adoption of the system need cause any relaxation of the rule in school
or chapel, and at exercise, they intimate that the “_cellular_
instruction” (as they denominate what we have in our Report spoken of as
religious and moral instruction in and at the door of the cells) should
not be relaxed.
It will be understood that the attempts at separate confinement in
England have, in some places, been made by an effort to accommodate the
old borough and county prisons to the new system. Poor as the chance of
success might appear, it is worthy of remark, that the results satisfy
both the Inspectors and the Noble Committee, that it is the true system
of penal and reformatory imprisonment. On that subject the Committee say
they “consider that the system generally known as the separate system
must now be accepted as the foundation of prison discipline, and that
its rigid maintenance is a vital principle in the efficiency of county
and borough jails.”
This sentiment pervades the whole Report, and is suggested and sustained
by the testimony of all those who were under examination before the
Committee.
It is a subject of regret that we cannot copy at length the testimony of
some of the witnesses called before the Committee of the House of Lords:
we however find one question, with an answer thereto, that is too direct
to be omitted.
1757. Question by the _Earl of Carnarvon_.
You have given the Committee one instance, and we have heard from
another witness that the reputation of Leicester Gaol has a
deterring effect; can you give the Committee any reason why you
think it is more deterring than some other prisons?
Answer by _William Musson, Esq._, Governor of Leicester Gaol.
I think that our system of discipline is very strict; we never allow
the separate system to be broken through on any consideration; the
prisoners are in separate cells; they are exercised in separate
yards, and they have separate stalls at Chapel; and I may say that
when they are taken out to be tried in Court, they go in separate
partitions in the wagon, and are arraigned separately.
1758. _By Earl of Dudley._ Is not the separation relaxed when they
are with the schoolmaster in class?
No; they are separated then.
1759. Do they not sit at the same table?
No: they are in the Chapel in separate stalls; we use the Chapel as
a school-room.
1785. _Earl of Carnarvon._ In your opinion, the advantage of
separation outweighs any inconveniences which may result from it?
Yes; I think so.
1786. _Lord Wodehouse._ Do you ever find that prisoners when
confined for long periods in separate cells, suffer at all mentally
from the separation?
There is a great variety of minds, and it does not influence all
alike.
In another part of our Report for this year, it has been stated that
much good, it is believed, has been done to individuals, by meeting the
prisoners on their arrival in the van, and releasing those committed for
the first time, provided that it is apparent that they have not been
frequent offenders, and have not chosen the path of vice; and it is
stated that by this course the self-respect of many young persons has
been saved, and they have been snatched from a vicious course, which
would scarcely have been avoided had they been confined with old
offenders. And when the power to release did not rest with the
Inspectors, the Agent was at once despatched to procure the release of
the committed person; and that failing, care has been used to place the
novices in separate cells, and provide them with advice, books, and some
little work. On this subject we have the opinions of the Inspectors of
Prisons for the North and Middle districts of England.
2156. By the _Duke of Marlborough_. You stated that you did not
think short sentences of much avail in effecting reformation upon a
prisoner; but do you not think that short punishments may be a
deterrent?
No; I think that a man who is sent to prison for seven days or
twenty days or a month, becomes marked, and he is not in prison long
enough to enable him to exercise an influence for good over him.
2157. Take the case of a man who has not been accustomed to vice or
crime, and who finds himself in prison for a month for an offence
into which he has been hurried, and finds the prison to be a very
unpleasant thing, and the discipline to be very severe, and that he
is subjected to a great many things which he did not expect before
he entered the prison, do you not think that the recollection of
that month’s confinement may have a deterring effect upon that man
in future?
I think that to a man of the character which your Grace has
described, a month’s imprisonment would do more harm than good. If
that man escaped the taint of a prison, and was bound over under
certain securities, he would be more likely to turn out well than if
he had been subject to the discipline of the prison for months; it
is too short a period in itself to have any deterring effect on him.
In another part of the Report of this Committee of the House of Lords we
have a statement of what is understood by separate confinement.
2662. Separate from what?
Man from man; they never see each other to know each other or to
speak to each other.
2663. By the separate system you only mean separation of prisoner
from prisoner?
Just so.
2664. Not the secluded system in which a man is shut up entirely?
No; quite the contrary.
2665. I ask the question in order that your answer may be recorded
here, for this simple reason, that a great many people have an idea
that the separate system is simply a secluding of the prisoners
entirely; whereas, the separate system is only, as you have stated
in your answer, the separation of prisoner from prisoner?
Yes; from all evil communications.
In reply to a remark by the _Earl of Dudley_, that the prisoners daily
saw several officers of the prison, and occasionally others, it is said,
“Just so. The _solitary_ system does not exist in England.”
We are struck with the statement of general health in some of the
prisons in England; for example the Bristol Gaol. T. A. Garden,
Esq., Governor of that prison, in his testimony before the Committee
of the House of Lords, says: “During the time that I have been
Governor—twenty-six years—we have never lost a female prisoner; and
we do not lose more than one male prisoner in twelve months. Those
that we have lost came to us, perhaps, in the last stage of
consumption. I do not know one single case that has been taken ill
on the premises and died. The average number of prisoners is one
hundred and sixty.”
The whole of the Parliamentary Reports, as has already been stated, came
to hand after the preparation of this Annual Report, and its submission
to, and acceptance by, the Acting Committee of the Society; so that it
was inconvenient to swell the publication by extracts from the British
Report, even where matters of interest were explained at length; and to
supply as far as possible the want of those extracts, digests of some of
the Report and statements have been made, which, with all deference to
the economy of space, must have swelled the division of the report in
which they should appear much beyond what may be regarded as a fair
proportion. It will be well to recollect when we read the strong
testimony which the Governors and Inspectors of gaols in Great Britain
bear to the superior efficacy of the system of separate confinement;
that as yet in many of these gaols they are working with old edifices
only partially adapted to the new system, and they are in a state of
transition from the old system of physical to that of moral discipline.
They see and feel the means of good which are almost within their reach,
but they have to approach them slowly, respecting the established
opinions of a portion of the community, while they follow as far as
possible, the suggestions of the better informed. They will soon make
the public sentiment by which they will be sustained in their work of
tempering justice with mercy, and rendering punishment for offences the
means of reforming the offender.
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