note to the alderman, requesting him to dismiss it. He would not comply
with the request, but persisted in exacting freehold bail.
The alderman’s constable then proposed getting his brother-in-law for
her bail, on condition that she would pay him $5 for the service.
Becoming frightened, as she had three small children, with no one but
herself to care for them, her husband and son being in the army, she
assented to his terms and paid him the money--which (be it noted) was
in addition to the $3.80 previously paid to the alderman and constable.
She was then allowed to depart for a few days, at the end of which the
constable visited her, early one morning, and told her the bail was
about to give her up unless she would pay some more money. She gave him
all she had, a half-dollar, which she at the time actually needed to
get food for her children. He took it, but said it was not enough, and
he must, therefore, have her husband’s coat, which was hanging within
view. She gave him this, and he then further insisted on having some
breakfast, which she also gave him.
He left, but not long after returned, and declared she must go to
prison, as her bail would incur no further risk unless he received more
money. She replied that she had no more money to give; but, instead
of this, she gave him her husband’s pantaloons and drawers, which he
took, and thereupon insisted on having her husband’s razor and shaving
apparatus, which she gave him. He concluded his call by demanding his
dinner, which she also gave him, and he went away.
A few days subsequently, his brother-in-law (the bail) called, and told
her he was going to surrender her to be sent to prison, unless she
either gave him more money, or complied with certain infamous proposals
of his. The latter she promptly refused, with the remark that she
would not dishonor her husband and son, who were then enrolled for the
defence of their country.
He then left, and went to the alderman and had her sent to prison,
cruelly separating her from her sucking infant, who was left at home
with her other two young children, and no one else.
The Agent, on learning these atrocious facts, at once saw that the
prisoner was released on bail, and permitted to return home to her
family.
6. Another case was that of a woman, the mother of a large family of
little children, who was committed by one of our aldermen on the vague
charge of misdemeanor. Her husband is a soldier in the United States
Army. It seems that her landlord wished to remove her from the house
she tenanted in a summary manner, and he appears to have formed a
conspiracy with the prosecutor for this object. She refused to leave
till she got a remittance from her husband. A quarrel ensued, and the
prosecutor struck and beat her most shamefully. A proof of this was
that her person, when she entered the prison, was black and blue with
bruises. After the prosecutor had done this, he went to the alderman
and sued her on the charge above named. This he did to secure himself
from being prosecuted by her for assault and battery.
Let the community arise! Let our City Councils and our State
Legislature act, and perfect such legislation as will remedy this
crying evil, and rid our beautiful city, so distinguished for progress
in arts, science, and benevolent institutions, of this polluted sore.
C. C. L.
For the Prison Journal.
IMPRISONMENT.
So far as we are acquainted with the actual condition of the various
countries of the civilized world, we are compelled to the painful
and humiliating conviction, that there are individuals amongst their
inhabitants who are prone to, and actually will interfere with, and
depredate upon the rights of others, unless they are subjected to moral
or physical restraint. This fact has made it necessary that measures
should be adopted to protect the general mass of society against the
wrong-doing of these evil-disposed persons. It must be evident to all,
that in originating and maturing these measures, or in framing and
perfecting laws for this purpose, an intimate acquaintance with human
nature, and a high order of wisdom, are essential pre-requisites to
fit those upon whom the duty should devolve, to enter upon the highly
important work. The instinct of self-protection would naturally, and
even properly suggest, that the first object should be to secure the
community against a repetition of the wrong-doing, by placing the
individual who has committed a serious offence under such physical
restraint as to make it impossible for him for a time to continue his
evil course. This object may be secured by a close confinement of the
culprit in a prison or penitentiary. But if we rest satisfied with
having accomplished this, we are taking a very narrow view of a very
broad subject. This same instinct, if its promptings are intelligently
pursued, will convince us that the punitive character of this restraint
or imprisonment should be such as to operate upon the fears of the
evil-disposed who are at large, and thus deter them from yielding to
temptations which may prompt them to commit offences against society
or individuals. And, also, as this imprisonment cannot be permanent,
the individual incarcerated should, through this source, as well as
others, be made to feel that “the way of the transgressor is hard;”
and from this experience (in the absence of any higher motive) be
induced to so conduct himself, after his liberation, as not to render
himself liable to be subjected to a repetition of these “pains and
penalties.” At the same time, however, that the imprisonment and
discipline provided, should embrace such elements as would subject the
convict to a full sense of punishment, they should be carefully guarded
from partaking of the character of vindictiveness or revenge. If this
care is not exercised, the higher and more enlarged action of Christian
philanthropy and duty, which should immediately follow that referred
to as being prompted by the instinct of self-protection, which is, the
temporal and eternal good of the offender, by his reformation, will be
entirely defeated.
We are aware that in some countries, in framing their penal laws and
discipline, the only object appears to be to prevent the continued
perpetration of offences by the imprisonment of those convicted as
offenders, and by the severity of their punishment to deter them from
a repetition of their crimes after their discharge; the example of
which punishment, it is desired, shall also operate to restrain others
from entering upon and pursuing an equally criminal course. This
object is effected, at the smallest possible cost to the community, by
constructing their prison buildings, almost exclusively, with reference
to the safe-keeping of the prisoners, making no arrangements for their
separation, but congregating them together in large masses, with very
little, if any, regard to difference in age or degrees of criminality.
The consequence is, that instead of the prisoners being reformed or
made better, by the discipline to which they are subjected, they are
almost inevitably made worse; and many times, those who were committed
on a charge of pocket-picking or some other minor offence, are fitted
for burglars or the commission of the highest class of crimes on their
discharge.
A valuable member of our Prison Society who has recently spent several
years abroad, during which time he became very familiar with the penal
system and the arrangement and manner of conducting the prisons of
one of the countries of Continental Europe, having frequently visited
and personally inspected the prisons, speaks of it as being generally
admitted amongst the people there, that reformation was no part of
their plan, and was never expected to result from the imprisonment of
criminals. We are happy, however, in the belief, that this system is
now viewed by nearly all countries as being a relic of the barbarism of
the dark ages, which, besides partaking of the character of cruelty,
evidences great short-sightedness and want of wisdom, if we consider
how its results affect the best interests of the community. Instead of
being a school of reform, through whose influence the number of those
from whom outrages might be apprehended would be lessened, if it does
not actually increase them, it at least makes life-long criminals of
the most hardened character, of a large proportion of those subjected
to its discipline, who, at the time of their first commitment, were by
no means steeped in wickedness; many of them when quite young, having,
in an unguarded moment, yielded to strong temptation to commit some
minor offence, of which having been convicted, they have been thrust
amongst the most abandoned outcasts of society, and soon lost to all
hope of restoration, when by a really humane and Christian course of
treatment they might have been led back from the by-paths into which
they had, without due consideration, stepped, and have been brought
to experience the happiness of a virtuous life, and to be a blessing
instead of a curse to society.
We believe that all reflecting men must be convinced that
the _reformation_ of criminals, besides being a question of
_expediency_, in which the community has a deep stake on the score of
self-protection, is one, the promotion of which, so far as is in our
power, is of the highest Christian obligation, in reference to both
the temporal and eternal good of those who, having by their criminal
conduct, forfeited the liberty enjoyed by the common mass of their
fellow men, have, for the security of society, been committed to
prison. In most Christian countries _reformation_, on the ground of
_expediency_ at least, and we trust, under some sense of Christian
duty, is now acknowledged to be properly _one_ of the elements of their
penal systems; and, consequently, some provisions, either theoretical
or practical, are adopted for the promotion of this object. It is much
to be regretted, however, that most of the existing prison systems are
such as greatly to interfere with, and many of them almost wholly to
defeat the accomplishment of this vitally important purpose. This state
of things exists to a great extent, not only in Europe, but throughout
most of the Commonwealths of the United States.
The systems are generally “_congregate_,” either with little, if any,
restraint from free social intercourse between the inmates, whatever
may be their different degrees of depravity, or with the imposition
of silence while together, and separation at night and at their
meals only. The former of these, in our judgment, wholly excludes
reformatory influences, unless it be through the immediate operation
of Divine grace and mercy, which, we freely admit, can overrule
obstacles however great; but this fact will not excuse us from doing
our best to facilitate this operation. At the same time, also, that
it excludes reformation, its attendant circumstances rapidly school
the young offender in the ways of depravity and crime, and harden the
more practiced in wickedness, and prepare them for the commission of
still darker deeds than any they had previously been guilty of. Whilst
the latter system, where _silence_ is imposed, though certainly a step
in advance of the former, as it cannot so extensively _propagate_
criminality, yet from the fact that the prisoners cannot be approached
separately, and that this system of silence and non-intercourse
amongst them, under the strong temptation to the indulgence of their
social propensities when placed in the presence of each other, is only
maintained by harsh and severe discipline; reformatory agencies can
hardly be brought to bear upon them, and efforts in this direction,
very rarely, indeed, produce the desired effect.
It seems to us that what is generally known as the “Pennsylvania
System,” which is that of entire cellular separation of the prisoners,
by which they are precluded from either seeing each other, or holding
any kind of intercourse by word or sign, is far in advance of any other
system of imprisonment yet introduced. We do not propose at this time
to go into a general explanation of its peculiar features, but may
merely advert to a few prominent points in support of this position.
First, as regards the effectual restraint of those found guilty of
crime from continuing their outrages upon the community; its security
against escape, is fully equal to, if not greater, than that under any
other existing prison system, and its punitive character, though really
humane and mild, is looked upon with much dread by the evil-disposed,
on account of their being subjected to separation from their fellow
convicts, and therefore it is potent in deterring from a criminal
course.
These primary objects of imprisonment being thus effectually secured,
we are next to consider what are its effects, evil or good, upon the
moral condition of those subjected to its discipline. And here the
results of our inquiries are pre-eminently satisfactory. From the
thorough isolation maintained, we think it must be evident, that no
prison under it can ever become a moral pest-house, where the depravity
and wickedness of one prisoner may be communicated to another, or, as
it were, prove contagious, and thus spread moral corruption around him.
As neither the words, countenance, nor gestures of one can be heard or
seen by another, it is clear, that those committed are not subjected to
such influences whilst in confinement, as will make them morally worse
on leaving, than when they entered.
Having thus demonstrated, as we trust, that our system, without doing
a moral wrong to the offender, thoroughly effects the purpose for
which society claims the _right_ to imprison--that of self-protection,
by placing him under secure restraint--we have next to consider what
is its adaptation to the higher and less selfish purpose, which
immediately follows as a Christian obligation, that of promoting
his reformation. In the first place, then, as there is nothing in
the working of the system which calls for harshness of treatment; it
is administered on principles of kindness, and consequently, instead
of the prisoners being hardened, and their vindictive and other evil
passions being called into action, they are softened, and the better
feelings of their nature (which with many had so long slept, that
the degraded beings were hardly aware that they possessed them) are
awakened. Under these favorable circumstances, those who are desirous
of communicating moral or religious instruction can visit each prisoner
in private in his separate cell, and when the service is accomplished,
leave him to his reflections, without being disturbed by the presence,
or deterred from a serious consideration of his condition by the scoffs
of depraved companions.
The purpose of this essay has not been to suggest the details of
any particular system of imprisonment, but to call attention to the
general principles which should control the subject. And especially
have we desired to impress upon the reader the vital truth, that if we
would hope to reform the prisoner, we must treat him with comparative
kindness. We must do nothing, which either is or seems to be, by way
of revenge or retaliation. Under the present dispensation we must not
exact “an eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.” If we do this, the
prisoner feels that he is persecuted, and that as society is doing its
worst by him now, he will repay it upon his discharge. In effect, that
as every man’s hand is against him, his hand shall be against every man.
E. H. B.
The following are the introductory remarks of a writer in the “North
British Review” for February, 1863, to “Observations on the Treatment
of Convicts in Ireland” and the Subject of Transportation, to wit:--
The public mind of England awakes periodically, and with a start, to
a sense of the danger it incurs by the presence of a large criminal
population in the very heart of the community, which is dealt with on
no rational or consistent system, watched by no adequate police, and
disposed of in no conclusive manner. We rave against the evil, we abuse
our rulers, we insist upon a remedy being found, we listen eagerly to
every quack and every philosopher, we discuss the subject passionately,
illogically, and superficially; and we end by adopting some fresh
plan which touches only a small fragment of the mischief, and darns
only a small rent in the tattered garment, and which is usually some
ill-digested and unworkable compromise between old habits and new
fancies. We then grow sick of the subject, ashamed of our panic, and
stupidly satisfied with our mild aperient and our emollient plaster,
and go quietly to sleep again for another term of five or seven years.
Meanwhile, however, there are two classes of men who never sleep: the
criminals, who are always at work to invent new modes of preying on
society and new dodges for evading justice; and the officials, who are
always, after the fashion of their kind, and by a sort of ineradicable
instinct, wriggling back into the old channels, and falling away
into their normal inertness. There was such an awakening as we have
described in 1853; there was another in 1857; there is another now. Let
us see whether this last cannot be made to yield some better and more
lasting fruit than its predecessors.
That the evil is a very great one no one can doubt. It amounts to
a positive insecurity of life and property which is disgraceful in
the richest, most civilized, most complicated society on earth.
At this moment, the number living by depredation and outrage, and
known to belong to the criminal class, is estimated to reach in
the United Kingdom to 130,000. In this year, 1863, a considerable
portion of the respectable inhabitants of London are reduced to carry
concealed weapons for their own defence; and this from no groundless
apprehensions, but because they _may_ any day be called upon to use
them, and often _are_. We annually commit to, and liberate from, our
county jails in England and Wales, at least 130,000 offenders, a very
large proportion, if not the majority, of whom are habitual pilferers,
burglars, or in other ways violators of the law, and recognized preyers
upon the industrious and peaceful part of the community. Besides these,
we turn loose every year, at the expiration of their sentence of penal
servitude, or shortly before its expiration, 3000 convicts, nearly all
of whom are professional, finished, hardened offenders, and all of
whom, with scarcely any exceptions worth naming, have been confined for
crimes in which ruffianism and dishonesty were combined. Of these 3000,
at least 2500 on an average are liberated in this country, and almost
invariably go back to their evil courses, more vicious, more skillful,
more irreclaimable than ever. Many of them have been convicted several
times, never dream of adopting an honest mode of life, and could not do
so if they wished. In a word, we have among us an army--very active,
very well trained, tolerably organized, very resolute, and in part
very desperate--of internecine enemies and spoliators, as numerous
as the troops of most European kingdoms, and more numerous than the
military and police forces in our own country combined. This is the
evil we have to deal with. It is an evil, in some degree and in some
form, incidental to every large and populous community; but the form
and degree depend entirely on our own management. We may reduce it to
the minimum which human temptation to wrong and the imperfection of
human powers of repression must always leave, a minimum which would be
seldom heard of and little felt, and which should be always tending
to decrease. Or we may suffer it, as we are in a fair way to do now,
to augment and intensify year by year till it reaches the maximum
compatible with a comfortable existence and a secure civilization.
Now what we affirm is, that, for the height to which it has reached
at the present moment, we have only ourselves to thank. For a long
time back, in spite of ceaseless warning, and ignoring all the lessons
of experience, physiology, and common sense, we have done little to
repress crime and much to encourage it. Our plans of dealing with it
have been based upon no clear understanding and no settled principle;
the changes we have introduced from time to time, have been either
inconsistent _nibblings_ or mutually destructive fluctuations; we have
neither aimed at felling the tree, nor at cutting off the nourishment
from its roots; we have simply pruned the branches, and contented
ourselves with wondering that it should flourish still. We believe that
all this is remediable still, though the mischief has assumed such vast
dimensions; but that which is imperatively needed before we can hope
to remedy it is, that we should boldly face all patent facts; that we
should courageously accept all undeniable conclusions from those facts;
that we should at once and for ever place sentiment under the control
and supremacy of sense; that no inconvenience should drive us to do
injustice to others; and that no expense should make us shrink from
doing justice to ourselves.
Criminals, the moment we look at them closely and analytically,
divide themselves into two distinct categories--the casual and the
habitual. Many of the more trifling, and some of the most heinous
offenders, belong to the former class. Temptation there will always
be; and this will be liable to increase with the progress and
complexity of civilization, as long as some are poor and some are
rich, and as long as the appliances of wealth are spread out in the
sight of the struggling and needy. Defective moral natures there will
always be--natures weak to resist and prone to fall; but these, it
is to be hoped, will diminish as comfort and instruction penetrate
among the masses. Passions will always exist among all ranks, and
passions will occasionally burst through the restraints of morality
and law. Boys will thieve who are no worse than idle, neglected,
and ill-trained. Poor men, who are habitually respectable, will
steal under circumstances of sudden and desperate necessity. Clerks
will occasionally forge or rob to avert exposure, to meet debt, or
to purchase vicious pleasures. Any man, in any rank, of violent
or malignant temper and ill-disciplined mind, may, in a moment of
provocation or of fury, be guilty of manslaughter; or, if he be
thoroughly bad and licentious, may outrage a defenceless woman, or
murder one whom he hates, or whose possession he desires. Crimes and
criminals of this sort, however, are not those that embarrass our
police, and perplex our rulers and philosophers; they do not constitute
the social problem we have to solve. They are the casual outbreaks
of human vice and passion, incidental to all stages and forms of
civilization, and incurable by any. But besides and independent of
these cases, we have among us a large population, numbered by thousands
and tens of thousands, who _live by_ outrage and depredation; to whom
crime is an employment and _profession_; who are brought up to it; who
have no other teaching, no other vocation, no other resource; to whom
the respectable and industrious portion of society is the oyster they
have to open; who prey upon the community, and sometimes hate it also.
They are simply the enemies of society; and the protection of society
against them constitutes precisely the difficulty which at this moment
our thinkers have to master, and the duty which our rulers have to
discharge.