As one, I am willing to incur the guilt of dissenting from this society; nor shall I fear that this will expose me to the condemnation of "the Saviour of the world," till the object shall be changed from "THE IMPROVEMENT OF PUBLIC PRISONS," to the improvement of PRISONERS.

A society for the _moral_, and _spiritual_, and _temporal_ improvement of prisoners, that should seek these ends by moral and _merciful_ means, and continue its guardian care over them _after_ they are released, by furnishing them with _employment_, and treating them with _respect_, I should consider it criminal to neglect or oppose; but such is _not_ "THE PRISON DISCIPLINE SOCIETY." The great object of this society is, to introduce solitary confinement into all our prisons during the night season, and hard labour during the day.

Another part of the discipline of prisons, recommended by this society, is--STRIPES!--

In respect to both these branches of prison discipline, the reader shall have the language of the society, that he may be sure my representations are correct.

In the FIRST REPORT, pages 25-28, the views of the society in respect to the practice of confining several convicts in one room at night, is expressed as follows:--

"We find great unity of opinion among all well informed and practical men, in regard to the evils of this miserable system,[2] and the importance of solitary confinement, at least by night.

[Footnote 2: That of confining several prisoners in one cell at night.]

The superintendent of the New Hampshire Penitentiary, MOSES C.

PILSBURY, who has been seven years in that inst.i.tution, says, he has thought much of the benefits, which would result from solitary confinement at night. The plots which have been designed, during his term of service, have been conceived, and promoted, in the night rooms. He has spent much time in listening to the conversation of the convicts at night, and thus has detected plots and learned whole histories of villany.

Judge COTTON, the superintendent of the Vermont Penitentiary, says, I feel satisfied, that great evils might be avoided, could our State Prison be so constructed, that the convicts might lodge separately from each other. Solitary confinement, during the night, would be an effectual bar, and have a great tendency to suppress many evils, which do exist, and ever will exist, so long as prisoners are allowed to a.s.sociate together in their lodging rooms.

The Directors of the Ma.s.sachusetts Penitentiary, in their last Report, say, that the erection of an additional building, within the Prison yard, where each convict may be provided with a separate apartment for lodging, has long been a favorite object with the government of this inst.i.tution.

The Commissioners of the Connecticut Legislature, say, that the great and leading objection to Newgate, is the manner in which the prisoners are confined at night--turned in large numbers into their cells, and allowed an intercourse of the most dangerous and debasing character.

It is here, that every right principle is eradicated, and every base one instilled. It is a nursery of crime, where the convict is furnished with the expedients and shifts of guilt, and, with his invention sharpened, he is let loose upon society, in a tenfold degree, a more daring, desperate, and effective villain.

The superintendent of the New York Penitentiary, ARTHUR BURTIS, Esq.

speaking of the crowded state of the night rooms, said, how can you expect reformation, under such circ.u.mstances? As well might you kindle a fire, with a spark, on the ocean, in a storm. If a man forms a good resolution, or feels a serious impression, it is immediately driven from him in his night room.

The superintendent of the New Jersey Prison, FRANCIS S. LABAW, says, the greatest improvement, that has been made, or can be made, in Prison Discipline, is by solitary confinement. The solitary cells in this Prison, in which one fourth part of the whole number of prisoners are placed under sentence of the Court, have answered all the purposes, which it was ever expected they would, so far as trial of them has been had. No person, who has been once confined in them, has ever returned to the Prison.

The Senate of Pennsylvania say, for want of room, the young a.s.sociate with the old offenders; the petty thief becomes the pupil of the highway robber; the beardless boy listens with delight to the well told tale of daring exploits, and hair breadth escapes of h.o.a.ry headed villany, and from the experience of age, derives instruction, which fits him to be a terror and a pest to society. Community of design is excited among them, and, instead of reformation, ruin is the general result.

The superintendent of the Virginia Penitentiary, SAMUEL O. PARSONS, says, I consider separating convicts at night, of all others, the most important feature in the Penitentiary system of punishment, and one, which should every where claim the first consideration in erecting such inst.i.tutions.

With the opinions thus expressed, of the practical men placed at the head of these inst.i.tutions, the opinions of the governors of the respective States, of the judges, and legislators, and benevolent men, so far as they have been expressed or known, perfectly coincide.

Governor PLUMER, of New Hampshire, says, effectual measures should be adopted to separate, in the Penitentiaries, old offenders from the young and inexperienced.

Governor LINCOLN, of Ma.s.sachusetts, in a late message, recommended, that immediate provision be made for the erection, as soon as may be, in the prison yard, of a building, with sufficient cells for the separate confinement of the present, and any future probable number of convicts.

Governor WOLCOTT, of Connecticut, stated to the Legislature, in May, with reference to the improvements at Auburn, that there were few subjects upon which their deliberations could be bestowed with higher advantage to the best interests of the State.

Governor CLINTON has formerly expressed his opinion of the importance of solitary confinement, and in his late message to the Legislature, he expresses an opinion concerning the inst.i.tution in New York city, for the reformation of Juvenile Delinquents, which is constructed on the plan of the building at Auburn, that it is probably the best Prison in the world.

Judge WOODBURY, of New Hampshire, says, that 'Prisoners, during the night, should be wholly separated from each other.'

Mr. HOPKINTON, of New Hampshire, says, 'a novice, who, if kept from company worse than himself, might have been reclaimed from his first attempts, is here a.s.sociated with old, hardened, and skilful offenders; he hears with envy and admiration the stories of their prowess and dexterity; his ambition is roused; his knowledge extended by these recitals; and every idea of repentance is scorned; every emotion of virtue extinguished.'

Judge THACHER, of Boston, says, 'by the confession of those who administer our Penitentiaries, it is found, that most of the evils of this system of punishment flow from the almost free and unrestrained intercourse, which subsists among the convicts.'

THOMAS EDDY, of New York, says, 'if a number of ingenious men were requested to suggest the best possible mode of increasing the number of thieves, robbers, and vagabonds, it could scarcely be in their power, to fix on any plan, so likely to produce this effect, as confining in one collection, a number of persons already convicted of committing crimes of every description.'

Hon. EDWARD LIVINGSTON, says, 'it is a great point to produce the conviction of the important and obvious truth, denied only by a false economy, that Prisons, where there is not a complete separation of their inhabitants, are seminaries of vice, not schools for reformation, nor even places of punishment.'

ROBERTS VAUX, of Philadelphia, lays down five fundamental principles of Prison Discipline, the _first_ of which is, 'that convicts should be rigidly confined to solitary life.'

There is no disagreement between the opinion of these distinguished individuals, and the opinions of various commissioners, directors, &c.

who have written on this subject.

The Commissioners of the Ma.s.sachusetts Legislature, in 1817, ask, 'how it is to be reconciled, that in any civilized country, convicts are brought into promiscuous a.s.sociation, to pa.s.s years together, all united under the influence of a public opinion, as strong in its support of vice, as that which rules the community, is, in its support of virtue?'

The Commissioners of the Connecticut Legislature, in a very able Report, written by MARTIN WELLS, Esq. say, 'it is in the cells, that every right principle is eradicated, and every base one instilled.

They are nurseries of crime, where the convict is furnished with the expedients and shifts of guilt, and, with his invention sharpened, he is let loose upon society, in a tenfold degree a more daring, desperate and effective villain.'

The Commissioners, SAMUEL M. HOPKINS, STEPHEN ALLEN, and GEORGE TIBBETS, of the New York Legislature, say, "we believe that we do but repeat the common sentiment of all well informed men, when we say, that as long as it is necessary to confine several prisoners in the same room, our State Prison at New York can be no other than a college of vice and criminality."

A highly respectable committee of the Society for the Prevention of Pauperism, in the city of New York, in a Report on the Penitentiary System, which is one of the most valuable doc.u.ments ever published on the subject in this country, have the following language, 'Our Penitentiaries are so many schools of vice, they are so many seminaries to impart lessons and maxims calculated to banish legal restraints, moral considerations, pride of character, and self-regard.' 'They have their watchwords, their technical terms, their peculiar language, and their causes and objects of emulation.

Let us ask any sagacious observer of human nature, unacquainted with the internal police of our Penitentiaries, to suggest a school, where the commitment of the most pernicious crimes could be taught with the most effect; could he select a place more fertile in the most pernicious results, than the indiscriminate society of knaves and villains, of all ages and degrees of guilt?'

This is a frightful picture of human depravity and p.r.o.neness to sin; and if the system of separate confinement at night should not remove or prevent these evils, the mind _may_ be led to seek the source of them, not in the circ.u.mstance of few or many being lodged together, but in the cruelty and inhumanity of the keepers.

In the SECOND REPORT, pages 38-43, the Society states its objections to solitary confinement _by day_, and adopts the theory of labour by day and separate confinement by night. The following is its language:--

"_Solitary confinement day and night._ On this subject, there is great interest excited, at the present time, in America and in Europe. It will be our object to present such facts as are known to us concerning experiments already made in this country.

"In the Maine Prison, which has been in operation about three years, a large number of the convicts have been sentenced to six months solitary confinement day and night, and to a period of time afterwards of solitary confinement at night, and hard labor by day. A considerable number more have been sentenced to solitary confinement day and night, for the whole term of their imprisonment. This Prison is under the management of a gentleman, who has been a member of the Senate, in the State of Maine, and who is, also, a skilful physician.

He has, therefore, been entrusted with discretionary power, by the Executive, to remove the men from the cells to the hospital, when their health and life required it. The former Governor of the State informed the Secretary of this Society, that it would not have been thought safe to inflict sentences of so long continuance in solitary confinement, if great confidence had not been placed in the discretion of the superintendent. The judges, however, and the Executive, when the Prison was built, were strongly in favour of solitary confinement day and night, and they wished to make a fair experiment. What, then, is the testimony of the superintendent of this Prison, on this vastly important and interesting subject? And what is the testimony of the Records of the Prison? The following statement is collected from the records and the superintendent. It exhibits the names of several convicts; the length of time they were sentenced to solitary confinement; the length of time they were able to endure it before they were removed to the hospital; the length of time they remained in the hospital before they returned to the cells; the alternation between the cells and the hospital to fulfil the whole term of solitary confinement; and the suicide of two convicts in the cells.

These are the only convicts who have died since the Prison was organized."

_Name and Sentence._ _In Solitary._ _In Hospital._ _In Solitary._ Joseph Bubier, June 18 July 1 12 days.

62 days solitary, July 3 July 8 5 days.

and one year July 11 July 23 12 days.

hard labor. July 28 Aug. 24 27 days.

In this case it was necessary to remove the man to the hospital four times, to enable him to endure fifty-six days solitary. The Secretary saw him when he was removed from the cell the last time. He shivered like an aspen leaf; his pulse was very feeble; his articulation could scarcely be heard from his bed to the grate of his cell, eight feet; and when he was taken out, he could with difficulty stand alone.

_Name and Sentence._ _Solitary._ _Suicide._ _In Solitary._ Simeon Record, Dec. 5 Dec. 8 4 days.

70 days solitary, and four years hard labor.

At half past seven o'clock, on Wednesday morning, he was found dead, having hung himself to the grate of the cell with a piece of the lashing of his hammock.

_Name and Sentence._ _Solitary._ _At Labor._ _In Solitary._ Isaac Martin, March 27 April 20 24 days.

60 days solitary, and July 1 July 26 25 days.

3 months hard labor.

Isaac Martin cut his throat in his cell July 26, when he was removed to the hospital, where he remained nine days, and died.

_Name and Sentence._ _Solitary._ _Hospital._ _Solitary._ Elisha Cole, Nov. 6 Dec. 28 52 days.

100 days solitary. Jan. 4 Feb. 22 48 days.

_Name and Sentence._ _Solitary._ _Hospital._ _Solitary._ Socrates Howe, July 4 Sept. 7 66 days.

6 months solitary. Sept. 21 Nov. 7 47 days.

Dec. 2 Jan. 16 44 days.