The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (New Series, No. 46, January 1907)

When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded on the precepts and example of the Author of Christianity, are not canceled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures, and when we reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassions to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid of humanity their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the link which should bind the whole family of mankind together under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degree and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested as may, instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of the truth and obligations of these principles, the subscribers have associated themselves under the title of “The Pennsylvania Prison Society.”
For effecting these purposes they have adopted the following Constitution:
The officers of the Society shall consist of a President, two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer (who may be an undoubted first-class Trust and Safe Deposit Company regularly chartered by the State or National Authorities), and two Counselors.
The Committee on Membership in the “Acting Committee” shall be the nominating committee of the Society, whose duty it shall be after careful consideration to nominate members of the Society most suitable in their judgment for the above named offices. The officers and the Acting Committee shall be chosen by ballot, at the Annual Meeting of the Society, which shall be on the fourth Thursday in the First month (January) of each year and they shall continue in office until their successors are elected. A majority of the whole number of votes cast shall be necessary to the choice of any nominee for office.
In case an election for any cause shall not be held at the time above mentioned, it shall be the duty of the President to call a Special Meeting of the Society, within thirty days for the purpose of holding such election, of which at least three days’ notice shall be given.