COUNTY PRISON.
The County Prison presents a vast field for contemplation and labor. It is the receptacle of the vagrant, the drunkard, the disorderly, the suspected, and the convicted. All the elements of crime are found in its cells, and sometimes the unfortunate, the oppressed, and the innocent are made more miserable by a forced association with the vicious and the guilty. Sometimes an accidental association with the bad has procured for the careless, well-meaning innocent, a companion that has indoctrinated him with vice, and made him a proficient in crime. All degrees of servitude are experienced in this prison, from that which terminates with the twenty-four hours for intoxication, to that which is extended to years for some flagrant violation of the law. Nay, there are those who, in the midst of years, have no hope of escaping from the prison cells till they shall “be carried forth of men,” to be buried under the rules of the prison, or by the charity of those who knew them in better days. These last are men convicted of willful murder, by a jury, and sentenced to death, by the Court, but in whose behalf some circumstance suggests a withholding of the death-warrant, and their cases remain from one term of gubernatorial office to another, transmitted by the ruling chief magistrate to his successor, among the matters unfinished, but which seem not to impose upon the new governor the necessity of discharging the painful office which was avoided by his predecessor.
The occupants of the County Prison cells are of the following kind:—
The First Class.—Those committed for vagrancy, breach of the peace, drunkenness, and disorderly conduct.
Second Class.—Persons charged with violation of the laws, whose cases are to be decided by the Criminal Court.
Third Class.—Persons sentenced to short imprisonment, and the payment of fines and costs.
Fourth Class.—Those convicted of crimes of a high character, and sentenced to confinement and labor. And we may add a
Fifth Class.—Formed of those already mentioned, who, having been sentenced to death by the Court, are yet detained in prison by the withholding of the death-warrant for their Execution, or of the pardon which would ensure their release.
With all these the Society has relations by means of the Committee on the County Prison, and to prevent interference in labors, and to secure attendance at all the cells, the Committee is divided into classes, to each of which is assigned a particular division of the prison, though a member of the Committee is permitted to visit the inmates of any of the cells, in addition to those specially assigned him. But it can scarcely be doubted that where one visitor is punctual and faithful in his labors, the interference of others may rather tend to disturb the mind of prisoners than to aid them in the new path of duty upon which they have hesitatingly entered. Such matters are, of course, left to the judgment of visitors, who can easily discern when the ground is fully occupied by a successful laborer. Too much culture is said to be almost as fatal to vegetation as entire neglect. Frequency of interference by persons of varied habits and different modes of approaching the prisoner, can scarcely be productive of good, although each one separately operating, might, with God’s blessing, work out an incalculable amount of improvement.
The laborers at the County Prison are not so numerous as at the Penitentiary, in proportion to the number and character of the inmates. The County Prison is a less desirable field of labor. At the Penitentiary the inmates have a fixed and protracted residence, and may be approached by the same teacher so long as hopes are entertained that “the continual dropping” of moral truths “will wear the stone” of his heart. And his separation from those whose language or presence might encourage his resoluteness in wrong intention, leaves him almost entirely within the influence of those whose duty and pleasure it is to make his banishment from bad society the means of his reformation.
At the County Prison, one large class of prisoners, by far the largest, is always changing. Day by day the vans arrive, crowded with wretches who have entered upon the path of vice, and are hastening down that terrible declivity. Incarceration for all crimes, commences here, even though the criminal should be consigned to the Penitentiary when convicted. The vicious, the drunkard, the disorderly, the peace-breaker, and the vagrant, are committed to the prison, and must abide their monthly incarceration, unless “sooner released by course of law.”
We have already mentioned the various classes of offenders that occupy the cells of this prison. With one class, viz., convicts for various terms, the mode of dealing by the visitors from the city, is changed from that in the Penitentiary only so far as to suit the different character of the confinement, and the occupation of the inmates. The visitor is regular in his calls at the cell of the convict, and follows his own plan of moral and religious instruction, usually successful in proportion to the assiduity of the instructor, and the time in which he exercises his office of benevolence towards the inmates of the cell. Pamphlets, tracts, books of devotion, the Holy Scriptures, are supplied to the prisoner, and his attention to the prescribed lesson is urged by his teacher, and tested by his recitation and comment. And when the unhappy occupant of the cell is unable to read, additional attention is bestowed in imparting the instruction, so as to supply as far as possible the deficiency of primary education.
With the third class, viz., those sentenced to short terms, and the payment of a fine, it may be supposed not so much good can be expected. Yet there are not wanting instances of thorough reform consequent upon the gentle zealousness of the visitor, and the yet lingering sense of right in the mind of the prisoner. Indeed, as some of those suffering short sentences are obtaining the first fruits of wrong doing, it happens often that their consciences and their affections are more easily touched, and thus a hopeful reformation is more readily commenced. This occurs especially when the person arrested is admitted to bail, or, as can rarely happen, placed in a separate cell before conviction, so that a direct and necessary intercourse, by constant association with others in a similar situation may be avoided. The fact that many of these third class prisoners never return, may be regarded as evidence that the discipline of the prison, and the care of the visitors, have done the good work of reformation.