GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
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]]
[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.