Art. II.—THE PENNSYLVANIA SYSTEM.—DR. GIVEN’S REPORT.
Notwithstanding the simplicity and unity of the principle on which the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline is based, there is often a vagueness of opinion and a looseness of expression concerning it that surprises us. What is the principle? It is CONVICT-SEPARATION—neither more nor less. We hold, with the inspectors of the English prisons, that “the separation of one prisoner from another is the only sound basis on which a reformatory prison discipline can be established with any reasonable hope of success.” We believe the reformation of prisoners can be, and in very many instances has been, accomplished in consequence of such a separation, which would not have been, and could not be accomplished without it.
Some persons have no faith in the reformation of convicts, under any process. With such the only inquiry is for the cheapest method of imprisonment, without reference to moral or physical consequences. Some are very credulous, and look upon the worst rogues as quite reclaimable under the influence of personal kindness and Christian counsel. We apprehend that if the probability of prison-reformation may not be determined precisely by the degree to which the offender is separated from criminal associations and suggestions, it depends mainly upon it. And it is our deliberate and long-settled conviction, that (other things being equal) the best appointed system of discipline will be of very little avail in its reformatory power, where convict-association, in any form or degree, is tolerated. This is not a partisan opinion. It has been entertained and expressed by many who are by no means committed to the separate system, as such. There is an obvious fitness in the idea, which can neither be gainsayed nor resisted.
We have said that the fundamental doctrine of the Pennsylvania system of prison discipline is embodied in one compound word—CONVICT-SEPARATION.—How can we conceive of a “modification” of this elementary principle? It must be adopted as a whole or rejected as a whole. The structure of the building, in which the separate principle is carried out, may be modified. The method of proceeding in the institution, as it respects instruction, whether in letters or trades, or as it respects privations, indulgencies and punishments may be modified. The cells, the occupations, the diet, the mode of heating and ventilating, &c., may all be modified, but the principle of separating the convicts one from the other, is, or it is not, the basis of the system. It is not susceptible of modification. If separation is the principle, it is one thing,—if association is the principle, it is another thing.—The degree of association or of separation, is not involved.
When, therefore, we are told of “a necessity for modifying, to a certain extent, the Pennsylvania system, by allowing a certain class of convicts to be associated” for any purpose, or for any period of time, the phraseology is open to misapprehension at least, if not to animadversion.
The phrase “modifying to a certain extent” is doubtless inadvertently used in such cases for the phrase “abandoning to a certain extent.” Words are significant of ideas, and ambiguity in the former, necessarily leads to ambiguity in the latter. If we speak of the associate system, as “modified” by the occasional separation of a stubborn class of convicts, or of the separate system, as modified by the occasional association of an imbecile class, we soon confound association and separation, and actually have neither the one nor the other. We apprehend that this is the very position to which some of the opposers of convict-separation would not be unwilling to see it brought. Indeed, some who profess to be staunch advocates of separation, have conceded (inconsiderately, as we think) that each plan has its own advantages, and that the best system would be the product of a combination.
As at present advised we cannot consent to this view. Few evils arise, under any system of government, for which there is not a choice of remedies; and if it is made evident that under the application of a sound principle of prison-discipline, cases occur in which the legitimate ends of punishment are defeated, or at least not answered, the first question would be whether these cases are numerous and important enough to impair our confidence in the principle; or whether the exceptions are not necessarily incident to any general system, and such as cannot be provided against; or whether the remedy, if practicable at all, may not be applied without any infringement of the general principle. A compromise between two methods of convict management, so radically and essentially diverse as separation and association, seems to us entirely fanciful.
These general observations must serve to introduce a very brief notice of the Report of the Physician of the Eastern State Penitentiary for the six months ending July 1, 1851. That day closed seven years of laborious and faithful service by Dr. Given in this important institution. His reports, during that period, have been frequently noticed in the pages of our Journal, and have contributed essentially, not only to the improvement of the particular institution under his care, but to the general interests of humanity. Few if any documents of this class, embody a larger amount of valuable information, or are entitled to more consideration.
The author not being prepared to serve the interests of a party or a clique, nor to defend a favorite theory, his reports have uniformly taken independent ground, and must be regarded as the honest record of the results of professional experience and observation.
We understand the present and final report of Dr. G., as unequivocally and emphatically favorable to convict-separation. That there are some prisoners on whom it bears with peculiar severity is a matter of course. No species of punishment is exempt from such inequalities. They are less prevalent, however, under the separate discipline than under any other, from the very fact that the isolation of the prisoner from his fellows, allows us to vary the minuter conditions of the discipline in peculiar cases, without exciting murmuring and discontent among less favored parties. That a relaxation of rigid discipline in an individual case, no matter how peculiar, if it becomes notorious works wide-spread mischief, is fully shown in the experience of the English prisons.[2]
We do not understand Dr. Given to maintain that the class of convicts, whose mental weakness unfits them for the discipline of separation, would be any better off in a congregate prison, unless they were allowed “to converse with hardly any restriction.” So that we are left to conclude, that some peculiar method of treatment, embraced in neither of the prevailing systems must be devised to suit the specific case of weak-minded culprits, in a separate prison, or we must expect them to become deranged. Now we humbly conceive, that the remedy for the supposed grievance in such cases is in the hands of the court, and should be applied in the terms of the sentence, and not in the process of its execution. The mental vigor of a culprit is as legitimately a subject of investigation, as his moral habits and physical constitution. If he borders on that state of imbecility which would exempt him from moral responsibility, the shade of guilt in which he is involved will be scarcely perceptible, and the punishment would of course be proportionably light. If on the other hand, the character and method of his crime indicate ingenuity in contriving and vigor in executing his criminal purposes, though he may be below par in his intellectual capacity, he must take his chance with other offenders, who may be better able to endure the retribution than himself. It is so all the world over. The punishment which many sins carry in themselves, does not adapt itself very nicely to individual constitutions and temperaments. One slave of the intoxicating cup may have far greater powers of resisting the temptation to indulgence than his comrade, yet they are found wallowing in the same gutter. Men of limited capacity have a much harder struggle for their daily bread than their more capable neighbors, but in the event of their feloniously taking what does not belong to them, we do not find special laws are enacted to meet their case. So in families, schools, and larger communities, general laws are established which operate unequally, but are on the whole salutary and wise; and so must it be in the discipline of every prison. The same degree of restraint, privation or punishment bears much more severely on some than on others, and while humanity requires us to alleviate, as far as possible, the miseries of public prisons, it can hardly expect us to forego the eminent advantages of a system of discipline, because it does not adapt itself to every grade of intellect and education. No part of the machinery of civil government is capable of such a nice adjustment.
But assuming that provision should be made for the necessities of convicts, who lack ordinary mental vigor, and whose condition is easily detected by an experienced observer, we have the unqualified testimony of Dr. G., that with such provision, the Pennsylvanian system intelligently administered for moderate periods is entirely safe for mind and body. This opinion, after seven successive years of close, daily observation, by a resident physician, is certainly very conclusive. As to the phrase, “moderate periods,” it is well known that our Journal has uniformly advocated a reduction in the terms of imprisonment for by far the larger portion of crimes,—connected however with efficient checks upon the pardoning power.
But Dr. G. finds among the convicts of the Eastern State Penitentiary, as he would find in any other similar prison, “a certain proportion who have not sufficient mental vigor to resist the enervating tendencies of the discipline.” Upon examining the report for a more particular description of the class, he had in view, we find, that “in many of them the mental deficiency is so slight, as hardly to challenge casual observation, or to prevent them from following successfully the ordinary pursuits of life.” Dr. G. would not, therefore, exempt these persons from responsibility for their crimes. But how shall they be treated in a separate prison? What is needful to “enable them to resist the enervating tendencies of the discipline,” or in other words, how, in administering the discipline, shall we provide for that lack of mental vigor which exposes them to suffer under it? Dr. G. replies, “By sufficient social intercourse with qualified officers to preserve the natural strength of their minds.” Is this better than “associating them in workshops during the day under vigilant supervision, as in congregate prisons?” Dr. G. replies, “Yes, infinitely preferable.” Why then is not this simple counteracting agency employed, wherever the evil is supposed to exist? Dr. G. replies, “The expense of such an arrangement will, I fear, render it impossible.” And what is the expense? The report does not furnish any estimate, nor have we the means of forming one. But of one thing we feel confident, viz., that if the addition to the corps of officers of one or two men of suitable qualifications for the purpose, would be the means of perfecting the system of punishment, or of securing, in a higher degree, the humane purposes of the government in inflicting it, it will not be withheld. We should be slow to believe such a measure would fail, for so paltry a consideration as one or two thousand dollars a year, which would be the outside of the expense.
Suppose it were clearly the duty and interest of the government (and its duty is always its interest, as it is that of individuals) to provide for the unfortunate class of convicts to which Dr. G. refers, it would become a question how far it would be needful to abridge the average term of imprisonment at present suffered, in order to avoid the mischief which his report discloses. For it will be observed, that there is quite a difference of opinion as to the time within which the supposed injurious effects of seclusion are developed. Even the opponents of separation have generally regarded a sentence of from twelve to eighteen months as entirely safe. Dr. G. very properly considers the age of the convict as entitled to much consideration in determining the period of his confinement; and we should be quite disposed, at first, to fall in with his opinion, that “unless for the gravest offences, the sentence of minors should seldom exceed a single year;” and yet when we look around us and observe the boldness, the ingenuity and the malignity which often characterize the criminal acts of minors in our times, we can scarcely persuade ourselves that extraordinary lenity could be safely shown to them. A severer discipline in an institution that should receive them at an earlier stage of their career, might often check their criminal propensities, and put them upon a praiseworthy course; but when they become reckless of life, and property, and public peace, and boast themselves in feats of iniquity which matured convicts would scarcely attempt to excel, we should be slow to relax the rigour of punishment, except in cases of manifest infirmity of body or mind.
“In the second year of imprisonment, the bodily and mental vigor of convicts generally begins to decline, though they may struggle on for an indefinite period, without having any actual disease developed. In all cases, but more especially when the sentences range between two and ten years, the prisoner should be closely watched; and when the slightest symptom of failing strength appears, he should be immediately put to some outdoor employment, and there kept until his health would be re-established, when he could be again returned to his cell. If this principle would be strictly acted upon, it would render the longest sentence comparatively harmless.”
We are gratified with such clear and unequivocal testimony to the safety of convict-separation; for we look upon the resort to out-of-door exercise, in special cases, as so perfectly practicable and so entirely in keeping with the principle of the system, that we could scarcely reckon it as a condition or exception. It is of the same character with a precaution respecting air, apparel, bathing, &c. Indeed we do not suppose Dr. G. himself has a particle of doubt, that all needful out-of-door exercise can be given to every convict whose health requires it, as easily and as consistently with the most rigid separation as an extra blanket, or a new article of diet.
It will be observed that in the extract just made from Dr. G.’s report, the second year of imprisonment is designated as that in which the bodily and mental vigor of convicts generally begins to decline, and he also mentions those whose sentences range from two to ten years, as “requiring to be closely watched.” From which we infer, that in his opinion there is little danger to be apprehended from the first year’s seclusion; that in the second year there is no danger to be apprehended to the great mass of prisoners, but only to those who have “not sufficient mental vigor to resist the enervating tendencies of the discipline,” and who generally begin at that period to decline in body and mind; and as to convicts whose “sentences range from two to ten years, they should be closely watched,” &c.
Our general impression of the weight of authority on this subject, at home and abroad, would coincide with the opinion here expressed; but upon turning to the fable which is annexed to Dr. G.’s report we find, to our surprise, that in seven of the eight insane cases of 1851, the average period of prison-life at which the disorder appeared, was less than eight months; viz., one at four months, one at five, one at seven, one at eight, two at ten, and one at eleven months. In the eighth case the development of disease was postponed for three years and more! Only two of the eight were minors; five were whites, two mulattoes, and one black.
We need not question at all the soundness of Dr. G.’s opinion, nor the correctness of his facts. The conclusion to which they unite in constraining us however, is that the cause of insanity is not well-assigned. It is quite possible that the present condition of the prisoner, with all its antecedent anxiety and excitement and its prospective severity, combine to disclose, or give form and definiteness to a morbid condition of mind or body or both, which might not have occurred at all had he escaped detection or conviction; or which might not have taken that specific form under a different system of discipline; or which might be corrected by seasonable and judicious attention. That symptoms of a deranged state were discoverable so soon after commitment, and without any peculiarly exciting cause, seems to forbid the idea of attributing it wholly or chiefly to a denial of convict-association. And we apprehend, that if those very cases were at once transferred to Auburn or Sing-Sing, without the slightest change in their mental or bodily state, the parties would take their places at once in the shop-gang, and render their master-contractor as good an account of a day’s work as any of their comrades! They would be just as insane there, as in the Eastern State Penitentiary, but their eccentricities would not be likely to receive special investigation or care, and hence would never be reported as insane cases. The reports from congregate prisons fully warrant this position.
The careful reader of Dr. Given’s report cannot fail to see that his humane and honorable sympathies have led him, as we have already intimated, to overlook the inevitable necessity of inequalities in the operation of general laws. If he says, “we can rest satisfied to restrict the application of our system to those to whom it is applicable, I believe there will be quite as little insanity among them as if they were associated.” But to whom is it applicable? To all, except those whose mental character renders it unsafe to subject them to it. How many of this class are there? Why it is so small as to “admit of the most accurate supervision,” so that “the corrupting influences of association,” (if adopted,) “will be materially diminished.” But what is the number in units, tens or hundreds? Why last year it was eight in an aggregate of four hundred and forty-six! And may we regard this as the “certain proportion of convicts, who have not sufficient mental vigor to resist the enervating tendencies of our system?” Eight in four hundred and forty-six!
Of this class of convicts, more or less, it is said, that “an experienced observer will readily detect many of them on the day of their reception, and a few weeks’ observation will generally suffice for the discovery of the remainder.” If we bring this remark to bear on the eight cases of last year, we shall be compelled to circumscribe its application considerably. Two of them “were decidedly insane when received.” Of the remaining six, “one a mulatto, had been once or oftener insane before imprisonment;” his mother had also been insane, and he was syphilitic. Two others were not of the class which we are considering, for it is expressly stated that they “had not imbecile minds,” though “both had received a fracture of the skull, and were thus doubly predisposed to insanity.” Of the three that are left, one “was not considered actually defective in mind,” and of course he would not have been put among the class “who are deficient in mental vigor to resist the enervating tendencies of the system.” Nevertheless, his mind “was of such a character, that shortly after his reception, it was predicted that he would go deranged before the expiration of his sentence.” What that “character” was we are not told, nor is it needful for our present purpose to know. Then of the other two it is expressly said, that they were “considered as presenting no striking mental peculiarity on admission, either of strength or weakness.” One of them was three years and one month in prison, before exhibiting any marks of mental derangement, and the other ten months. If we do not misunderstand the report then, not one of the last year’s insane cases answers to the description of that “certain class of convicts, who cannot be placed under the usual isolation, without the greatest risk of insanity supervening.”
Perhaps we construe the language of the report in this connection too rigidly, for in another section, the “mental deficiency” of many of these same persons “which an experienced observer will readily detect on the day of their reception, or a few weeks after,” is described as “so slight, as hardly to challenge casual observation or to prevent their following successfully the ordinary pursuits of life.” We think it would be very difficult to modify the discipline of a prison, so as to provide for such minute diversities of mental power among convicts. They will have to take their chance with the other rogues, we fear.
Although Dr. Given in one passage of his report speaks of “a modification to a certain extent of the Pennsylvania system,” and “of association in workshops,” and “of associated labor,” we are happy to find that the general tenor of the document sanctions no such view. On the contrary, free, vigorous and timely “out-of-door exercise,” which is perfectly compatible in any form and degree with the principle of our system, is clearly in his opinion, the grand panacea for prison-ills. The gardener and waggoner, at the Eastern State Penitentiary are accustomed to employ as assistants, such convicts as need exercise in the open air, and an officer is specially appointed to “attend invalid convicts, and give to them at least one hour daily of out-of-door exercise, combined with improving social intercourse.”
It is obvious that these precautionary measures may be adopted to any needful extent, without any violation of our cardinal principle. Indeed, we see no evidence in the report before us, that they have not been employed during the past year, to the full extent which the exigencies of the institution have required. Not a case is mentioned or hinted at, in which suffering has been endured, or danger incurred for want of them. Indeed from the description which the Doctor gives of the position and treatment of a convict in our Penitentiary, at the present time, we can scarcely conceive of a system of penal suffering being administered with more judgment, care and lenity. In speaking of a keeper’s interpretation of the nature and responsibility of his office, Dr. G. says: “Aware of the vast power which his official position affords for influencing the prisoner, for good or evil, his physical, his intellectual, and his moral character are subjected to close scrutiny; and the nature of his work, the amount exacted of him, the extent and character of his social intercourse are regulated accordingly. If, after due experience, it is found that the employment of the convict is not adapted to his strength or capacity, the fact is reported to the warden, and intelligent suggestions offered as to his future treatment. If the prisoner’s moral conduct proves perverse, he is subdued by kind remonstrance, when for similar breaches of discipline he would formerly have been punished; and if symptoms of insanity, or physical disease portend, the deepest interest is felt, and every possible exertion made to avert the threatened evil.”
We know not what more could be asked, if the idea of punishment is not to be entirely foregone.
Indeed, we cannot avoid the conviction that in one particular at least, a pernicious indulgence is granted; viz., the use of tobacco. Dr. G. anticipates “quite as much censure as approbation,” will be bestowed on this item of treatment, and he may think himself very fortunate, if the scales are so nearly equipoised as that. For ourselves, we cannot qualify our condemnation of the practice on every ground. So far as the Dr.’s argument rests on strength of habit, it would be equally cogent for the use of intoxicating liquors; and we must suppose he speaks ironically, when he refers to “legislative chambers, halls of justice, or even our pulpits,” as furnishing invariably safe precedents in moral conduct. Convict-life is, and of right ought to be a life of privation; and the wise disciplinarian takes advantage of this period to cross the prisoner’s vicious inclinations at every point, and thus connect the process of punishment with the process of reformation. Dr. G. has seen “a strong stubborn man beg for tobacco with tears in his eyes.” We have seen such a man beg, in like manner, for a drink of grog, or the means of escape from prison. But it is “the painfulness of this privation” which answers, in our prisons, the purpose which the douche, or the yoke, or the cat-o’-nine tails are supposed to answer in other prisons. It is suffering with profit, for it breaks up a most vicious habit, and it is suffering without degradation, too. Why should we throw away such an advantage?
But what shall we say to the other ground of apology for allowing tobacco to the prisoners, viz., for the cure of “dyspepsia and mental depressions, otherwise treated in vain?” In such a war, we must put Greek against Greek. In insane asylums, where physical and mental diseases are supposed to have the most skilful medical treatment, we are informed that the use of tobacco is strictly interdicted by the resident physician; and we notice by the return of the Ohio Lunatic Asylum, that six of the cases of insanity received into that institution last year, are believed to have originated in the use of that narcotic! Nothing could show the prodigious power of the habit more strikingly than the remark of Dr. G., that “the fear of being deprived of it has produced a degree of order and discipline throughout the establishment, that the severest punishment could not effect.” We have seen, in a nursery of young rogues, a violent uproar against a parent or care-taker quieted at once by just giving a sugar plum, or a bit of gingerbread, which had been at first denied. How far such concessions to the vicious appetite of convicts, or to the unruly will of children promote sound discipline, is not a matter of doubt to observing minds. A firm maintenance of wholesome authority, or the discreet use of King Solomon’s specific for disorders of the temper, would perhaps add a new strain to the discordant music for the time being, but it would be likely to produce very agreeable harmony in the end.
The striking improvements which have been made in the hygienic arrangement of the Eastern State Penitentiary, and for which it is greatly indebted to the earnest and well directed efforts of Dr. G., cannot fail to impress every reader of the report. Without relaxing in any degree the radical principle of separation, or rendering the penal feature of the discipline any less severe, the moral and physical well being of the convicts has been greatly advanced, and the claims of the worst of them to kind and humane treatment have been recognised with a distinctness of which they are, for the most part, happily conscious. If we would give to an inquirer on the subject a succinct but impressive view of the advance which has been made in the improvement of our system of prison-discipline, we know of no document to which we would refer with more confidence than this report of Dr. Given.
Art. III.—JUVENILE DELINQUENCY, TRUANCY, &c.
In our last number, we commenced a notice of several interesting matters occurring in Boston and its vicinity, and falling within the range of our observation. The presentment of the Grand Jury of Suffolk County was under discussion, and we promised to return to it again when opportunity should allow, and this promise we now redeem.
The establishment of “an intermediate reform school for young persons, who are committed for first offences, when there is an apparent opportunity for their reformation by the use of moral and intellectual discipline,” is strongly urged in the presentment. The Grand Jury have in view a plan, “where the mark of the penitentiary shall not be put upon the convicts, but where, by judicious management on the part of superintendent, and exemplary conduct on the part of those consigned to his charge—they whose misfortune it may be to stray from the paths of rectitude, could again be received into the bosom of society without reproach.”
To enforce their suggestions, they call into view “the large number of minors that have been brought before the tribunals of public justice within the six months last past,” and express their deep conviction that “if some plan were provided, at which neglected children could be made to pass their time, instead of upon the wharves, in the streets, around the doors of theatres, or in the market places,—say in some industrial school provided by the State,—juvenile delinquency would very much decrease.”
These are all very good notions for a Boston jury, or any other jury to entertain, but suppose we should transform all these jurymen into Legislators, and give them a seat in the House of Representatives; and suppose a proposition were submitted to enact a law, making it compulsory on all parents to give their children a certain amount of schooling every year, and in default thereof, authorizing and requiring the proper authorities to remove such children from the custody of the parents, for the purpose of schooling them. Would they then and there take the same view of the subject? Would no misgivings arise about the bearing which their advocacy of such a stringent law might have on their political prospects? Would they advance as directly and as boldly to the application of the remedy as they do to the exposure of the evil?
It is obvious from the language of the report, that the Suffolk Grand Jury have a much clearer idea of the disease than they have of the cure. The class of persons to whom they refer as “committed for first offences” are nevertheless “convicts,” and nothing can remove the “mark of the penitentiary” but an executive pardon. And whether there is “an apparent opportunity for their reformation,” is not an easy question to determine. When the distinction comes to be practically applied, it would be found very perplexing. Our Houses of Refuge are intended to receive those who have entered, or are just entering upon a course of life, which ordinarily ends in the penitentiary; and they have doubtless saved scores of youth from the convict’s infamous doom, and returned them to their families and to society, with every prospect of usefulness and respectability. And we had supposed that the State Reform School at Westborough, which has been so successfully conducted, was designed to answer exactly this end. The boys who are committed there, are generally sent for first offences, and the discipline is strictly reformatory. Does the report of the jury then contemplate an institution between the Reform School and the State Penitentiary, or between the Reform School and “the House of Reformation for Juvenile Offenders,” at South Boston? If the former, what ends are expected to be answered, which the institution at Westborough fails to accomplish; and if the latter, what class of offenders would they find between those at Westborough and those at South Boston, for whose case neither of these establishments provides?
However obscure the intimations of the report may be on this point, they are very clear on another, viz., that juvenile delinquency would be greatly diminished if all idle, loitering, loafing children “about town” were put to good, industrial schools. It is not a whit more certain, that if the Cochituate pond were to dry up suddenly, Boston would have a far less generous supply of water than it has now. But how shall this abstraction from the streets and wharves, of the filthy, foul-mouthed, ragged urchins be brought about? When and where shall the industrial school be established? What shall be the nature of the discipline, and the length of the confinement? Shall the public support them, or shall contributions be levied on negligent parents? Such schools have been greatly prospered, we know, in some of the chief towns of England and Scotland; but the institutions of society and indeed its whole structure, will allow that to be done there, which would not be tolerated here. We must give our Boston friends credit, however, for a very wise and effective step towards the suppression of juvenile vice. We allude to the law for the correction of truancy, and we cannot more usefully occupy a page of our limited space than by transcribing one or two passages from a leading document on the subject. The views expressed are quite as appropriate to Philadelphia as to Boston.
As early as 1846, a report came from the school committee of the city, in which the mischief of truancy is represented as not only interfering greatly with the regular process of instruction, but as exerting a demoralising effect which can hardly be counteracted, and employs much of the time and energy of the masters in preserving the discipline which it assails. Nor is it an evil (says the report) which ends with the schools. If it did, our duty would still require of us to do whatever we can do for its suppression or diminution. But it is certain, that, from the juvenile depravity of which the truancy of the school is both a sign and a cause, grows a large part of the suffering and crime of society. It is rare to find in our prisons those who were well cared for as children, and trained in regular habits of useful industry. An active child can be kept out of evil only by giving him something good to do; and when idleness has thoroughly corrupted the earliest years of life, what can we expect from riper years, but a maturity of vice, greater as temptations become stronger, and opportunities for crime are enlarged?
In the worst cases, the truancy of the children, or their entire absence from school, is permitted by the parents, and sometimes caused by their desire to share in those wretched gains of debasing or dishonest pursuits, for which after-time will exact a fearful price.
If the law on the one hand, provides schools to which all the children of this city may go, on the other it provides another institution to which certain children may be made to go. Here then are institutions for those who will, and for those who will not be instructed; and under one or other of these classes all our children may be arranged. The 143d chapter of the Revised Statutes, Sect. 5th, enumerates among those who may be sent to the House of Correction, “stubborn children;” and the “Act concerning juvenile offenders in the City of Boston,” authorizes the City Council to establish a building for “the reception, instruction, employment and reformation of such juvenile offenders as are hereinafter named;” this building we have: and the third section of the same Act provides, “That any Justice or Judge of the said Courts, (the Supreme Court, Municipal Court, and Police Courts) on the application of the Mayor, or of any Aldermen of the City of Boston, or of any Director of the House of Industry, or House of Reformation, or of any Overseer of the Poor, of said City, shall have power to sentence to said house of employment and reformation, all children who live an idle and dissolute life, whose parents are dead, or if living, from drunkenness, or other vices, neglect to provide any suitable employment, or exercise any salutary control over said children.” And the sixth section provides that any child committed to the House of Correction, may be transferred to the House of Employment and Reformation.”
It would seem, therefore, that the framers of the laws have done enough, if they who are entrusted with the execution of the laws do their duty.
These statements and views were not without their effect, though measures of reform were not matured until 1850, when a law was past, which we copy entire as the shortest method of presenting the whole matter to the view of our readers.