“That is to say, the man becomes more impressible, though this is not the invariable result.
“The cell will sometimes only increase the reserve of the sullen, the stupidity of the dull, the idiotcy of the feeble, and the craft of the cunning.
“Solitude is indeed a terrible solvent, but the main element in a man’s character will sometimes withstand its potency when all other characteristics are melted down.
“But, as a general rule, a few months in a separate cell renders a prisoner strangely impressible.
“The chaplain can then make a brawny navvy cry like a child—he can work on his feelings in almost any way he pleases. He can, so to speak, photograph his own thoughts, wishes, and opinions on his patient’s mind, and fill his mouth with his own phrases and language.”
In common with most philanthropists, the Preston Gaol chaplain considered that almost all crime was traceable to three closely-linked causes, drunkenness, ignorance, and the habit of living in filthy, overcrowded dwellings.
But he maintained that these, in their turn, were due in a great measure to the want of sympathy and intercourse between the upper and lower classes. This cause the late Justice Telford animadverted on while on the bench within a very short period of his death.
Of course the effect produced by the solitary cell depends on many other things, such as temperament, previous habits, &c.
The sluggish, lymphatic man, with small lungs and small brain, adapts himself easily to his solitude. Good food, light work, and a sufficient allowance of visits to break and cheer the monotony of his cell, reconcile him to his position; he becomes almost as passive as a vegetable.
Uniformly submissive, he gives no trouble, and makes an excellent prisoner.