Suggestions for the Prevention of Juvenile Depravity

by Benjamin Rotch

For the prevention of Juvenile Depravity, and the consequent diminution of the heavy Burthens cast, first, upon private Individuals by numerous petty Thefts, and lastly, upon the County by the oft repeated Arrests, Examinations, Committals, Prosecutions, and Imprisonments of Juvenile Offenders.

For many years the public mind has been trained to believe that an improved Prison Discipline was the Panacea for the prevention of crime, and it is only necessary to point to that valuable and most excellent Institution at Parkhurst to shew how earnestly (so far as regards Juvenile Delinquency) men of the first Station and the first Talent of the day, seconded by the powerful aid of the Legislature have devoted themselves to the subject, for it is impossible for an enlightened statesman to view the deeply-dyed depravity which exists among the Children of the lower orders, and not feel that no Government deserves the proud title of a Paternal Government that can allow such a state of things to continue, if any remedy can be suggested.

The opinions which I have ever held on this subject have remained unaltered amidst all the various changes that have taken place in the Public mind, on the subject of Prison Discipline, the degrading home Slavery of the Hulks, and the awful severance of all natural ties by transportation to distant climes. I have ever held all these to be ineffectual for the purpose of raising the moral standard of a great Nation, and still more ineffectual in promoting that social and domestic happiness which ought to be the bond of Union of an enlightened and Christian People. Nevertheless, I have not hesitated to put my shoulder to the wheel, and have laboured hard to improve our system of Prison Discipline, believing that we shall always have criminals to deal with, but deeply impressed also with the conviction that it is more consistent with the views of Christianity and common sense, that our exertions should be directed to the prevention of crime, especially among the young, than to the correction of criminals, who have been allowed by our present system to become enured to the commission of it.

A most interesting investigation which I have been lately carrying on as a Visiting Justice of the House of Correction at Cold Bath Fields, justifies me in predicting that when more is done to prevent crime than to punish it, our labours to diminish the burthens on the county purse will be crowned with far happier results than any we can now present to public view for the purpose of obtaining public support. From the Investigation before alluded to, it is evident that the want of proper parental care and the absence of domestic comforts are the two by far most fruitful and most manifest springs from which flows one vast tide of Juvenile Depravity and Crime, though let it not be supposed for a moment that these two springs cannot still further be traced to one deep seated source which might with God’s assistance be speedily dried up; but the public mind is not yet prepared for this discovery, and we must be content to deal with the two main springs of crime to which I have alluded, until the public mind is more enlightened on the subject.

The recent Establishment of Baths and Wash-Houses for the Working Classes, and the efforts lately made to provide suitable and comfortable dwellings for the Poor, show that the current of public opinion is fast waking up to the paramount importance of domestic comforts to secure social happiness. Without them, Home (that otherwise Magic word) can have no charms, for either the old or the young, and they are induced to seek pleasure abroad among the countless temptations of sin and depravity. Nothing can be more faithfully or more graphically depicted than the character and occupations of the young Thief of our great Towns, given by my excellent Friend and worthy colleague, Mr. Buchanan in his Remarks on the causes and state of “Juvenile crime in the Metropolis,”—but the remedy he proposes, falls far short I fear of what would be required to effect his purpose; and as I differ from him in some of the most prominent features of his plan, I am induced to follow his example and place my views before my brother Justices in a printed form for their consideration, in the hope that others will do the same, and that out of our various suggestions some practicable plan may be formed to meet the crying Evil which all admit, but for which so few seem prepared to suggest a remedy, and which has now become of such magnitude as to elicit universal and repeated complaints from Judges, and Juries, Justices, and Magistrates, and all concerned in the administration of our Criminal Laws.

It is in vain that the resources of the Government and Talents of its Executive are taxed to improve the condition and management of our penal settlements. To the young Minister entering for the first time on the duties of a colonial Secretary, the difficulties which this department of his office presents must be truly appalling, while he must feel that the present state of some of our penal settlements is a disgrace to civilized humanity—Has not money and talent enough been yet expended without adequate results to convince the Government (to use a homely Yorkshire phrase) that “they have got hold of the wrong end of the stick?” The present system is to allow a youth to become well hardened in villainy before he is transported. He is maintained alternately by the plunder of the public out of prison, and by the county purse in prison at a great expense for years; and after multiplied convictions for every grade of offence, from the trifling assault to the Highway Robbery and Mid-night Burglary, running through the mazes of every yard in the Gaol, carefully imparting into each the infamous tact, guilty ingenuity, and foul associations, slang language and wicked passions of the others, thus setting at naught all the carefully defined, and law enacted rules of what I have ever deemed to be under such circumstances, miscalled classification, he is at length deemed a worthy subject for Transportation, and is sent out to our penal colonies to form one of a community so depraved and degraded that, in moments of calm consideration, one is shocked at the means necessarily there resorted to, to make it manageable at all. A stupendous difficulty to the Executive abroad and a constant source of painful contemplation to the Government at home. Surely when we are driven by the earnest and justifiable remonstrances of our hard working colonists, who can no longer bear the constant infusion of such a polluted stream of Emigration among their industrious population, to found a new Colony in North Australia, at an enormous outlay, it would be wise to consider if a much less expense properly incurred at home might not effect far better results and be more like “getting hold of the right end of the stick.” It must be an obvious and admitted fact that old offenders for the most part rise from the ranks of Juvenile Depredators, and to cut off the supply to the former from the latter class would undoubtedly be striking at the root of the evil, and which might be done at home, where we can get at it conveniently instead of dealing with the branches many thousands of miles off, and at every possible disadvantage in Van Diemen’s Land and Norfolk Island. Surely, then, common sense points out that all our efforts should be directed to stay the plague of Juvenile depravity at home; and before I venture to suggest a means of accomplishing this Herculean task, let me ask three plain and simple questions—

1st. Has the Ministry of the Gospel the proper and divinely appointed instrument for the eradication of all sin, through the enforcement of Principles destructive of the love of all sin, been effectual for the purpose? Manifestly not.

2nd. Has education as now conducted, tho’ undoubtedly a great boon to the poorer classes, and poured upon them in 10,000 streams from the benevolent fountain of charity been effectual for the purpose? Manifestly not.

3rd. Has an improved Prison Discipline with its enlightened committees of Visiting Justices and Prison Inspectors, and its piles of Parliamentary Enactments been effectual for the purpose? Manifestly not.