If the people of this land could be roused to examine the subject, our prisons would soon be managed upon principles which would tend to the elevation of the wretched beings who now come out of them more degraded and hardened in the commission of crime than they go in.
God grant that the day filled with such blessing for the poor convict, be not far distant!
Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
Obvious printer errors have been corrected, inconsistent hyphenation has been left as in the original. The following corrections which did not concern obvious printer errors have been made to the text.
- In the header for the second chapter ("At Night"), the number II. was added.
- "mammoth mouse" was "mammouth mouse".
- "aperture" was "apperture".
- "worrisome" was "worrysome".
- "awfullest" was "awfulest".
- "You ought to have pity on each other, if no one else has pity on you!": "one" was added.
- "As he went, he asked me to bring the No. 1 key.": "the" was added.
- "Don't be anxious, Ellen!": question mark was replaced by exclamation mark.