To all who may be confined in the proposed Penitentiary Establishment, this difficulty will be removed.—A difficulty in the present state of things, the magnitude of which cannot be estimated, since it generates most of those evils to which are to be attributed the extensive corruption of morals, and the increase and multiplication of crimes.
Upon the whole, it would be expedient to give full effect to the new Penitentiary System as soon as possible; which, to use the language of the Select Committee, (p. 30.) "seems to bid fairer than any other that was ever yet offered to the Public, to diminish the Public expenditure in this branch, and to produce a salutary reform in the objects of the proposed institution."
At the same time for the purpose of rendering the System of Punishments useful in the greatest possible degree to the Community, and that they may operate, in the fullest extent, as an example, tending to the prevention of crimes, it would seem that the following general principles should be adopted.
1st. That examples of punishment by death, (except, perhaps, in cases of Murder), should only take place twice a year: and that the impression upon the Public mind may be stronger from the less frequency of such painful exhibitions, they ought on all occasions to be conducted with a degree of solemnity suited to the object in the view of the Legislature, when the life of a fellow-creature is sacrificed, that it may really prove useful in deterring others; and not be contemplated with indifference, as is too often the case at present, without making the least impression, or being in any degree beneficial to the great ends of Public justice.
2d. That the System of the Hulks should be at once wholly abandoned, as a source of great expence, producing in the result infinitely more evil than good, and thereby exhausting the Finances of the Country without any one beneficial consequence.
3d. That Transportation to New South Wales and Norfolk Island, should be limited to a few of the most depraved, incorrigible, and irreclaimable Convicts, whose vicious and ungovernable conduct, while under the discipline of a Penitentiary House, rendered their reform hopeless.—That shipments should only take place once in three years, and that the Civil and Military Establishment of the Colony should be gradually reduced, so as to bring the National Expenditure on this branch of Police within moderate bounds.
4th. That every thing should be done to accelerate the erection of National Penitentiary Houses.—That their capacity, including appendages, should be equal to the accommodation of 3,500 Convicts of all descriptions, so as to admit of different degrees of treatment and labour, according to the age, sex, and state of health of the Convicts.
5th. That the local Penitentiary Houses in the different Counties, destined for the Punishment of persons convicted of Larcenies, and other minor offences, should be conducted, as nearly as possible, upon the plan of the National Establishments; and also by contract, under circumstances where the labour of the Convicts may, by the resources of the Contractor, be rendered (without hardship) equal, or nearly equal, to the expence; a measure conceived to be almost, in every instance, practicable, where knowledge of business, stimulated by interest, shall form an ingredient in the executive management.
6th. That there should be attached to each County Penitentiary House, a Subsidiary Establishment, into which all discharged prisoners should be admitted who choose it, and where they might be continued in the exercise of the trades in which they were employed during their confinement, and for which they should receive wages in proportion to their earnings, until they could otherwise find a settled employment through an honest medium: thus giving those who are desirous of reforming an opportunity of sheltering themselves from the dangers of relapse, which arise from being afloat upon the Public—idle, and without the means of subsistence.
In carrying the Penitentiary System into effect, it ought not to escape notice, that the hardship imposed on Convicts, with respect to manual labour, would be no more than every honest artisan who works industriously for his family, must, during the whole course of his life, impose upon himself. The condition of a Convict would, even in some respects, be superior, inasmuch as he would enjoy medical assistance, and other advantages tending to the preservation of health, which do not attach to the lower classes of the people, whose irregularities not being restrained, while their pursuits and labours are seldom directed by good judgment and intelligence, often produce bad health, and extreme indigence and distress.