1st. That the time specified shall not exceed three days in any one month.
2d. That it shall only apply to cases of first conviction.
3d. That it shall expire by its own limitation, in say two or three years, unless experience demands its re-enactment.
4th. That the act shall in no wise be considered as the beginning of a system which has for its objects the enactment of a series of laws intended in practical operations to discharge
every prisoner when supposed to be, or when he is in fact, reformed.
Your’s truly,
March 20, 1861. JAS. R. LUDLOW.
Philadelphia, March 20, 1861.
Mr Dear Sir—I highly approve of the enacting of a law to enable those convicted of crime to diminish their sentence by a continued course of good conduct. Towards the close of prisoners’ terms the authorities are often beset with applications to shorten it, and if the prisoner knew that it was in his power to do it, the authorities would be released from such application, and the prisoner, by adherence to good conduct, would form habits of subordination and virtue that would go far towards protecting him from perpetration of crime when released.