discipline therein, and urging the erection of penitentiaries in suitable parts of the Commonwealth, for the more effectual separation and employment of prisoners, and so proving the superiority of that system.”
Western Penitentiary.—From the time that the principle of individual separation of convicts was recognized by the Legislature, in 1790, the legal provisions and the arrangements of the prison had been so defective, that a full and fair trial of the system could not be made; yet notwithstanding the impediments it encountered, its good results were so evident, that the Society deemed it proper to call public attention to the importance of extending it throughout the State. This being done, in the same year (1818) the Act was passed, authorizing the erection, at Pittsburg, of the Western State Penitentiary, “on the principle of the solitary confinement of the convicts, as the same is, or hereafter may be, established by law.” In the passage of this Act, it is rather to be regretted that the term “separate” had not been used, instead of “solitary,” as it would have more accurately described what is now emphatically called “the Pennsylvania System,” and would not have been so likely to aid in the prejudice towards it, which is entertained by persons in other States and countries.
Inquiries from London.—About the same time Dr. Lushington, on behalf of the London Society for improving the condition of Prisons, then recently established, requested of our Society information as to the results of the melioration of our Criminal Code. The reply expressed strong confidence in the full success of the system, when the difficulties were overcome which resulted from the construction of the Philadelphia gaol, not allowing the fundamental principle of separation to be observed except to a very limited extent, and when
the new Penitentiary, then in progress at Pittsburg, was completed, the plan of construction of which being intended to especially adapt it to entire separation of the prisoners from each other.
Inquiries from New York.—About the same time, a series of inquiries, tending to the same point, were addressed to us, by a Committee of citizens of New York. The reply most fully sustained the efficacy of our more lenient system, so far as facilities existed to properly carry it out. “Were a Penitentiary established,” they say, “sufficiently large, and so constructed as to keep the prisoners separated from each other during work, meals, and sleep (in other words, perpetual separation), and if no pardons were granted except in extraordinary cases, its efficacy would soon be self-evident.”
They also referred to the difficulty of procuring suitable employment, the frequency of pardons, and the deplorable condition of discharged prisoners, as being very serious, but not really necessary evils. They regarded the suggestion to extend capital punishment beyond its then narrow limits, or to resort to transportation, as being evidently inexpedient.
“The chain was also repudiated, and a fair trial of labor in seclusion from other convicts, with moderate diet, under suitable agents, was urged as the wisest, safest, most humane, most efficient, and in the end most economical mode of dealing with criminals.”
Memorial to the Legislature to establish an Eastern Penitentiary.—The investigations of the Society, and their observations of the practical effect of the reformatory suggestions which they had made from time to time, so far as they had been carried out, so thoroughly convinced them of the correctness of these views, that they addressed a memorial to the Legislature of the
State, in January, 1821, setting forth the tendency of the degrading and sanguinary punishments formerly inflicted to excite the malignant passions of offenders, instead of bringing them to a better mind, and thus frustrating the great ends of law; and then the various modifications of the system, designed to obviate existing evils.
These modifications, they alleged, had proved quite as valuable as was anticipated, and clearly demonstrated the superiority of the new system, if it were fairly tried. They, therefore, urged “the erection of a new Penitentiary for the Eastern District of the State, so constructed as to admit of the constant separation and healthful labor of the convicts.” This was promptly responded to, and in the following May the law was passed for building the Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia, which is now the model prison on the “Pennsylvania” or “separate system,” and as such, at this day maintains a prominent position among the penal institutions of the world, and stands as a noble monument of the liberality, humanity, and wise economy of its founders.