The Society continues to have the benefit of the labors of William J. Mullin, who for so many years has filled the place of “Agent” at the County Prison. His services are important to the Society, in the amelioration of the condition of a vast number of men, women, and even children, whom he finds in the cells of the prison, victims of the errors of public officers, of their own follies, of the vindictive feelings of unkind neighbors, of their own inordinate love of litigation, or their own or their parents’ crimes. He is not called to look to the cases of those who may be released by the Inspectors. His labors are with the prosecutors, the aldermen, the district attorney, and the court; and those labors resulted in the release of one thousand four hundred and ninety-one persons during the year 1863. These releases, of course, were all effected with the consent of some established authority. And it may be added, that of the whole number released, forty-three were children.
The amount of domestic misery consequent upon the arrest and incarceration of the 1491 persons is almost inappreciable. The injustice corrected by the successful interference must have been immense, and the pleasure brought to a suffering family by the restoration of parent or child to approved innocence, and the duties and comforts of home, must have been truly great.
But we are not to consider all these 1491 persons entirely innocent of the charges brought against them. The magistrate had the commitment supported by the oath of some complainant, and the complainant himself was undoubtedly often justified by the conduct of the prisoner. The blow for which assault and battery was charged, was probably given, and the fruit or toy whose loss led to the imprisonment for larceny, was taken by the accused. The pane of glass in the tavern window was probably broken by the intoxicated creature who was charged with “malicious mischief.” Nor, under these and similar circumstances, are we always to censure the magistrate for taking the oath of a citizen. He commits to prison, or holds to bail for trial, those who stand accused of the violation of private rights. The offender knew, before he entered upon his offensive conduct, that he was about to do wrong. But probably he did not understand the extent of that wrong, and especially was he ignorant of the extent of the penalty which he was about to incur.
We all know the axiom of criminal law, that “ignorance of the law excuseth no man;” but we all know, also, that the axiom is not of equal force in moral law; and the administration of criminal law itself has practical exceptions to the rule. We have already said that a large number of cases sent to court might easily be settled by the parties, but especially by the interference of the magistrate; and we may add, that more than two-thirds of the cases in which the magistrate holds, or commits the prisoners for trial, could, before reaching the prosecuting attorney, be settled, with benefit to the community and the offender. The requirements of the law are seen and felt by the accused before he finds himself committed. The vengeance of the law would do little towards reforming one who already sees his fault, and is ready, as far as possible, to make reparation. In such cases the interference of the Agent has been found most beneficial, not merely in procuring the discharge of the innocent, separating him from the association of untried vagabonds and thieves, and sending him back to his family and business, to work out and work off the stain which even false imprisonment has set upon his character. But greatly advantageous has been that interference in behalf of the guilty, of him who had actually committed the act charged, but who felt the danger of his position as well as the error or turpitude of his conduct, and who needed only to be saved from the actual verdict of the jury and the sentence of the court, to become a candidate again for public confidence and general respect. To all visitors of prisons it is known that hundreds, who commit a violation of the criminal law, never feel the degradation of their act, or submit their minds to its disgraceful consequences, till they are made companions of culprits in the prison cells,—that to be known to the good as having done a notable wrong, is a mortifying means for repentance and amendment; while to be in companionship with the admitted bad, is to be almost certainly sealed to future infamy. This strong but correct view of the cases of new offenders, is that upon which the Agent has based his action; and it is not only due to him, but to the plans and labors of the Society, to say, that while it is probable that some of those whom he, with much labor, has released from prison, have shown that they did not improve by his beneficent efforts, it is most true that by far the largest portion have shown by their subsequent conduct that they appreciate the benevolence that interposed in their behalf, and were ready to make the only compensation which is acceptable to their benefactor, viz., an amended life.
It is dangerous—it is at least wrong—to make a low estimate of the labors that take a human being from the cells of a prison, when his character is such as to lead to a belief that he will do no wrong, by example, to society, nor sink in the scale of morals. It is wrong to say that the verdict of a jury fully acquits a man, restores him at once and entirely to society, and wipes away the stain which a prison cell has imparted. Thousands hear of the charge who never know of the acquittal,—thousands recollect the man as the inmate of a prison, who have no remembrance of the full cause of his release. The adverse statement of the press, as it regards the act, or the adverse testimony on the trial, lives in the minds of many who do not know, or scarcely would care, about all that was said in behalf of the accused to induce a complete acquittal.
We know the power of conscious innocence; but we know also the effect of conscious disgrace. A man who has been imprisoned long, on a criminal charge, may, in his chamber, or in his family, feel the peace of a “conscience void of offence;” but, abroad in the world, he will feel himself continually on the defensive,—always anxious to show that he is still worthy of the confidence he seeks,—always fearful that some act or word of his, unnoticeable in others, may be construed as consistent with charges which he has publicly disproved; and he feels that the months or weeks of imprisonment which he has suffered, are not to be redeemed by a whole life of liberty and honorable conduct.
There is something in the atmosphere of a criminal prison which seems never to forsake the liberated prisoner: he feels its influence, and suspects all to be guarding against its infection. In his imagination, the deadly mephitic air is always about him. A reflection of innocence, or a sense of repentance and full reparation, may appease the conscience, but they will not take away the remembrance of the incarceration; and it is to be feared that such painful reflections have, when acting upon a morbid sensibility, led to suicide, or to a return to crime. To diminish the evil, to lessen the effect of guilt, to save self-respect, and restore man to the duties and enjoyments of society, are the objects of the labors of the Agent, when he interferes to save even the offender from such a punishment as shall operate upon him beyond the demands of the law, and, reaching even over the culprit, shall bring misery and disgrace and ruin upon his dependent family.
It is in this light the services of the Agent are to be regarded. He releases hundreds of innocent persons, every year. He restores to family and friends those who have been detained for insignificant offences. He calls from the cells of the prison such as may have done acts that would have lead to a criminal life, and he gives them their freedom before association with the bad has weakened their moral perception,—before they can have formed resolutions to revenge upon society the offence of their incarceration. He assists to save the convict from a return to the haunts of vice, and the associations that led to his crime and his protracted imprisonment, and, supplying trifling sums, and aiding in the application of funds furnished to him, he has seen the prisoner leave the cell which he had occupied for more than a year, and return to a distant family, to commence a life of improvement, and become a useful member of the community in which he was reared; and it may be added that, in one instance, at least, while the care of the Agent, in connection with an Inspector, saved the released female from fulfilling an engagement of crime which she had rashly formed, it placed her in the bosom of a family that received her as a child, and made her feel all the comforts and confidence of home which can be felt by the repentant and the forgiven.
The immense saving to the city and county, resulting from the efficient labors of the Agent, by which is saved the cost of maintenance in prison, and of trial and acquittal in court, is worthy the consideration of the tax-payer, and is appreciated by the Inspectors of the prison, who administer the moneys appropriated to the maintenance of the imprisoned. This Society is specially concerned in the moral and physical results of the labors of the Agent, and feel that the objects proposed in the formation of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Prisons, have been greatly promoted by the successful labors which they authorize and which they approve.
The Agent of the Society for the County Prison makes a monthly report of his labors, and his small expenditures for clothing furnished to the outgoing prisoner, and for his fare to some other place. These reports show the constancy and the value of his labors in the right direction. We have already mentioned the number of the releases secured by his efforts. We may, perhaps, appropriately repeat here a remark elsewhere made, that the services of the Agent are not required with prisoners whom the Inspectors are by law competent to discharge,—such as are committed for drunkenness, disorderly conduct, vagrancy, breach of the peace, and such offences; but to cases that require the intervention of the magistrates or the courts to release the accused, the interference of the Agent is directed. Among the many cases which he has reported to the Society, we select a few which serve to illustrate the character of his labors, and their influence in alleviating the miseries of prisons, and serving the cause of the unfortunate innocent, whose errors may have led them into questionable situations, or whose poverty may have placed them in bad company or adverse circumstances.