“Society has a vital interest in a mission that induces the night-burglar to abandon his trade and allow men to sleep in safety, and that converts the felon’s tools into proper implements, and brings his mind and heart into a willing frame for house-building instead of shop-lifting and house-breaking. We approach an employer, and for his safety confide to him our knowledge of the past life and present state of the applicant, now penitent and resolved on reform. By awaking sympathy, we open a door to honest industry, which he enters, and is surrounded by shop mates, ignorant of his crime, ready to fellowship him without prejudice; so that, feeling safe from those taunts that would otherwise assail him, and which, surely, have no healing or strengthening power, he becomes inspired with hope, and courage to make self-reliant effort, trusting that, with the added blessing of Heaven, he will henceforward be an honest man.”
Many of the Reports which we have received are from State Prisons, Penitentiaries, &c. They, of course, are interesting for the statistics they contain, and will be acceptable to those who are directly interested in, and responsible for, the condition of penal institutions. But we feel naturally more interest in the progress of improvement in the care of the prisoner, than in the cost of his maintenance. It is gratifying to find that, in all these prisons, the voice of instruction is heard, and that, in addition to stated religious exercises, there is personal visitation, and this seems to be followed up by the established preacher or “moral instructor.”
The State “Schools” in Massachusetts for rearing, instructing, and reforming girls and boys, not only in separate buildings, but in separate parts of the State, appear to be doing immense good. The reports upon the conduct of many who have graduated from the Schools, show success; and some remarks intimate also, that the failure to reform all, has excited unwelcome criticism. We do not copy the reply: it is exactly what every “visitor” of this Society feels,—it is what the managers of the House of Refuge in this city would say. The largest anticipations of the self-sacrificing philanthropist are not to be realized. The true philosopher will appreciate the benefit to the individual and to society, resulting from a single reformation.
We have received the Eighteenth Annual Report of the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of New York. It is a clear, explicit statement of the doings of the Agent and Committees of the Association, and will be read with deep interest by those who have a sympathy with the unfortunate and a desire to assist into goodness those that have done wrong. The details of proceedings by the Agent are quite similar to those set forth by Mr. Mullin, the Agent of our Society, and show a low condition of primary justice in New York, and a wretched state of the lower stratum of society in that city. Tyranny in the small landlords, utter debasement of the moral faculties in the multiplied liquor dealers, and a determination on all hands to do the worst by others and the best (according to their own estimate of good) to themselves, distinguish the condition and conduct of those who in New York live by fleecing the shorn and miserable, and making vice of every kind subservient to their plans of personal profit.
The Report to which we now refer, contains much that is usually presented in the Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Prison. The statements, however, are interesting as showing the condition in New York of those affairs which occupy the attention of our own Society.
We notice one circumstance in the Report of the New York Society worthy of attention, viz., that the agents of that Society have used their influence with the courts to increase the severity of the sentence intended to be pronounced upon a convict. This was justified by a knowledge of the antecedents of the offender, and of the character of his mind. We are not aware that any interference exactly of that character is to be recorded of those who represent our Society; but we have occasion to believe that in one or two instances an opinion was given against a re-consideration of a sentence with a view of lessening its severity; and that opinion was accepted. There was more mercy in such a course than in shortening the term of imprisonment. In one instance, at least, the beneficial results are obvious.
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
After this Annual Report was prepared and accepted by the “Acting Committee” of the Society, there were received from London several volumes of Parliamentary Reports on the condition of the various prisons in England and Ireland in 1862, and also a large folio volume containing “a Report of the Select Committee of the House of Lords on the Present State of Discipline in Gaols and Houses of Correction;” together with the proceedings of the Committees, Minutes of Evidence, and an Appendix for 1863. The “Reports” to which allusion is first made, are from the Inspector General of Prisons, and they refer to the condition and operation of all the prisons in each kingdom, and are followed by special Reports from each prison, separately made by the proper officers to the Inspector General. The minuteness of these Reports is truly wonderful. Every authorized movement in each prison is set forth, the discipline and dietetics explained in all their particulars, the accommodations of the inmates, the number of beds and blankets, and all the minutiæ of their management. The exact cost of each branch of supplies is given, and the character and changes of food for each class.
We note too that in Ireland every prison is supplied with moral and religious teachers, of various denominations. Generally there are one clergyman of the Episcopal Church, one of the Presbyterian Church, and one of the Roman Catholic Church. These seem to devote their services to the moral and religious instruction of those who may, by denominational distinction, belong to their ministry, and each makes an annual report of the moral condition of his charge, and such remarks upon the condition of affairs in the prison as may be the result of his observation. He also gives the number of his visits during the year. They are all salaried officers; each receives from $150 to $200 per annum.
The details of the exact condition and number of every article supplied to the prison, show the care that is bestowed upon the stores of the prison; and the tables of the number, condition and offences of the prisoners are instructive to those who would be familiar with prison management, with its cost, and other requirements.