The house occupied by the “Howard Institution” is perhaps as convenient as any one that is not originally designed for such a purpose; but it does not afford such opportunities of individualizing the treatment as would be desirable. The New York premises are probably no better in this respect.
We cannot refrain from expressing the conviction that the more rigidly persons who have been convicted of crime can be separated one from another, until their resolutions to lead an amended life are fully confirmed and well tested, the less the danger of a relapse. We are aware of the argument sometimes used, viz.: That these principles cannot be tested till the parties are exposed to temptation. But there are temptations enough in the ordinary circumstances of life. If a young woman, discharged from the penitentiary, and received into some “Home” or “Refuge,” should be kept from all association with those who have been in like condemnation, until she is prepared for, and provided with, some place in the country, the first day in her new position would present temptations enough to test her newly acquired strength. Industry, honesty, truthfulness and sobriety are every day virtues. If they are possessed they will show themselves without urging, but while under any degree of restraint or inspection these virtues may be counterfeited. It is not needful to put them into the company of a vagrant, a thief, a liar or a drunkard to bring them out. On the contrary, our true policy is to keep them as far apart as possible, and especially when the virtues are struggling to supplant the vices.
Let our penitentiaries and county gaols provide for strict individual separation, accommodation and employment of all prisoners, of every grade, tried and untried. Let kind, judicious, intelligent friends visit them, express proper sympathy with them, and hold out encouragement to them. Upon their discharge, let there be found a place of temporary refuge where they can be comfortably provided for, relieved from the pressure of immediate temptation, exempted from any associations unfriendly to their permanent reform, and prepared by a reasonable probation for some employment. The moment this is accomplished, and some benevolent heart is opened to give the party an opportunity to retrieve a forfeited place in the confidence of the community, let it be embraced with a continuance of the watchful care which may be still needed in unforeseen emergencies.
With these precautions and aids we are confident thousands of our convicts might be rescued from reckless criminality or hopeless despair, and some of the most prolific sources of crime be dried up. The government is bound, by every consideration of public policy, to aid liberally in restoring to honest and virtuous ways those who have been subjected to penal suffering, and who are disposed to amend their lives. Its functions do not begin nor end in arrests, convictions and sentences. It is to employ all practicable means of keeping people out of crime, by encouraging and sustaining schools—literary, industrial and reformatory, and bringing ALL the children and youth of the country under their influence. And when, in spite of all these wholesome provisions, men and women do betake themselves to criminal courses, and have suffered the just reward of their deeds, it is the duty of the government not to leave them, at the expiration of their sentence, to shift for themselves, but to hold out a kind hand to them, if they are inclined to better ways, and assist them to regain a creditable position among their fellow men. Society has the worst of it if they relapse into their previous associations and practices. And hence, we earnestly plead for the support and encouragement, by public and private liberality, of every sensible scheme to convert a convict into an honest man—an enemy of society into a friend and helper.
Art. V.—IRISH CONVICT PRISONS.
The intermediate system of discipline adopted in the convict prisons of Ireland, to which we have called the attention of our readers in previous numbers of this Journal, seems to gain favor. The simple principle on which it is founded is the gradual improvement of those prisoners who are susceptible of reforming influences, until they are prepared for entire freedom, and the return to and continuance in confinement of those who are obstinately bent on pursuing a criminal career. The system is so arranged as to give the convict the control, in a great measure, of his own position. If he is disposed to do well, every reasonable aid is afforded him for the purpose. If his vicious habits are so confirmed as to forbid the hope of his permanent reformation, society is protected from his hostility, by his retention, indefinitely, in prison. In the first place, the prisoner must conform to certain rules, while confined in the ordinary prison, to entitle himself to the privileges of the intermediate prisons. Any misconduct at this stage, will have the effect of postponing his admission into the intermediate prison, and thereby defer, to an equal extent, the remission of a portion of his sentence. The following table shows, at a glance, what inducement the prisoner has to co-operate with the government in his reformation:
FIXED PERIODS OF IMPRISONMENT.
SENTENCES. In ordinary Prisons. Shortest term in intermediate
Prisons.
Years. Months. Years. Months.