The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past. It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws, are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become alike odious.
Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those who may become insane during their imprisonment.
Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have had insane relatives;—10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4 mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.
Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.
(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.
II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.
The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was 55—discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females; and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32 were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers, 15 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the year, 38 were under middle age.
The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment, and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner, released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears, that, with one exception, they were all received and discharged in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted, and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good health.
As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution, the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number only four have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to have performed their regularly allotted task.” We are not surprised that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so remarkable a measure of health.
From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very sensible paragraph.