“It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the prisoners themselves during the daily visitation in their cells, and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their minds, when alone, that heavenly truth which may ultimately bring them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the separate system, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner, by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, when and where intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”
III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31, 1848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died. Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in 1848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142 for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners. In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and 53 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation. The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were upwards of six thousand dollars.
The physician’s report states, that “but one death occurred during the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and economical.”—p. 43.
The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and religious instruction.
“The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but, to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a mild severity. The less abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are his friends. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind offices of a sympathizing friendship.”
IV. The inspectors of the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown, make a very favorable report of the health of body and mind of the convicts under their care. “The favorite system of congregate labor and lenient discipline, established in our prison,” they say, “has fully answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every year brings with it new proofs of its practicability, and of its great superiority over any and every other that differs from it.”
None will dissent, we presume, from the remark of the inspectors, that “it should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the prison is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best ends to be answered by it, is excessive, is beyond the sentence and intention of the law, and is without law or justice.”
The number of convicts received during the year ending September 30, 1848, was 122; number discharged during the year 129; remaining, 281. Of those discharged, 94 were by expiration and 27 by remission of sentence, 2 were removed to the lunatic asylum, 2 escaped, and 3 died. Of the 281 in prison, 22 are negroes, and 8 mulattoes, 203 are below middle age, and 228 are for crimes against property! Seventy-one are foreigners, of whom 30 are from Ireland. Of the employments, 72 are stone-cutters, 20 blacksmiths, 69 cabinet-makers and upholsterers, 21 brush makers, 9 “solitary prison-sweepers.”
The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing well—are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.
The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!