No. 5.—Kentucky State Penitentiary.
A friend has kindly forwarded to us a copy of the annual report of the keeper, clerk, &c., of the Kentucky Penitentiary, for the year 1848. It is located at Frankfort, and as the reports indicate, is administered with much success. We have noted a few items of general interest.
It was formerly the custom to shave the head of every convict once a week. This humiliating process was required by law, but, at the suggestion of the present keeper, it was so modified, as to leave it to the discretion of the keeper to shave or not to shave. The good effects of the measure were at once manifest. We are not told to what extent the practice now prevails, but are left to infer that it is only adopted as a mode of punishment. There can be no doubt, we think, that all methods of humbling or subduing a convict which savour of vindictiveness, or occasion a needless violation of a natural and proper self-respect, are to be deprecated. External badges of infamy and degradation may be needful sometimes as a precaution against escapes, or for the recapture of convicts, but it is a great advantage to be able to dispense with them.
The average number of convicts in confinement at the date of the report, was 161, and the clear profits upon their earnings during the year, were eight or nine thousand dollars. The bagging business has been found dull, and very extensive preparations are now made for coopering.
The number of convicts received during the year ending December 1, 1848, was sixty-nine, and the number discharged by pardon during the same time was THIRTY-THREE, or nearly half as many pardons as commitments. This number is exclusive of five who were pardoned the day before the expiration of their sentence, to restore them to citizenship. All the convicts are males, and only 16 of the 161, are colored; and 128 were convictions of crime against property, and only twenty-five of the sentences exceed seven years. Nine of the convicts are from Ireland, and nine from other foreign countries, leaving 143 native Americans; 97 are under 30 years of age; 114 habitually or occasionally intemperate; 47 utterly destitute of any degree of education; and 80 were never married. From a review of the prison history for a period of 13 years, it appears that the largest number received in any one year, was 81, (1842,) and the smallest, 49, (1837;) the number of convicts received during the 13 years from the 88 counties of the State, was 877, of whom 383 were from the county of Jefferson alone, of which Louisville is the shire-town. Of the 877 convictions, 551 were for crimes against property, or against the person for property. Of the 877, only eleven were females. The number of cases of disease occurring during the year, was 244, of which 128 were cured. Days lost by sickness during the year, 1664.
No. 6.—An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of Convicts, one from the other, to Produce Disease and Derangement. By A Citizen of Pennsylvania. Philadelphia, E. C. & J. Biddle, 1849.
The questions involved in this inquiry and the elaborate manner in which they are handled in it, forbid a short or superficial notice of its contents; and hence we must ask for farther time to enable us to study, compare and collate, before we attempt to analyze the work for the use of our readers. If, however, in the mean time, they should choose to read and think for themselves in the premises, by a careful perusal of this “Inquiry,” we are safe in saying that the time will be well spent and the labor fully rewarded.