Art. IV.—PENNSYLVANIA PENITENTIARIES.—
Twenty-Fourth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, dated January 1, 1853, pp. 36.
Report of the Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, dated January 10, 1853, pp. 24.
These two documents embrace the details of the convict-discipline of the State of Pennsylvania for the year 1852. It is well known that both the institutions are established on one and the same principle, and are administered, so far as the discipline is concerned, under one and the same law. It may not be uninteresting to review them briefly in connection.
| E. State Penitentiary. | W. State Penitentiary. | Grand Total. | |||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Whites. | Blacks. | Total. | Whites. | Blacks. | Total. | ||||||
| Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | Male. | Female. | ||||
| On hand January 1, 1852, | 310 | 174 | 484 | ||||||||
| Received during the year, | 109 | 4 | 12 | 1 | 126 | 84 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 96 | 222 |
| In custody at date of report, | 219 | 12 | 48 | 4 | 283 | 165 | 3 | 18 | 1 | 181 | 470 |
| Disch’d by exp. of sentence, | 56 | 5 | 28 | 8 | 92 | 56 | 148 | ||||
| Disch’d by pardon, | 40 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 45 | 24 | 69 | ||||
| Disch’d by death, | 2 | 2 | 3 | 5 | |||||||
| Removed, | 12 | 2 | 14 | ||||||||
In the Eastern State Penitentiary, the labor of the prisoners has nearly defrayed the expense of their subsistence; while in the Western State Penitentiary, the labor of the convicts has not only earned their support, but has paid four-fifths the salaries of the officers.
The number of commitments to the Western State Penitentiary has increased so much, as to require the erection of a new range of cells—for want of which in the crowded state of the prison, the required separation has been in some cases impracticable. But no departure from the strict observance of the discipline has been allowed, except where a necessity which knows no law, required it.
If it should be supposed that the apparent increase of crime betokens the inefficiency of the discipline, it would be an unwarranted inference. The increased number of convictions might tend to show the increase of crime, or of sagacity and thoroughness in detecting and prosecuting it; but there is another and abundantly adequate cause to account for the increase in the present case, and it is the one assigned by the inspectors, viz.—the intemperate use of intoxicating drinks. Of the ninety-six received during the year, eighty-nine are regarded as having been brought to the felon’s home by such indulgence! Of one hundred and twenty-six received into the Eastern State Penitentiary during the year, only thirty-two are registered as temperate, leaving ninety-four on the list of drinkers, moderate or immoderate.