In respect to the physical health of the convicts, we are informed that only one death occurred during the year, and this was by suicide. It was a young German, who had been in prison only five days, and whose sentence was only six months. We do not learn that any one at Trenton ascribes this melancholy event to the effect of convict-separation, but it would be in keeping with the spirit which has sometimes manifested itself in discussions of this subject, to set it down as one of the fruits of the separate system!
The State Prison of New Jersey is established on the principle of individual separation. The law provides, that “every convict shall be confined in one of the cells of the prison, separate and alone, except in such cases of sickness as are by the act provided for.” That is, if the physician reports to the keeper that a prisoner requires a nurse, the keeper, with the approbation of the acting Inspectors, may employ one of the prisoners; and “whenever, in the opinion of the physician, the enlargement of any prisoner shall be absolutely necessary to the preservation of life,” he may be removed from his cell, “but the prisoner shall in every such case be kept from the society of other prisoners, except such as may attend as nurses.”
No language could more clearly express the will of the Legislature that convict-separation should be the basis of the discipline. In addition to these positive requirements, the Inspectors are to embrace, in their annual report to the Legislature, “such remarks and statements respecting the system of separate confinement and the efficiency of the same, as shall be the result of their own observation.” The same act authorizes them to make rules and regulations for the prison as they may deem necessary and proper, “consistent with the principle of separate confinement and the laws of the State.”
Now we might naturally suppose that a body of law-makers, receiving such a report of the condition of a body of convicted law-breakers, from those who are appointed to take care of them, would be slow to countenance any direct and palpable breach of the law by themselves; and yet it must have been known to the Legislature of New Jersey that the provisions of the law establishing the State prison, are rendered entirely nugatory by their neglect to provide means for executing them. They are supposed to know that the prison contains but one hundred and ninety-two cells, and that ten of these are occupied for workshops and store-rooms. A brisk walk of five minutes would supply the honorable the Legislature with demonstrative evidence that one hundred and eighty-two cells would not suffice for the separate confinement of two hundred and thirty-two prisoners, and hence they would see fifty cells (7½ by 16 feet) occupied by two tenants each, against the peace and dignity of the Commonwealth (which has forbidden such association) and of course “against the form of the statute in such case made and provided.”
In such an emergency, we might further suppose that measures would be adopted at once to enlarge the accommodations and to obviate the alleged necessity for thus openly violating the law, as early as possible. With this impression, we are surprised that the Executive of the State, whose particular function it is to see that the laws are duly executed, does not urge prompt action in the premises. So far from any intimation of this sort, he speaks of the administration and management of the prison throughout, as eminently successful and commendable; of the keeper and officers as having sustained their reputation for ability and efficiency—of five thousand dollars of surplus earnings as having been paid into the State treasury during the year—and of about two thousand dollars paid to discharged convicts for overwork, all which he thinks exhibits unexampled prosperity in the affairs of the prison.
He even goes so far as to say, “that the discipline has been well maintained,” adding (rather paradoxically we think,) that the “large number of prisoners renders it impracticable to observe the law in relation to solitary” (separate) “confinement, and the necessity of association impairs to some extent the corrective regulations of the institution.”
We humbly submit that it is not the “necessity of association,” but the association itself that does the mischief, and farther that Jerseymen would better understand the case if it were said in plain English, that until cells enough are built to give each convict a cell by himself, the occupants will be more likely to become worse than better, at the expense of the State, and in deliberate violation of its positive laws.
This view of the case becomes quite imposing, when it is considered that of the one hundred and ninety-seven convicts, one hundred and sixty-eight are, or about four-fifths, are in on a first conviction. Of course, every precaution is essential to give the discipline of the prison its most benign and efficient influence. It is passing strange that an enlightened State should pocket five thousand dollars of the surplus earnings of her convict-population, while the accommodations for accomplishing the only legitimate objects of the prison are so narrow as to require a constant violation of the law, and a constant defeat of its wholesome ends. It may be, however, that to violate laws has become the rule, and to obey them the exception. As an illustration, it may suffice to say, in respect to this same New Jersey State Prison, that the use of tobacco in any form is peremptorily forbidden by law; yet we are informed, on indisputable authority, that the prisoners both chew and smoke, and that some of them have taken their first lessons in these arts after their admission to the prison!
We have made these suggestions with much freedom, and we hope without offence. We have hearty, intelligent co-adjutors in Jersey, who are aiming with us to establish the convict-discipline of the country on a truly humane, efficient, philosophical and Christian basis. To this end, we maintain that every prison or place of confinement for persons charged with or convicted of crime, should furnish a suitable apartment for each individual, separate from every other individual suspected or convicted of crime. We have often cited the State prison at Trenton as one of this class, and have uniformly espoused the views of the Inspectors and principal officers, at times when they were opposed by crotchety speculators within or without the prison; and we shall be greatly disappointed, if means are not promptly used to conform the discipline to the provisions of law.