.dt The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy, by\
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The Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy

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<xl>CONSTITUTION</xl>||<s>OF THE</s>||\
<xl><I>Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.</I></xl>
.sp 2
When we consider that the obligations of benevolence which
are founded on the precepts and examples of the Author of Christianity,
are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures;
and when we reflect upon the miseries which penury,
hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and
guilt, (the usual attendants of prisons,) involve with them, it
becomes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind
who are the subjects of those miseries. By the aid of humanity,
their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the links
which should bind the whole family of mankind together, under
all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degrees and
modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested, as may,
instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring
our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction
of the truth and obligation of these principles, the subscribers
have associated themselves under the title of “<sc>The
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of
Public Prisons</sc>.”

For effecting these purposes, they have adopted the following
<sc>Constitution</sc>.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE I.
.sp 2
The officers of the Society shall consist of a President, two
Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, two Counsellors,
and an Acting Committee; all of whom shall be chosen at the
stated meeting to be held in the first month (January) of each
year, and shall continue in office until their successors are elected;
but in case an election, from any cause, shall not be then held,
it shall be the duty of the President to call a special meeting of
the Society within thirty days, for the purpose of holding such
election, of which at least three days’ notice shall be given.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE II.
.sp 2
The President shall preside in all meetings, and subscribe all
public acts of the Society. He may call special meetings whenever
he may deem it expedient; and shall do so when requested
in writing by five members. In his absence, one of the Vice-Presidents
may act in his place.
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ARTICLE III.
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The Secretaries shall keep fair records of the proceedings of
the Society, and shall conduct its correspondence.
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<s>NEW SERIES.</s>\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_<s>NO. III.</s>

<l>THE JOURNAL</l>


<xs>OF</xs>


<xl>PRISON DISCIPLINE</xl>


<xs>AND</xs>


<l>PHILANTHROPY.</l>


<s>PUBLISHED ANNUALLY</s>

<s>UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR
ALLEVIATING THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS,”
INSTITUTED 1787.</s>


JANUARY, 1864.
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PHILADELPHIA:
<s>J. B. CHANDLER, PRINTER, 806 & 808 CHESTNUT STREET.
1864.</s>
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<I>Rooms of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons.</I> }
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At a meeting of the Acting Committee of the Philadelphia
Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public
Prisons, held on the evening of the First Month,
(January) 21, 1864, the Editorial Board, (appointed to
take charge of the Journal and papers, and the Annual
Report,) consisting of Joseph R. Chandler, James J. Barclay,
Edward H. Bonsall, and James M. Corse, M. D.,[#]
presented the Annual Report, which, having been considered
and approved, was ordered to be transmitted to
the Society.
.pm fn-start
It may be proper to state that Townsend Sharpless, one of the Vice-Presidents
of the Society, was appointed on this Board, but was prevented by
sickness from taking part in its labors, and he died before the Report was
made to the Acting Committee.
.pm fn-end

At the Annual Meeting of the Society, held First
Month, (January) 28, 1864, the Report of the “Acting
Committee.” was presented, and after consideration, was
referred back to the Acting Committee, with instructions
to cause the whole (or such parts thereof as might
be deemed best) to be printed in the usual form, with any
other matter that should be thought advisable.

At a meeting of the Acting Committee, Second Month
(February) 11, 1864, it was ordered that the Annual Report,
signed by the President and Secretary, be referred
to the members by whom it was proposed, with instructions
to them to cause a suitable number of copies thereof
to be printed.
.ti 20
<l>JOHN J. LYTLE,</l> <I>Secretary</I>.

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REPORT.
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In presenting the Report of the Seventy-Eighth Year
of the labors of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating
the Miseries of Public Prisons,” we are struck with
what in this country may be regarded as a remarkable
instance of longevity. Few benevolent societies in
the United States survive their founders. Some effect
a certain object and are allowed to fall into uselessness
and disorganization. Others arise, with kindred purposes
and similar means, and produce other good with
an advantage of new zeal and fresh machinery. In
Europe numerous philanthropic associations have outlived
their usefulness, not so much from a diminution of
the numbers that need aid, as from changes in their circumstances.
The funds do not fail, but the right to
apply them, in the changed condition of society, has
ceased. The continued existence of the association is
secured by the capital upon which it was founded, and
the lumbering machinery is annually reviewed by those
charged with its custody, and it is then consigned to
another year’s seclusion and repose. The dust of antiquity
settles upon it, to give it an interest with some,
but the idea of usefulness is no longer entertained.
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In many of the cases of defunct associations in <i>this</i>
country, the wrongs or sufferings that suggested their
organization were only temporary, and with the accomplishment
of their objects they ceased to exist, or they
have given place to others better adapted to the good
ends proposed. Most of the still remaining inoperative
associations of the old world were called into existence
by permanent evils, but their usefulness was made temporary
by certain fixed requirements that were soon to
render them inapplicable to the changes in the political,
religious and social condition of the people. But
“The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries
of Public Prisons,” has before it a work, which
though it may vary with time, is not likely to lessen.
While society exists we shall have vice and crime; while
vice and crime abound we must have prisons to restrain
the violators of the laws; and while prisons have inmates,
the duty of reforming their morals and ameliorating
their condition, will devolve upon some of those who
seek the good of society by the improvement of individuals.
That duty in its broadest sense has been assumed
by this Association. Not merely to lessen the sufferings
of the condemned, not alone to assist the innocent, not
merely to teach sound morals to those who are suffering
from a violation of the laws of God and man, not merely
to prevent a too rigid enforcement of special enactments,
not alone to prescribe and ensure a separate confinement
to the condemned, but so to use that confinement that
vice or crime, so communicable in its character, shall not
propagate itself through the cells of the prison, and thus
make a penitentiary a nursery for misconduct rather
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than a school for mental and moral discipline; not
alone to deal justly and faithfully with a convict while
he occupies his cell, but to secure to him, when he shall
have completed his penal term, some position in which
he may carry into effect his good resolves, without incurring
risk from those associates that led him into
crime, and especially to secure him from recognition in
the world by those who have passed months or years of
separate confinement in the same prison with him. We
repeat it, it is no one of these measures that is the single
or even the great object of the Society. It is every one
of them, separate, or all of them combined, with whatever
else may present itself for alleviation or correction
in the affairs of prisons or the condition of prisoners.
Nor is this all; while this Society has in view the whole
of these and other benefits, it is no less its intention to
continue its labor of benevolence as much upon the
fruit of its own existence as upon the evils which it was
organized to ameliorate. The Philadelphia Society for
Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons, will accommodate
its labors to the new state which its exertions
may have produced, and, thus, what has been improved
to-day may be perfected to-morrow. Nor does it escape
the notice of the Society that new work is presented or
new forms of labor are suggested as the system which it
produces becomes more and more operative. The
vicious are to be reclaimed by gentle exhortations and
encouraging sympathy. The young criminal is, by kind
monitions and encouraging confidence, to be lured from
the path into which he has been seduced, and the felon
is to be made to understand that there is a hope of regaining
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the respect of society by that repentance which
consists as much in reparation for the wrong and resolves
for the future, as in regret for the past; or, failing
to acquire for himself the forfeited regard of his fellow
men, he may secure a hope of a better rest. True
philanthropy seems but the embodiment of religion,
and never do the consolations of the Divine promises
operate with greater efficacy than when they are poured
upon the heart of the convict in the solitude of his cell.

In claiming for the Association such an extensive
field and such a variety of labors, we do not overrate its
plans nor over-estimate its means and devotion. It may
safely be said that as no circumstances of the prisoner
are beyond the aim of the Society, so no class of
prisoners are excluded from its benevolent intentions.
The visitor of the Society when he presents himself at
the cell of the prisoner, is not to be deterred by the
rank, grade, condition or color of the prisoner. Nor
are his efforts to be lessened by any circumstances of
his case. We must say with the Roman,

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“<i>Homo sum; et humani a me nil alienum puto.</i>”
.pm verse-end
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I am a man, and nothing which relates to man can be
foreign to my bosom.
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And it is a part of the qualification of the visitor of
the Society, that he can accommodate himself and his
ministrations to the varied circumstances of the occupants
of the cell, becoming all things to all classes, that
he may gain access to their confidence. Failing in all
this, as almost any one must come short of some of the
objects of his charitable effort, it is a part of the
.bn 011.png
.pn +1
wisdom and prudence of the representatives of the
Society to discern their own want of adaptation to the
peculiar circumstance of the prisoner, and call in the
aid of those who by different gifts, by other attainments,
or higher functions may be better qualified to meet the
wants of a particular case.

The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the miseries
of Public Prisons, is known by its works. It desires to
be judged according to those works. Some of the
Society’s efforts have obtained for it European fame,
while a part of its labors are of so humble a class as to
be little known beyond the cell of the vagrant, or in the
small circle of which such a beneficiary may form a part.
The great system that seems to concern all mankind,
that of separate confinement, is discussed, understood,
and partially practised in Europe, and if it is not
general, the cause is not so much a want of confidence
in the system as a want of the deep, practical interest
in the unfortunate victims, which should lead governments
and legislators to incur the expense of erecting
buildings, especially for penal purposes, adapted to the
idea of separate confinement and special discipline, as
substitutes for those prisons which are only modifications
of antiquated palaces, abandoned convents, or
delapidated baronial castles. Even the houses that
were constructed for prisons owe their erection in many
cases to a time when confinement and cruelty were the
means of public or private vengeance, and when the
convicted felon became an outcast for life, or rather when
the conviction of felony was the Cain mark for perpetual
infamy.
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The Society is represented in its labors at the prisons
in Philadelphia by two Committees. The duties of one
of which are confined to the Eastern Penitentiary, in
Coates street; the other committee is appointed to labor
at the County Prison, in Moyamensing. These two
committees are really practical operatives. They have
little to do with theories or plans. Their work is in
the cells of the prisoners or at the doors of the cells,
and their dealings are directly with the individual.

In the experience of the visitors of the Society to the
two prisons, there is necessarily great difference arising
out of the different circumstances of the inmates of the
County Prison and those of the Eastern Penitentiary.
In the latter the length of incarceration and the closeness
of the application of the rule of separate confinement,
seems to break up so entirely the relations of the
prisoner with the world from which he is banished, that
many seem willing to listen to the admonition of visiting
friends, and to accept the invitation to review their
lives and to form resolves of future amendment. Not
merely do the monitions and invitations, of the visitors
to the cells, lead prisoners to promises of good, but the
isolation of their condition and a want of outward objects
to strike their senses and occupy their minds
induce them to thought, to meditation, and lead them
to the commencement of that reformation, or, at least
those solemn resolves of reformation which are the object
of their imprisonment. It can scarcely be doubted,
that almost every prisoner in the Penitentiary who has
been frequently visited by those who evince an anxiety
for his temporal and spiritual good, has been led to resolve
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to refrain from the crimes which placed him in prison,
and to seek a maintenance in the world by means
which that world sanctions and which God approves;
but it is certain that a large portion of those who thus
resolve, find it easier on their return to the world to
resume their associations and habits and to become three
fold more offenders against the laws than they had been.
In vice and crime there is no halting, they are progressive;
he who has yielded to their influence must be carried
forward with their advancement, or he must renounce
entirely their influence. The <i>arts</i> of crime are
like all other arts by which a man undertakes to acquire
position or a living; they demand advancement.
Pride in success leads to undertakings of difficulty, and
he who enters a jail a “sneaking thief,” may be stimulated
by professional emulation to advance in crime till
he attains the dignity of a penitentiary cell for some
boldly executed robbery, or some brilliant act of extensive
forgery. The released half converted criminal feels
all this, but he feels the difficulty of relinquishing plans
of life which seem to have been devested of a part of
their chances of defeat by the very imprisonment into
which they led him; and, as a resolution to reform does
not always include the means by which virtuous living
may be obtained, the outgoing prisoner finds in his
circumstances an excuse for violating the resolutions of
good, or postponing their fulfilment till at length he
becomes involved in the same labyrinth of difficulties
and crimes that caused his former incarceration. Is he
then to be neglected? Is he then to be cast off? Is he
then to be marked as one who has forfeited, with the
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esteem of the good, the right to the cares of the good?
The Great Master of benevolence gave no such advice,
nor did He sanction such conduct by example. He to
whom all hearts are open, and who, aware of the evils
and hostility of vice and ambition, at once their object
and their pardoner, He never but once refused time and
attention to the profitless; and His only positive direct
malediction was upon the unfruitful fig-tree that had
outlived its time of usefulness, and which, under His
frown, withered into a leafless and lifeless condition,
that could experience no resuscitation.

If we confess, as we must, that much of the evils
which we deplore in the prisoner, is the result of adverse
circumstances, then we must also admit that he may
owe a future reform or repentance to some favorable
circumstance, to that circumstance which the thoughtless
and the infidel deem the providence of man’s fate, but
which reason and religion declare to be the instrument
of God’s care of his creatures. It is the duty of the
philanthropist to provide for such a contingency, to
have in the mind of the offender an appreciation of
wrong and right, so that when unexpectedly the <i>circumstance</i>
occurs, there may be a knowledge of its capabilities
and a readiness to improve it.

In preparing this Report, reference was had to the fact,
that some of the great objects of the Society have already
been discussed in every light, and with masterly effect.
Essays given in the publications of the Society, from
men of distinguished talent, have been productive of
great good in strengthening the confidence of active
members, and in removing prejudices from the minds of
those who lacked experience to correct false impressions.
.bn 015.png
.pn +1

The great system of separate confinement has been
presented to the public in a most convincing paper, by
an able writer of this city, so that, for the present, it
seems only necessary, in our Annual Report, to make a
short reference to the system, and then to allow a statement
of the proceedings of the Society to illustrate its
effect.

It is the object, then, in the <i>present</i> Report, rather to
make known the details of proceedings, than to announce
the abstract views upon which action is founded; to
give up this Annual Report to a presentation of the
mode of procedure; to a detail of the daily duties of the
active members and agents; to a consideration of some
of the antagonistic circumstances that hinder our progress,
and to the means upon which reliance must be
placed in efforts to alleviate the miseries of prisons.

In attempting to present the report under various
heads, it was found difficult to avoid a repetition of argument
and explanation, or rather, having made the repetition,
it was found difficult to correct the text without
impairing the fulness of that part of the subject. Indeed,
when it is considered that with the exception of enlightening
the public mind, to procure co-operation, and
soliciting legislative enactments to enable the Society to
act more beneficially upon prisons, and through them
on the prisoner, the great work of alleviating the miseries
of public prisons, is to be upon the minds of individuals,
we shall comprehend how all the divisions of the
actions of the Society centre upon the single prisoner.
Not for sympathy alone, but for amendment, must we
“take a single captive,” and so, in reporting upon the action
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.pn +1
of the Agent; upon the doings of the various Committees;
in setting forth the success, or want of success, at
the Penitentiary or the County Prison; in referring to
the movements on behalf of males or females; in the plans
for future action, as on the records of the past, it is the
incarcerated individual, it is the single mind whose experience
we are to record, or whose susceptibilities we
are to note. Hence it has seemed almost natural, at
least it is hoped that it will be regarded as excusable,
that what is the great means of all our hopes of alleviating
the miseries of prisons, viz., separate confinement,
and consequently individual dealing, should pervade
every division of the report of our proceedings.
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.hr 25%
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.h2
SEPARATE CONFINEMENT.
.sp 2
The distinguishing feature of the discipline which
this Society has advocated for Penitentiaries, is that
which the world misrepresents by denominating it
<i>solitary</i> confinement, and which it discredits by arguments
founded not on past experience, but resting upon
the probable effects upon the minds of the prisoners of
total solitude and utter separation from association, sight
and converse with man. We do not pretend to say
what would be the effect of such a condition. Our
object is not the condemnation of an untried system,
but the exposition of the benefits of that which has been
well tested. The amelioration not the augmentation
of prison discipline is the object of our Association.
The permanent benefit of society through the improvement
of individuals, or the eternal benefit of individuals,
by making the prison a school of reform rather than a
place of torture. Separate confinement is the object
that has been proposed—and wherever obtained, it has
produced, if not all the good which had been hoped for,
at least more than any other system that has been
adopted, and has satisfied those who are engaged officially
or voluntarily in its administration, that its benefits
are progressive. By the separation of the convict
from his fellow criminals, he is taken from the concerted
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plans and practices of crime, and placed where none
may approach him but officers charged with the care of
his person, or those who visit his cell with messages of
kindness. People who, sensible of his guilt, but hopeful
of his reformation, approach him in a spirit of kindness,
and, satisfying him that they seek his good, and not
their own benefit, gain admittance to his heart, win his
confidence, and produce, perhaps, solemn resolutions to
amend. He sees, in the narrow confines of his cell,
and he feels, in the strictness of the discipline to which
he is subjected, the terrors of the violated law. But he
comprehends, in the oft-repeated lessons of love that are
given to him by the Society’s visitors, that, prone as he
is to crime, he is the object of human solicitude and the
subject of divine mercy. And in time he understands
also, that, had he been released with the first resolution
to repent, he would have missed of reform. He comprehends
that time and retirement were necessary to
the germination of the seeds which had been planted in
his heart, and a long season of abstraction from society
could alone have matured the fruits of repentance. Solitude—entire
solitude—might have embittered his heart
against the social compact by which he was suffering.
He may have had learning, but he probably lacked that
moral education, that culture of the heart, by which he
could easily discern the rightful dependence of punishment
on crime, or his responsibility to society for the
talents he possessed, and the uses to which he applied
them. In utter loneliness, he would have brooded over
his privations, and, recalling the hundreds whom he
knew equally guilty, but wholly unpunished, he would
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have regarded his condition as of special, unequalled,
and gross injustice, and might have sought liberty and
life to revenge himself on man; or, wearying of existence,
and despairing of relief, he would have “cursed God
and died.” Utter solitude to the ignorant and the bad
is rarely productive of benefit. Solitude may be the
occasion and the means of beneficial progress to the
good. It may enable the repentant to avoid the errors
which have injured him and by which he has injured
others, and it may enable him to work out his own
benefit, doing good to himself, but not communicating
it to others. The whirlwind of passion disturbs the
solitude, but God and good are not in the disturber.
The small still voice of reason and revelation calls him
to repentance, but he cannot understand. Like the
child Samuel, he hears the call, but until there be some
one to instruct him how to respond, he remains in his
darkness, unimproved.

But solitary confinement we have said is not recommended
by the Society. That species of penalty might
be as cruel to the convict as the associated imprisonment
is unjust to society. We would have all penalties
so tempered with mercy, that they should lead naturally
and certainly to improvement. We condemn any sentence
to utter solitude, as heartily as we do that to a
social imprisonment, whereby pecuniary compensation
to the State takes the place of moral improvement in the
prisoner, and where day by day former associates in
vice become schemers for future depredations and teachers
of the means of crime to the neophyte in wrong doing.
.bn 020.png
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The separate confinement which constitutes the peculiar
character of prison discipline advocated by the
Society and practised in the Eastern Penitentiary of
Pennsylvania, has reference to the separation of one
convict from another, and of separation of the criminal
from that intercourse with people from without that
might keep up his relation with criminals and his taste
and his resolutions for crime. Day by day the lesson
of moral instruction is heard. Day by day the visitors
from the city present themselves at his cell, and invite
him to reformation; and at any stated period, or in case
of special emergency, the inmate of the cell may have the
attendance of a clergyman of his own choice, and the
consolations of religious instruction such as he may
have cherished in better times. His solitude is disturbed
by the regular visitation of the officers of the
prison, and the silence of his cell broken by the prayers
and teaching of his visitors. Nor is it a violation of
the plan, that he should repeat and amplify what he
has heard, and loudly express what he has been brought
to feel. This, with all the privations which imprisonment
and conviction for extensive crime necessarily include,
is not “solitary confinement.” The justice which,
for the sake of society, restrains the freedom of the
offender, yields entirely to the mercy that turns to that
offender’s temporal and eternal good. This infliction,
that separates him from his associates in felony, frees
society from apprehension of his crimes.

We speak here of the infliction of the Penitentiary.
The case of a convict in the County prison has in it
much less of severity, and is proportionately therewith
of less benefit to him and less advantageous to society.
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We do not intend to argue upon the advantages of
separate confinement and labor, over the associated
condition of prisoners. That subject has been often
presented in our annual reports, and in essays published
by the Society, and ably and satisfactorily handled.
We shall present some of what may be regarded as the
minor objects and labors of the Society, from which,
however, great good has already resulted, and to which
we must look for many of the direct, personal, and permanent
benefits which are to result from our efforts.

It will be seen, in the course of this report, that close
observation warrants the conclusion that little hope of
improving the moral condition of the prisoner can be
indulged until he is placed within the reach of separate
instruction, and beyond the evils of companionship with
the vicious. This is the experience in this State; this
is the growing opinion in Great Britain and Ireland.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
COUNTY PRISON.
.sp 2
The County Prison presents a vast field for contemplation
and labor. It is the receptacle of the vagrant,
the drunkard, the disorderly, the suspected, and the convicted.
All the elements of crime are found in its cells,
and sometimes the unfortunate, the oppressed, and the
innocent are made more miserable by a forced association
with the vicious and the guilty. Sometimes an accidental
association with the bad has procured for the
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careless, well-meaning innocent, a companion that has
indoctrinated him with vice, and made him a proficient
in crime. All degrees of servitude are experienced
in this prison, from that which terminates with
the twenty-four hours for intoxication, to that which
is extended to years for some flagrant violation of the
law. Nay, there are those who, in the midst of years,
have no hope of escaping from the prison cells till they
shall “be carried forth of men,” to be buried under the
rules of the prison, or by the charity of those who knew
them in better days. These last are men convicted of
willful murder, by a jury, and sentenced to death, by the
Court, but in whose behalf some circumstance suggests a
withholding of the death-warrant, and their cases remain
from one term of gubernatorial office to another,
transmitted by the ruling chief magistrate to his successor,
among the matters unfinished, but which seem
not to impose upon the new governor the necessity of
discharging the painful office which was avoided by his
predecessor.

The occupants of the County Prison cells are of the
following kind:—

<i>The First Class.</i>—Those committed for vagrancy,
breach of the peace, drunkenness, and disorderly conduct.

<i>Second Class.</i>—Persons charged with violation of the
laws, whose cases are to be decided by the Criminal
Court.

<i>Third Class.</i>—Persons sentenced to short imprisonment,
and the payment of fines and costs.

<i>Fourth Class.</i>—Those convicted of crimes of a high
.bn 023.png
.pn +1
character, and sentenced to confinement and labor.
And we may add a

<i>Fifth Class.</i>—Formed of those already mentioned,
who, having been sentenced to death by the Court, are
yet detained in prison by the withholding of the death-warrant
for their Execution, or of the pardon which
would ensure their release.

With all these the Society has relations by means of
the Committee on the County Prison, and to prevent
interference in labors, and to secure attendance at all
the cells, the Committee is divided into classes, to each
of which is assigned a particular division of the prison,
though a member of the Committee is permitted to visit
the inmates of any of the cells, in addition to those
specially assigned him. But it can scarcely be doubted
that where one visitor is punctual and faithful in
his labors, the interference of others may rather tend
to disturb the mind of prisoners than to aid them in the
new path of duty upon which they have hesitatingly
entered. Such matters are, of course, left to the judgment
of visitors, who can easily discern when the ground
is fully occupied by a successful laborer. Too much
culture is said to be almost as fatal to vegetation as entire
neglect. Frequency of interference by persons of varied
habits and different modes of approaching the prisoner,
can scarcely be productive of good, although each one
separately operating, might, with God’s blessing, work
out an incalculable amount of improvement.

The laborers at the County Prison are not so numerous
as at the Penitentiary, in proportion to the number and
character of the inmates. The County Prison is a less
.bn 024.png
.pn +1
desirable field of labor. At the Penitentiary the inmates
have a fixed and protracted residence, and may be approached
by the same teacher so long as hopes are entertained
that “the continual dropping” of moral truths
“will wear the stone” of his heart. And his separation
from those whose language or presence might encourage
his resoluteness in wrong intention, leaves him almost
entirely within the influence of those whose duty and
pleasure it is to make his banishment from bad society
the means of his reformation.

At the County Prison, one large class of prisoners, by
far the largest, is always changing. Day by day the
<i>vans</i> arrive, crowded with wretches who have entered
upon the path of vice, and are hastening down that
terrible declivity. Incarceration for all crimes, commences
here, even though the criminal should be consigned
to the Penitentiary when convicted. The vicious,
the drunkard, the disorderly, the peace-breaker, and the
vagrant, are committed to the prison, and must abide
their monthly incarceration, unless “sooner released by
course of law.”

We have already mentioned the various classes of
offenders that occupy the cells of this prison. With one
class, viz., convicts for various terms, the mode of dealing
by the visitors from the city, is changed from that
in the Penitentiary only so far as to suit the different
character of the confinement, and the occupation of the
inmates. The visitor is regular in his calls at the cell of
the convict, and follows his own plan of moral and religious
instruction, usually successful in proportion to the
assiduity of the instructor, and the time in which he exercises
.bn 025.png
.pn +1
his office of benevolence towards the inmates of the
cell. Pamphlets, tracts, books of devotion, the Holy
Scriptures, are supplied to the prisoner, and his attention
to the prescribed lesson is urged by his teacher, and tested
by his recitation and comment. And when the unhappy
occupant of the cell is unable to read, additional attention
is bestowed in imparting the instruction, so as to supply
as far as possible the deficiency of primary education.

With the third class, viz., those sentenced to short
terms, and the payment of a fine, it may be supposed
not so much good can be expected. Yet there are not
wanting instances of thorough reform consequent upon
the gentle zealousness of the visitor, and the yet lingering
sense of right in the mind of the prisoner. Indeed,
as some of those suffering short sentences are obtaining
the first fruits of wrong doing, it happens often that their
consciences and their affections are more easily touched,
and thus a hopeful reformation is more readily commenced.
This occurs especially when the person arrested
is admitted to bail, or, as can rarely happen, placed in
a separate cell before conviction, so that a direct and
necessary intercourse, by constant association with others
in a similar situation may be avoided. The fact that
many of these third class prisoners never return, may
be regarded as evidence that the discipline of the prison,
and the care of the visitors, have done the good work of
reformation.
.sp 2
.h3
EVIL SOCIETIES.
.sp 2
The experience of visitors with some of this class is of
a very interesting character. Occasionally are heard, in
.bn 026.png
.pn +1
the out-break of passion, resolves of the avenging upon the
world, the wrong inflicted by the first incarceration. It
cannot be denied that these resolves are frequently carried
out, and a life is consecrated to crime, in revenge for punishment—and
the cell of the prisoner is the first degree in
that education which terminates in a full graduation in
the State Prison, or on the gallows. Of course, far back
of this first imprisonment lies the evil; neglected education;
want of parental direction, or the evil influence
of pernicious parental example; evil associations at the
corners of the street; and especially, and to be particularly
noticed, <sc>COMPANIONSHIP IN SOCIETIES</sc> formed for mischief
before the initiates understood the nature and tendencies
of their confederacy. The prison and the penitentiary
of our city have been made populous by members
of these societies, whose object and origin are often emphatically
set forth in their abhorrent names. Thousands
of lads have thought they were honored in their
position by being admitted to fellowship with those who
had become a sort of terror in their neighborhood; and
others have gratified a pugnacious inclination, by associating
with vulgar heroes, who were bound to protect
them from assault, and assist in gratifying their malevolence.
It is no argument against the evils of these
societies that there are in them very few persons of mature
age. Alas! the ranks are crowded with those who
have the vigor of nascent manhood, without the restraints
of a sense of responsibility. Plans of evil, which
if proposed to men, even young men, would have been
voted down from the danger which the actors would
.bn 027.png
.pn +1
incur, are adopted with acclamation by grown-up boys;
and the quiet of neighborhoods is disturbed, property
destroyed, personal safety jeoparded, personal injury
inflicted, and sometimes human life wantonly taken.

In this class of prisoners, however, as we have already
remarked, are often found the proper objects of the
visitors’ most hopeful attentions. The young man
or young woman, who by the error, we will not say the
accident, of bad associates, is arrested for an offence of
which he or she is only partly guilty of the act, and
innocent of intention, after a few weeks’ confinement
begins to hear with interest the voice of friendship
“breathed through the lattice,” and though shocked at
a new contact with the innocent, yields soon, not merely
attention but confidence, opens up the heart to the friend
at the cell door, receives the proffered book, accepts the
offer of frequent visitations, and in time, not at once,
shows that deep sense of degradation which is the beginning
of true repentance. The visitor finds himself
depended on, the confidence begets protection, and the
punishment for the first offense or for the first detection
becomes the means under Providence of permanent
amendment.

In this department of the prison the separate system
is practised as far as can be done consistent with the
plans of employment, and, with regard to the effect of
the system, even with the limited advantage which it
has in this place, favorable reports are made. One
instance is mentioned by a visitor, who is most faithful
to the duties he assumes and whose regular labors are
almost entirely limited to convicts, and to those of a
.bn 028.png
.pn +1
particular gallery, so that he may not by diversity of
labors, or a multitude of objects, lessen the good effects
of his visits or diminish the means of a close intimacy
with the minds of those whose good he seeks. He has
within a short time received letters from two soldiers in
the Army of the Potomac, both of whom had been under
his moral dealings in the County Prison at one time,
and both were members of the ——th regiment, both returned
thanks for the valuable instructions and kindness
of the visitor, both professed to have derived the
most important benefits from his care, yet neither of
them knew that they had occupied adjoining cells in the
County Prison, and neither of them was acquainted with
the fact that the other was addressing their common
benefactor. Instances of this kind, if not frequent, do
at least occur sufficiently often to strengthen the hopes
of the Society that the labors which its visitors perform
in the name of benevolence and under the direction of
the Association, are fruitful, in individual and social
benefit. Fruitful in that good which was contemplated
in the formation of the Society.

One other instance of the effect of zealous, affectionate
kindness and watchful care in this department may be
mentioned. A visitor who has for twenty years been
constant in the discharge of his voluntarily assumed
duties, found in a cell a lad who had by bad association
and repeated crimes deserved and received a sentence
for many years imprisonment. He was one of those
impressible persons who yield to circumstances and follow
out fully the course into which they may have been
conducted. Notwithstanding the effect which several
.bn 029.png
.pn +1
years’ bad conduct had produced on the perceptions of
the youth, separate confinement had afforded him a
means of preparing himself for that species of mental
hostility to the world which the young convict is likely
to entertain, and when the visitor entered his cell and
asked for a statement of the circumstances of his short
but miserable career, the voice of affection and the
tone of deep, almost of parental interest with which the
prisoner was addressed, secured his confidence, and his
tale of wrong doing was readily told. In time the unfailing
attention of the visitor became almost necessary
to the existence of the prisoner, and the prescribed devotion
was performed. The Scripture lessons were well
studied, and all that could be required of the inmate of
the criminal cell seemed to be so well done that the
“visitor” felt authorized to second the wishes of the
prisoner for Executive clemency. A full pardon was obtained,
and in a short time afterwards, the released convict
was seen occupying a place of peculiar trust, where
his own word was all that could be demanded as a statement
of cash received. The many failures and disappointments
which pain and mortify the visitors in their
labor of love, are not recorded. But such an instance
as we have noticed above, will serve as a reward for
many years of toil, as compensation for many hundred
disappointments, and as encouragement to future exertions,
and especially to careful studies as to the best
mode of improving the means of usefulness. We are
not to forget that the labors of the visitors are low down.
In other callings it is a comfort to know that the good
have been made better by well sustained efforts. The
.bn 030.png
.pn +1
mission of the Society’s Visitors is to those whom the
world deems already lost. To snatch even a few from
the many, very many, of those who constitute the class
of depraved and criminal, publicly exposed, is a work in
which the laborers must find much of their reward in the
sense of suffering mitigated, and the feeling of kindness
gratified. Their highest boast must be that God has
accepted the services for the permanent benefit of even
a few.

In making an annual report of the doings of the Society
for the Alleviation of the Miseries of Public Prisons, we
might be justified in multiplying our statements of favorable
results of the labors of the members of the two great
Committees. For these are the fruits of all our plans,
the result of all our labors. If the great object to many
is to secure the adoption of the separate confinement
of prisoners, this separate confinement is only to ensure
the moral improvement of the individual prisoner. If
the Society puts forth its efforts to create and multiply
auxiliary institutions, it is only that there may be a
greater concurrence of zeal and talents to make our
State Penitentiaries and our County Prisons the schools
of reform of individual prisoners; and the Society for
Ameliorating the condition of Prisons, while it rejoices
in the adoption of its views by institutions in other States
of the nation, and by governments abroad, rejoices not as
having triumphed merely in extending a knowledge of
itself, and as having secured an adoption by others of
what it deems its peculiar plans, but as having conciliated
the prejudice of other benevolent associations,
and secured their co-operation in the work of promoting
.bn 031.png
.pn +1
the good of society, by multiplying the means of improvement
of individuals.

We shall have occasion to speak more extensively of
the nature of the labors of the Prison Committee, each
one of whom is a “Visitor,” when we come to consider
the labor in the female department of the County Prison.
And that, too, will afford opportunity to notice the operation
of the primary judiciary system of the city, and its
effects on prisoners and on society.
.sp 2
.h3
PARENTAL RESPONSIBILITY.
.sp 2
Before closing this part of the Report, it is deemed
proper, if not indeed a duty, to refer again, and with
stronger emphasis, to the evil “associations” of young
persons of our city, their immoral combinations, and
the evils to which these societies give rise. Lads whose
parents are laboring hard all day to procure a scanty
support, find themselves without the restraint of domestic
authority, and they use their freedom to procure the
gratification of wishes which have been formed without
domestic discipline or moral restraints. In many of
these cases the parents are little better than the children,
and the example of intemperance and ill temper at
home is easily followed abroad. In some cases the
parents, though virtuous, lack the mental ability to
correct the evils of bad association in their children,
and the foolish son, without any criminal intent or
neglect on the part of the parents, becomes a grief to
his father and bitterness to her that bore him. There
is scarcely to be found a more effective school for vice
.bn 032.png
.pn +1
at first and crime in succession, than is furnished by
one of the clubs of lads with which parts of our city
are infested,—infested as much now, though not as
obtrusively, as when “nights were made hideous” by
the uproar of their juvenile members, and the “day
deformed” by the inscription of their titles and deeds
upon the fences and house-fronts in the vicinity of their
operations. He who would alleviate the miseries of
prisons by lessening the number of prisoners, may find
object of labor among these most injurious societies.

He who would stay the progress of vice and crime
in that direction, must deal first with those parents
whose vices or whose negligence of parental duties
supply members for the clubs, and candidates for the
penitentiary. Parental indifference, total disregard to
all the obligations of domestic life, is the cause of such
a deterioration in the young of the city,—the young
we mean of both sexes; for neglect at home operates
as injuriously upon girls as upon boys; and the evidence
of the equality of the evil is as conspicuous
in the bad associations of the young female as in
her miserable brother, and the result may perhaps be
far more lamentable to the former, because of the almost
impossibility of reclaiming her. If the clubs and associations
absorb the boys and prepare them for a guilty
manhood, public “parties,” coarse exhibitions, and service
at the drinking saloon, at dancing halls and casinos,
qualify the girl for the lowest grade of vice. The two
sexes have different paths downward to destruction, but
in this world those pathways usually terminate in the
prison; and the cells at Moyamensing have more than
.bn 033.png
.pn +1
once, and at one time, contained father, and mother,
with their sons and daughters,—terrible illustration of
the evils of home vices, and the neglect of parental
duties, the forbearance of domestic restraints.

It is not intended to assert that all the vice and errors
of children are referable to parental example: that would
be a gross injustice to those sorrowing ones who see
the stray one from their domestic circle, disgracing in his
vicious career the lessons and examples of piety in
which he was reared, and forming a marked exception
to the character and condition of his relatives. But
we have a right to speak plainly where the evidences of
neglect and even of bad example in the parents are
manifest in the error of the child. We have a right;
nay, in the position which this association is now occupying,
we have a duty to society, to urge attention to
the evils which our community is made to suffer from a
neglect of domestic discipline, which crowds the cells of
our prison with guilty parents, and fills the House of
Refuge with their erring children.

We repeat it, that we distinguish between those cases
of parental sorrow which flow from some exceptional
cause, and those domestic miseries which are consequent
upon vice or criminal neglect; but care must be taken
not to weaken a sense of parental responsibility by
referring to misfortune, too much that may be referable
to vicious error. In this matter, as in others of a different
character, perhaps the language of the poet may
be painfully applicable:

.pm verse-start
“Look into those you call unfortunate,
 And, closer viewed, you’ll find they are unwise.”
.pm verse-end
.bn 034.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.h3
STATISTIC.
.sp 2
While on the subject of the County Prison, it may not
be amiss to present a few statistics regarding the number
of those who have been its inmates during the year
1863. The whole number of commitments was 17,219.
The philanthropist who looks at the effect of vice or
misfortune on individuals, will be startled at such a
statement, when he considers how much private misery
and domestic grief there were involved in all these incarcerations;
not only in the separation of so many persons
from their social and domestic associations, but more
than that, often the long career of annoyance to family
and friend, from the regular advance in crime and vice
which led to the incarceration. One other fact is noticeable,
the increase in imprisonment in 1863 over those
in 1862 was 2,573. That, it is evident to those who
visit the prison and examine into the cause of such
painful effects, is, in part, one of the bitter fruits of the
present war. And the mortifying fact, that 794 of the
increase of committed were females, is evidently referable
to the same cause. In 1861 and a part of 1862,
the number of commitments of males was greatly decreased,
as the army was absorbing with better elements,
many of those who were almost monthly successful candidates
for the prison, while at the same time, the number
of females increased, owing to the absence of those to
whom they were responsible, and to the periodical reception
of money in larger amounts than they had been accustomed
to receive. The return of whole regiments to
our city, serves, by supplying only a few vicious from
.bn 035.png
.pn +1
each, to bring up the number of males without diminishing
those of females committed. Yet we must not overlook
the fact, that a large portion of those extra commitments
are of persons who contrive to make their
appearance at the prison in about ten days after having
served thirty days in the cells. They are new commitments,
but they are old offenders; and they furnish one
strong argument, or rather, perhaps, show the necessity
for a House of Correction.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
FEMALE DEPARTMENT.
.sp 2
The Philadelphia County Prison is composed of four
different departments, one of which is called the “Debtor’s
Department,” so denominated because it was destined
to receive and retain those who were to be incarcerated
for not paying their debts. The merciful laws
of Pennsylvania have abolished imprisonment for debts
by contract, and now the building is used for the detention
of some United States prisoners, for some who are
adjudged to be in contempt of court, some who are
detained on mesne process, &c., or who are sentenced to
pay fines or costs. With these and others under the
charge of the sheriff, the committee have had little intercourse;
their circumstances, or the temporary character
of their almost nominal confinement, not rendering it
probable that visits would be acceptable or profitable.
.bn 036.png
.pn +1

The south wing of the prison is devoted entirely to
male vagrants, drunkards, breakers of the peace, those
who await a trial, and some who are sentenced to short
imprisonment and fines. The middle building contains
male convicts, sentenced to separate confinement and
labor, and also those who have been sentenced to capital
punishment. Among the inmates of these two buildings
the visitors of the Society are constant and assiduous
in their labors, and we have already referred to
some of the results of their visitations.

The north building is entirely separate from the
other, having two lots of ground and a high wall between
that and the male convict department. The northern
building is exclusively devoted to females. The vagrant,
the drunkard, the accused, and the female criminal
of every class, are here kept, under the care of a male
keeper, and a matron and assistant matron. And as
this department presents a peculiar field for the action
of our Society, we shall make special reference to the
character of the inmates, the nature of their offences,
the circumstances of their committal, and the character
and results of labors for their moral and physical improvement;
not because these labors are greater or
more effective, but because the pursuits, the misfortunes,
the errors, and the crimes of the prisoners differ from
those of the males, according to the circumstances of
their condition and sex, and require some additional
means to secure an amelioration of the state of their
lives.

In dealing with female offenders, we have to encounter
the same incentives, the same passions that influence
.bn 037.png
.pn +1
the males; and most of the same crimes that are punished
in the male convict department are here expiated
by the females. But the mode of dealing must vary with
the varying circumstances of the prisoner; and those
circumstances must greatly depend upon the character
of the individual, resulting from her sex and the condition
of her earlier life.

It is calculated that more than one thousand females
divide their time between the cells of the county prison
and the practice of those vices or the committal of those
crimes which send them there. For a large number of
these, no more than thirty days imprisonment can be
given at one time; and many of those thus committed
are discharged much sooner: so that there is little time
for any moral dealings with them, and even were it
practicable to deal with them in exhortation and advice,—were
the time of their imprisonment sufficiently long
to warrant a hope that they could be persuaded to form
good resolves, still the fact that more than one, and often
four or five, are found in the same cell, renders almost
hopeless any attempt to induce the drunkard to forsake
her resort to the bottle, or the impure to avoid the
haunts of vice which she has frequented. The evidence
of contrition which kindness and faithful dealing on the
part of the visitor may call forth from the prisoner, are
inducements to her companions in the cell to ridicule the
moral teacher, and to laugh the repenting one out of her
half-formed resolves. The experienced visitor learns to
fix a just estimate upon the tears and promises of those
expectants of favors; but the good female visitors who
occasionally seek to bring “glad tidings” to the miserable
.bn 038.png
.pn +1
offenders of their own sex, usually suffer deep mortification
at the disappointment of pleasant hopes, and
are compelled to seek their consolation in the consciousness
of good intention and perfect fidelity to the object
which they profess to serve. The great, almost the
only mode of serving the inmates of this part of the
prison, is to induce them to enter some of the asylums
in the city, and yield themselves to the gentle discipline
of institutions founded for the good of those who have
lost their self-respect and forfeited the good will of society.
And the records of the “House of the Good
Shepherd,” of “The Magdalen Asylum,” “The Rosine”
institution, and some other associations for the meliorating
the condition of the frail, the vicious, and the
guilty, will show what valuable auxiliaries these institutions
have been to the Society for Meliorating the
Condition of Prisons.

While on this branch, we may as well say that, by
an Act of Assembly, the Inspectors of the County
Prison may, at their discretion, discharge at once any
person committed for vagrancy, drunkenness, and disorderly
conduct, or a breach of the peace. Of course, a
sound discretion is to be used; and it is within the
knowledge of all who are conversant with the administration
of the County Prison, that great good has resulted
from the exercise of this power by the Inspectors,
and incalculable evils have been prevented. Without
any effort on the part of this Society, it has happened
that more than one of its appointed visitors to the
County Prison have been Inspectors; and in the exercise
of the power conferred on the latter, the duties of
.bn 039.png
.pn +1
the former have been most valuably discharged. The
condition of many prisoners has been meliorated by a
timely inquiry into the cause of their incarceration and
the duties that awaited them at home. If it should
appear that accidental association had brought a poor
innocent girl to the cells, it is a beautiful and profitable
exercise of power to send her home before she should
make acquaintance with the habituées of the prison, or
before a knowledge of her misfortune should become
general among her acquaintances, by a notice of her
absence from the scene of her ordinary duties. Take
one example as illustration of the idea.

A girl about seventeen years of age, well dressed,
was seen emerging from the van, that at the prison

.pm verse-start
“Each morning vomits forth its sneaking crowd”
.pm verse-end
.ni
of police committals. Her neat appearance and unusual
sadness arrested the attention of one of the visitors
of this Society, who was there on duty as an Inspector.
He learned that the girl, going home on a summer evening
from work, by which she maintained herself and
mother, was annoyed by the appearance and bad language
of a drunken woman. The disturbance drew to
the place a police officer, who did not see the real offender
escape, and finding only the poor girl there, he
arrested her, and she was sent down for “disorderly
conduct.” Close examination into the case might have
shown the mistake, but there were many more cases, and
so the poor girl took her place among a crowd of miserable
wretches of her own sex. Her story was found to
be true, and she was at once dismissed.
.bn 040.png
.pn +1
.pi
It is not worth while to dwell on the importance to
that girl, and her mother dependent upon her labor, of
the prompt release. Since that time, the arrival of the
van has been watched, and the appearance of its inmates
carefully noticed, and other cases have presented themselves
for the prompt and valuable exercise of the power
entrusted to the Inspectors.

But it is not alone the entirely innocent that receive
the attention of the Inspectors. Inquiries are made
into the circumstances of the poor inebriate, of the
temptations that beset her, of the chance of finding some
employment abroad; and the promise of amendment is
rather taken than depended on, and a discharge is
granted. It often happens that the promise is kept
much longer than was supposed probable, and thus so
much time is redeemed from the waste of vice and
crime. The repetition made the actor, at least, no worse
than a continuance in idleness would have made her.
If she had been detained for thirty days, she would
probably have found no employment, and a return to
vice would have been almost the certain result.

And on that point it may not be improper to make a
remark. A large part of the poor females who are habituées
of the prison, depend less on regular engagements
in the houses of their employers, than on demands upon
their time and labor in seasons of emergency,—such as
house cleaning in the city, or garden work in the country.
It often happens that in the midst of the demand
for these women, they are in the cells of the prison
for “vagrancy,” “disorderly conduct,” or “breach of
the peace.” If they can be released, they may earn
.bn 041.png
.pn +1
something, in the spring, summer and autumn, to support
them in the winter; or at worst, they are supported
while they are at work. If they are detained
during the demand, they lose the present and the
future employment and its remuneration, and leave the
prison, when their thirty days shall have expired,
with no expectation of immediate engagement; and
they return to the prison by the way of the haunts of
vice, from which labor would have saved them, temporarily
at least.

It is in such cases that the exercise of the power to
release on the part of the Inspector becomes greatly
useful to the community and to the prisoner; and certainly
it is eminently in furtherance of the plans and
wishes of this Society. It may be added, that numerous
instances might be cited of the entire reformation
of females by their timely discharge from prison when
there existed a demand for their labor.

In this department of the prison is found the best
illustration of the vast difference of the influences upon
the minds and character of the prisoners wrought by
the separate and the social system of incarceration.
It is true that all convicts are or ought to be separately
confined; but a very large proportion of the female
prisoners here are awaiting trial, or held for some offence
below felony, in such numbers as to render it quite impossible,
even with all the discharges granted by the
Inspectors and procured by the Agent, to limit the
number of that class of prisoners to less than from two
to four in many of the cells. Here, then, side by side,
or in close vicinity, is found an example of the social
.bn 042.png
.pn +1
and the separate systems, and to some extent a judgment
is easily formed of the effect of the two modes.
In the cell where are more than one female, (we speak
of females, because, accidentally, our means of information,
as it regards the condition of that sex, in prison,
are more ample than they are concerning the males,
though the circumstances being the same, the effect of
similar treatment would be different only in proportion
to the constitutional difference of the sexes—the female
being much more social, and much more ductile and
impressible, and thus more easily influenced by her
associates,)—in these cells monitions and advice are
offered by the visitors, and for a moment there seems,
beneath the respectful attention of one or two, a kind
of resolve to try to do better,—books and tracts are
accepted, and perhaps read, and there is a promise,
which to the unexperienced visitor seems well founded,
that the miserable object of his or her care will seek to
amend a course that leads so directly to disgrace and
misery. But scarcely does the visitor leave the door of
the cell, when the deluge of ridicule poured out by the
companions of the “promising” offender, obliterates all
sense of compunction, and all resolve of amendment, if
any were formed, and virtue and decency are coarsely
ridiculed, and their humble advocate laughed at as an
easy dupe. But the visitor to the cell of the convict,
or the prisoner separately confined, has easy access to
the feelings of the inmate, and the lesson given is
allowed time to have some favorable effect. The resolution
for good which the unhappy woman forms upon
the evidence of unwonted interest in her fate, may not
.bn 043.png
.pn +1
be permanent,—the feelings may have acted rather than
the judgment,—but the repetition of the visit and of
the lesson scarcely fail to beget that sense of wrong doing
which is the parent of repentance; and especially,
if the visitor makes evident a deep feeling of affection,
and gentle sympathy in the character and condition of
the prisoner as a human being, may there be hope that
good will follow. There must be heat applied, before
the iron can be wrought into useful shape.

It is not to be supposed that all who seem to maintain
to the last day of their imprisonment their resolve to
amend their lives, do indeed carry into effect that resolve
beyond the prison wall. That would be too great a
harvest to hope for. When the resolution is taken,
the pain of punishment is felt, the sense of confinement
is keen, and the view of personal degradation in presence
of a virtuous teacher is mortifying; and the force
of former habits forgotten, and the attractions of vice
underrated, and especially the sense of shame among
those who knew them, not calculated on, they go forth
in the resolution of amendment—they meet the suspicions
of the good and the imitation of the bad—and
they allow passion to triumph over virtue.

.pm verse-start
“The bow well bent and sharp the spring,
   Vice seems already slain;
When passion rudely snaps the string,
   And it revives again.”
.pm verse-end

But discouraging as such cases are, and especially in
their frequency, there are many cases where the convict,
after having promised, in the crowded cells of the vicious
.bn 044.png
.pn +1
and accused, to mend her life, and then returned to vice
and crime at the suggestions of her vicious companions,
has been led by the gentle invitation of the faithful
visitor to resolve on good, and where the solitude of her
confinement has led to that reflection which gives permanency
to her resolution. And, it may be added, that
it is probable that of the many failures of success which
are to be deplored, some are due to the want of entire
separation of the convict, consequent upon the form and
location of the cells, that forbid entire seclusion, at least
render unfruitful all attempts to prevent the occupants
of neighboring cells from holding conversation with each
other by message, viva voce, or some conventional signal
or sounds. Marvelously ingenious are the contrivances
and the resorts of the human mind when an exclusion
from outward objects assists in the concentration of
faculties upon some desired end. It may be added here,
that almost all the success that attends the efforts of the
philanthropist to reform females in the County Prison,
is due to separate confinement; and even when the inmate
is “sent down” only for drunkenness and disorderly
conduct, judgment, founded on her appearance
and manner, has been well exercised in placing her
either in a separate cell, or if that be not possible, then
in selecting her a companion, and thus bringing her
within the genial action of visitors of her own sex, without
the danger from subsequent ridicule of her cell-mates.
In this relation, too, has proved highly beneficial,
the habit noted elsewhere, of meeting the van as it
reached the prison, and selecting at once those who are
new to the place, and, after inquiry, if not dismissing
.bn 045.png
.pn +1
them to their family, at least placing them apart from
the more abandoned of their sex.

Before closing this division of the Report, it may not
be amiss, even though it be a partial repetition, to notice
that the visitors to the two prisons in this city agree, as
it is elsewhere stated in this Report, that all other
things being equal, the hopes of successful dealing with
a prisoner rest much upon the length of his sentence, and
the completeness of his separation from all intercourse
with other prisoners. Hence the little hopes expressed of
favorable results from advice and persuasive dealing with
the inmates of the vagrant and drunkard’s cell, whose
imprisonment does not extend beyond thirty-one days.
We may remark that usually the convict is less a
victim of vice than of crime; and he generally has more
mind upon which to operate by argument, though, perhaps,
he may have less conscience to be affected; and
this applies especially to men, who, as convicts, seem
by a strange law of society, to be exempted from censure
for their vices, while the female convict is made
responsible, not only for the crime for which she suffers,
but for all the vices that are incident to an erring female.
But it seems almost certain that if the vicious female
should be made the inmate of a separate cell, and be the
object of the gentle attention, and persuasive argument
of moral visitors for as long a time as is the criminal
female, she would be as likely to yield to those moral
allurements as is the convict. To produce the means
of alleviating misery, we must have a change in prison
economy; we can, perhaps, scarcely hope for success till
the House of Correction supplies the means.
.bn 046.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
MORAL INSTRUCTION.
.sp 2
Every effort made by the Society, in its attempt to
alleviate the miseries of public prisons, is intended to be
in a moral direction; and whether the person in whose
behalf the agent or representative of the Society labors,
is to be the tenant of a cell for years, or to be immediately
released, it is to the moral perceptions that addresses
are made, and it is the moral condition that is
the object of public and private labor; it is for the moral
improvement that the physical condition is regarded, and
what may appear to the careless or indifferent observer
as merely an exercise of philanthropic feeling, or of a
humane sentiment, has for its great end such a disposition
of the offender, or the accused, as will secure to
him the means and condition of moral improvement,
making the cell endurable to the felon by a growing appreciation
of the justice that placed him there, and a sense
of the benefit of reflection upon the past, and the comprehension
of the advantage of resolves for good, which,
by kind monition and gentle persuasion he is induced to
adopt. The moral image defaced by vice, or buried beneath
the accumulation of crime, begins to assume its
earlier charms, begins to move under its superincumbent
mass, and, with a recognition of its proprieties and value,
vice and crime not only lose attraction, but become hideous
and repulsive; the spirit of hostility to the world is
gradually weakened, and a lively sensibility to all the
duties of social life takes the place of that wretched resolve
to misapply power by felonious appropriation, and
.bn 047.png
.pn +1
indulge passion in the violation of the laws of decency
and morals.

Or, if the prisoner is to leave his cell, the efforts are
to fix in his heart the great principle of moral excellence,
and to strengthen the resolutions which he formed while
in prison. To follow, indeed, the liberated man to his
home, if he have any, or failing that, to provide him
with temporary shelter and employment, and to watch
over his conduct, and guide and guard him amid the
temptations upon which he has entered with delicate susceptibilities
and wounded self-respect. Resolves formed
in the solitude of cells, are like roots that vegetate in
darkness, they are certain not to be very fruitful in their
secluded condition, and are exceedingly liable to perish
unproductive when exposed to the light.

Care, watchfulness, kindness, and condescension on
the part of those who would perfect their work of good,
are absolutely necessary to that reformation in the
prisoner, which is to make him a useful citizen, and restore
him to the confidence and respect of associates. It
is not permitted here to give instances of the beneficial
exercise of this species of practical, long-enduring kindness,
lest the sensibilities of the benefactor should be
wounded, and the beneficiary find his condition and circumstances
injured by unnecessary publicity. But instances
are not wanting of the recent criminal occupant
of a felon’s cell, returning to his moral teacher to give
thanks, to present the fruits of his amendment, and,
while asking additional advice, to solicit continued interest
in the future.

The cheerful, kind reception of the young penitent by
.bn 048.png
.pn +1
his friend and guide, seemed to seal the work of reformation;
and if he who had been justly charged with,
and severely punished for, repeated felonies, felt the
healing influence of Christian forbearance, and the long
exercise of reforming efforts on the part of the moral
instructor, who shall tell the effect upon the repentant’s
future interests, upon his associates, and upon the business
men of the world, with whom he must mingle, of
the freedom of his access to the house of his benefactor,
the cordiality of his reception and entertainment, and
kindness and good wishes with which he publicly takes
leave of him at the open door.

This kind of conduct is that “<i>coup d’epaule</i>” which
denotes true dignity and greatness in the bestower, and
which confers upon the recipient the freedom of virtuous
society, and the power to become a useful member in a
good community.

Though the publication of many striking instances of
reformation that illustrate the effect of direct personal
dealing with the prisoner has been forborne, lest the
peculiarity of the cases should too directly point to the
individual, and injure his prospects of success, yet one or
two are given, that all, and especially prisoners, may
comprehend the “possibility of reform,” even to the very
vicious and guilty. It is believed that the offender,
much more frequently than is supposed, contemplates in
his cell the duties and work of reformation, while the
discharge of that duty, and the commencement of that
work are postponed, from the inability to see how the
censure or suspicions of society are to be surmounted, or
how, amid those censures and suspicions, so repulsive in
.bn 049.png
.pn +1
their operation, he is to avoid the snares of former associates,
and the temptations of former pursuits. The
possibility of amendment, the practicability of virtuous
resolves must be made apparent by judicious counsel
and imitable example.

The effect of the moral improvement on the repentant
prisoner, is soon manifested in the improvement of his
physical, social, and fiscal condition. The confidence
and favor of those who have promoted the change is
communicated to others, and amendment of life is productive
at once of an amendment of the means of living.
The man of business pursuits is as anxious to procure
the service of the honest and the able, as the honest and
able are to obtain the patronage of active men.

With these great means of moral improvement, and,
doubtless, with an eye to the temporal as well as the
eternal consequences, the Society has always had in view
the means of making prisoners better as well as more
comfortable, of ameliorating the miseries of prisoners as
well as prisons; and hence it has required action on the
part of its visitors, and a regular report of what they
have done, and generally how they have labored.

In dealing with the question of reformation among
those who occupy the cells of the County Prison, it will
be readily conceived that there are not only a variety of
minds to deal with, but a great difference in the elements
of character. Something must be attempted for those
whose degradation is so great, that they hardly discover
in their condition more cause for shame than does the
unfortunate speculator who has failed in his plan of
wealth. These miserable wretches seem to have no
.bn 050.png
.pn +1
taste beyond the lowest dens of infamy, and no ambition
but to gratify that taste in its utmost depravity. And
there is a demand, too, for services among a few who
seem to have few tastes for what are called low vices,
and to have based their calculations of success on efforts
that involve the higher degree of felony. The higher offences
are in many instances rather the result of vicious
habits than the resort of those who aim at the property
of the industrious and the wealthy. Every one of
these offenders against the law is within the scope of this
Society, and his moral condition is in some degree provided
for.

It has already been mentioned that the Society sends to
both the Penitentiary and the County Prison, a Committee,
whose business it is not only to note whatever in the administration
of the institutions may have a bearing on the
moral and physical condition of the prisoner, but also to be
themselves missionaries to the inmates of the cell, moral
and religious teachers of those who have failed in both.
In addition to the labor of these committeemen, there
is at the Penitentiary a regular moral teacher, (occupying
what in some other institutions is called the chaplaincy,)
but fulfilling other requirements, and making
acceptable his more formal and general teaching by his
frequent special and personal communication with individuals.

At the County Prison, the Agent of the Society, who
is also the Agent of the Board of Inspectors, procures
the services of a clergyman for religious general instruction,
by preaching and prayer on the first day of the week.
It may be added, also, that not unfrequently ladies and
.bn 051.png
.pn +1
gentlemen, who belong to the choirs of some of the city
churches, lend their musical aid, and give additional
attraction to the religious services.

But it will be readily comprehended that as the prisoners
remain in their cells during the whole of the religious
exercises, they are not so likely to be influenced
by the teaching and exhortation, as if they were assembled
in chapel for social worship, and sat within sight,
as well as within sound, of the preacher. The difficulty
in this matter with a large portion of the occupants of
the cells, especially when low vices rather than considerable
crime have placed them there, is to get them
to give attention to the speaker, whom they cannot see.

They, too generally, use the occasion of religious exercise
for sleep or conversation; and the administering of
discipline is, perhaps, more frequently called for, in consequence
of mal-conduct during “Divine service,” than
at any other time. As bringing the preachers face to
face with his audience is impossible under the arrangement
of the prison, and would be a departure from the
plan of separate confinement, it follows, of course, that
it cannot be resorted to as a remedy for the indifference
to, and neglect of, the public teachings of the officiating
clergyman.

In the Parliamentary Reports, partial abstracts of
which are given under the head of “Correspondence,”
in this report it is mentioned that the prisoners are
brought into chapel without being able to recognize each
other in their ingress or egress, and placed in separate
stalls, so arranged, that while they can see and be seen
by the clergymen, they cannot see each other. The
.bn 052.png
.pn +1
prisoners while conducted to and from their respective
cells, have their faces covered with a species of mask,
which, being perforated, enables each to see and breathe,
but not to recognize any other masked person. Whether
this is a better system than is practised in our County
Prison and Penitentiary, we are unable to say, but it supposes
a chapel or chapels for several denominations, with a
large number of stalls. The plan could be practised only
with much inconvenience to the officers of the prison,
and the object of the non-recognition among the prisoners
must at least be endangered. Separate confinement and
separate instruction, seem the safest.

The Society has received the aid of members of
a female association, whose wish to be useful have
taken them to the cells of prisons, and whose devotion
have placed them in immediate conference with the
erring and miserable of their own sex; and great good
has resulted from their labors. It is a beautiful testimony
to the devotion of these females, that while generally
connected with some religious denomination, and,
of course, attached to their own creed and practices, they
have limited their labors to the inculcation of great
moral precepts that rest on revelation, and secured much
success from a gentle and affectionate enforcement of
their teaching, leaving the object of their efforts more in
love with the theory of virtue, if not fully resolved to
enter upon its practice.

This is undoubtedly the true course for those who resolve
to be useful to all who will listen to them. But
those who know the well-springs of affection in the
human heart, know how often they are called into exercise
.bn 053.png
.pn +1
by some incident that seems aside from the general
or the ordinary mode of procedure; nor should those who
look for improvement in the prison cells, overlook a great
element of success found in the early attachment to the
creed in which the prisoner was reared, and for which
he possesses that kind of affection which is offended by
the least impeachment of its efficacy, though his own
life and present condition show how utterly inoperative
for good it has been on him. Those persons are not
Atheists or Deists in theory, only in practice. They
recognize their obligation to their creed and their early
instruction, and they mean at some future time to do
better; but now they sin against their own knowledge.

.pm verse-start
They know the right, and they approve it, too;
They know the wrong, and yet the wrong pursue.
.pm verse-end

As to these persons, and especially in the female department,
nothing could startle them more than an imputation
upon their <i>belief</i>, nothing offend them more
than an attack upon their creed; and suspecting that
their delinquencies in practice will be imputed to the
deficiency of the doctrine in which they have been reared,
they stand often on the defensive; occasionally, indeed,
they seem ready to take the offensive against those
whom they believe to be of another form of worship.
This all may be wrong; it may be ridiculous, but nevertheless
it <i>is</i>; and with those who seek to do them a good,
and reclaim them from vice to virtue, it must be respected,
so far as not to offend it by any evidence of
hostility to aught but sin and vice. The confidence of
the prisoner must first be secured, and this not always
by the same means, that his improvement is to be
.bn 054.png
.pn +1
effected; and few circumstances so soon open up the
heart as a similarity of creed, and an evidence of belief
that that creed is not answerable for the vices or crimes
of those who rather hold it in abeyance than in practice.
And in that view of the case, and of the wants of the
prisoner, some of the Committee having been specially assigned
to the female department of the County Prison,
have solicited or accepted the offered services of educated
and pious females of diverse religious denominations,
and opened to them, by authority from the proper officers,
the doors of all the cells, so that each may have access to
every inmate, and deal with her mind and conscience in
the way which shall seem best adapted to the peculiar
case.

It is not expected, as certainly it is not desired, that
these devoted women should attempt to proselyte the
prisoners, looking rather to a change of creed than a
change of conduct; or rather, to speak more charitably,
seeking a reformation of conduct only through a change
of creed; but it is, of course, supposed, that each will
deal with the object of her care in the way in which her
conscience shall sanction, and that advantage will be
taken of a similarity of creed to enforce a renewed recognition
of doctrine in which the offender was reared,
and a resort to the means which, having been enforced
and adopted in childhood, are easily comprehended and
readily practised, and bring with them the reminiscence
of the better days of home and early piety, while they
give a stronger hope of future prosperity and happiness.

The stranger visiting the County Prison, has been
gratified with the free ingress of these female missionaries,
.bn 055.png
.pn +1
and has been forcibly struck with the harmonious, though
not associated, action of women whose peculiarity of
dress shows them to be of religious connection variant in
creed and ceremony, but whose concurrent <i>general</i> instruction
shows them to be trying to serve one Master
in the way which their consciences suggested and approved,
and which is warranted by the example of that
Master, who “went about doing good,” and who showed
the duty of that conduct when he said, “I was in prison
and ye came unto me.”

However beneficial may be the regular service of the
clergy on the Sabbath, it will, it is believed, be admitted
by all, that those who have the ear of the separated
prisoner, who know the peculiarities of his case, and
the proclivity of his inclinations, have a great opportunity
of touching his affections, of making an impression
on his mind, and rousing him to good resolves, when
the dealing is separate and special, and the poor wanderer
feels that every word that is uttered is directed to
his own conscience, and every hope that is offered is
founded on amendments that are peculiar to his own
condition. This separate dealing is, in almost all cases
of sin, of vice and crime, that which a friend would desire
to exercise; it is that which the sinner, the vicious,
or the criminal, would acknowledge the most efficacious,
because less offensive to his self-love, and because it can
be so specially adapted, as to meet every point of his
own case, so as to leave no avenue for mental escape,
and satisfy him that nothing less than entire reformation
of resolves and conduct will save him from the
augmentation of that punishment which he is now
.bn 056.png
.pn +1
suffering, and which will cut him off from the sympathies
as well as the intercourse of his fellow-beings.

It is scarcely possible to say too much of this mode of
separate instruction and exhortation,—this mode of
softening the heart and moulding it to good,—the
simple means of acquiring the confidence of the prisoner,
and then leading him out of his miserable condition,
to the commencement of that course which in a
long run is to lead to the establishment of virtuous principles;
but it is desirable that more could be justly said
of the number of those who give themselves to this holy
service. The number is small,—quite too small for the
number of those who need those aids to virtue of which
we have spoken; and especially is there a deficiency in
the variety of religious views of the visitors. Not that
it is desirable that distinctive doctrines should be enforced;
but it is desirable, as has been stated above,
that the attachment to creed,—almost as strong in the
vicious as in the good,—should be respected as a means
of confidence at least. Few virtuous, few pious persons
of enlarged christian philanthropy consider the
attachment or hostility of certain persons to certain
creeds in which they have been reared, or which they
have been taught to hold. Zealous attachment to creed
survives all practices of virtue, all ground of self-respect,
and is apparently, and perhaps naturally, more rampant
in those who have no sense of the virtue which the
creed enforces, than in those who understand the character
of the creed, and the rights of others who do not
profess it. And it is worthy of remark, that some of
the most violent personal contests of which the Vagrant
.bn 057.png
.pn +1
cells of the County Prison have been the arena, have
been caused by the opposite <i>religious</i> creeds in which
the miserable occupants had been born, and in which
they had been reared; and thus the broken forms of
christian doctrine would be avenged in the receptacle of
vice, and by the vicious, with all kinds of blasphemy
and personal violence, and the religion of peace and
purity be enforced with broken heads and broken commandments.

This strong case (entirely real) is presented to illustrate
the idea that almost all hope of doing good to the
class of persons to whom reference is made, must rest
upon efforts that are put forth in some regard to the
prejudices which are manifested by those whose benefit
is sought.

To produce the ends proposed by the means which
we recommend,—namely, an arousing of the conscience
by gentle appeals to the hidden affections, by those
whose circumstances qualify them to gain access to the
confidence of the moral patients,—we must have many
devoted visitors, willing to labor beyond the sight and
without the applause of the world; and they, when
properly vouched for in all requisite qualifications, must
have free access to those whom they would aid. It is
known that this Society has, by the laws of the Commonwealth,
a sort of special privilege to visit in prison,
by its members, the miserable, the wretched, the vicious
and the criminal, to breathe through the gratings of the
cell words of admonition, comfort and hope, or to open
the door and participate in the confinement of the
prisoner, and address him in accents that may, in the
.bn 058.png
.pn +1
silence of all around him, awaken him to holy resolves.
But even this privilege, greatly used, and, as
we believe, never abused, is imperfect without a concurrent
action on the part of those who directly administer
the affairs of the prison. If they oppose obstacles
to free access to the incarcerated, no assertion or
proof of right will make the path easy, or often trod
by those who represent us, especially the females; it
will be found to add the disgust of contention with
keepers, to the inconvenience of visits to the guarded.
And still less effective will be any efforts by christian
philanthropists to alleviate the misery of the cells,
and improve the minds of the occupants, if their visits
of mercy are followed by the coarse jeers of the unrefined
and unsympathizing, ridiculing the efforts of
the self-sacrificing visitor, and shaming the half-resolved
prisoner; nor would it be better, if the
regular official should, from bigotry or bad design,
denounce the teaching of the voluntary visitor, because
it might tend to other creeds than his own, or because
it proceeded from other sources and in other channels
than that by which his creed was formed, or those in
which his conscience directed. It will be readily understood
how potent such disturbing causes would be in
producing injurious effects,—in marring, indeed, the
good work of the moral teachers in our prisons. It
seems therefore meet to say here, that while it is supposed
that those who are entrusted with the care of
the prisoner, in both Penitentiary and County Prison,
have some well-established views of doctrine, and are
connected with some religious denomination, it is not
.bn 059.png
.pn +1
known that any of them have attempted to interrupt
the work of the committee and agents of the Society,
by hindering the access to prisoners, or by disturbing
with contrary teaching the effect produced. On the
contrary, it seems a duty at this time and in this place
to bear testimony to the unfailing urbanity with which
our visitors are received and treated at the prisons, and
the aid always rendered to give them ready access to
the cells and to the minds of the incarcerated. In the
County Prison, where such a variety is presented, and
so much care is required, and so much time demanded
by the frequent changes, no occupation of the employees,
male or female, ever poses an obstacle to the visit of
those who come to help the helpless and improve the
bad. No variety of creed induces a diminution of that
courtesy which is the true exponent of benevolence;
and in this respect the superintendent, keeper, clerk and
matrons may be regarded as official assistants in the work
of alleviating the miseries of the prisons which they are
bound to regulate.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
AGENT.
.sp 2
The Society continues to have the benefit of the labors
of <sc>William J. Mullin</sc>, who for so many years has filled
the place of “Agent” at the County Prison. His services
are important to the Society, in the amelioration
.bn 060.png
.pn +1
of the condition of a vast number of men, women, and
even children, whom he finds in the cells of the prison,
victims of the errors of public officers, of their own
follies, of the vindictive feelings of unkind neighbors,
of their own inordinate love of litigation, or their own
or their parents’ crimes. He is not called to look to
the cases of those who may be released by the Inspectors.
His labors are with the prosecutors, the aldermen,
the district attorney, and the court; and those
labors resulted in the release of one thousand four
hundred and ninety-one persons during the year
1863. These releases, of course, were all effected with
the consent of some established authority. And it may
be added, that of the whole number released, <i>forty-three</i>
were children.

The amount of domestic misery consequent upon the
arrest and incarceration of the 1491 persons is almost
inappreciable. The injustice corrected by the successful
interference must have been immense, and the pleasure
brought to a suffering family by the restoration of
parent or child to approved innocence, and the duties
and comforts of home, must have been truly great.

But we are not to consider all these 1491 persons entirely
innocent of the charges brought against them.
The magistrate had the commitment supported by the
oath of some complainant, and the complainant himself
was undoubtedly often justified by the conduct of the
prisoner. The blow for which assault and battery was
charged, was probably given, and the fruit or toy whose
loss led to the imprisonment for larceny, was taken by
the accused. The pane of glass in the tavern window
.bn 061.png
.pn +1
was probably broken by the intoxicated creature who
was charged with “malicious mischief.” Nor, under
these and similar circumstances, are we always to censure
the magistrate for taking the oath of a citizen.
He commits to prison, or holds to bail for trial, those
who stand accused of the violation of private rights.
The offender knew, before he entered upon his offensive
conduct, that he was about to do wrong. But probably
he did not understand the extent of that wrong, and
especially was he ignorant of the extent of the penalty
which he was about to incur.

We all know the axiom of criminal law, that “ignorance
of the law excuseth no man;” but we all know,
also, that the axiom is not of equal force in moral law;
and the administration of criminal law itself has practical
exceptions to the rule. We have already said that
a large number of cases sent to court might easily be
settled by the parties, but especially by the interference
of the magistrate; and we may add, that more than
two-thirds of the cases in which the magistrate holds,
or commits the prisoners for trial, could, before reaching
the prosecuting attorney, be settled, with benefit to the
community and the offender. The requirements of the
law are seen and felt by the accused before he finds
himself committed. The vengeance of the law would
do little towards reforming one who already sees his
fault, and is ready, as far as possible, to make reparation.
In such cases the interference of the Agent has
been found most beneficial, not merely in procuring the
discharge of the innocent, separating him from the association
of untried vagabonds and thieves, and sending
.bn 062.png
.pn +1
him back to his family and business, to work out and
work off the stain which even <i>false</i> imprisonment has
set upon his character. But greatly advantageous has
been that interference in behalf of the guilty, of him who
had actually committed the act charged, but who felt
the danger of his position as well as the error or turpitude
of his conduct, and who needed only to be saved
from the actual verdict of the jury and the sentence of
the court, to become a candidate again for public confidence
and general respect. To all visitors of prisons
it is known that hundreds, who commit a violation of the
criminal law, never feel the degradation of their act, or
submit their minds to its disgraceful consequences, till
they are made companions of culprits in the prison cells,—that
to be known to the good as having done a notable
wrong, is a mortifying means for repentance and
amendment; while to be in companionship with the
admitted bad, is to be almost certainly sealed to future
infamy. This strong but correct view of the cases of
new offenders, is that upon which the Agent has based
his action; and it is not only due to him, but to the
plans and labors of the Society, to say, that while it is
probable that some of those whom he, with much labor,
has released from prison, have shown that they did not
improve by his beneficent efforts, it is most true that by
far the largest portion have shown by their subsequent
conduct that they appreciate the benevolence that interposed
in their behalf, and were ready to make the only
compensation which is acceptable to their benefactor,
viz., an amended life.

It is dangerous—it is at least wrong—to make a low
.bn 063.png
.pn +1
estimate of the labors that take a human being from
the cells of a prison, when his character is such as to
lead to a belief that he will do no wrong, by example, to
society, nor sink in the scale of morals. It is wrong to
say that the verdict of a jury fully acquits a man, restores
him at once and entirely to society, and wipes
away the stain which a prison cell has imparted. Thousands
hear of the charge who never know of the acquittal,—thousands
recollect the man as the inmate of a
prison, who have no remembrance of the full cause of
his release. The adverse statement of the press, as it
regards the act, or the adverse testimony on the trial,
lives in the minds of many who do not know, or scarcely
would care, about all that was said in behalf of the
accused to induce a complete acquittal.

We know the power of conscious innocence; but we
know also the effect of conscious disgrace. A man who
has been imprisoned long, on a criminal charge, may, in
his chamber, or in his family, feel the peace of a “conscience
void of offence;” but, abroad in the world, he
will feel himself continually on the defensive,—always
anxious to show that he is still worthy of the confidence
he seeks,—always fearful that some act or word of his,
unnoticeable in others, may be construed as consistent
with charges which he has publicly disproved; and he
feels that the months or weeks of imprisonment which
he has suffered, are not to be redeemed by a whole
life of liberty and honorable conduct.

There is something in the atmosphere of a criminal
prison which seems never to forsake the liberated prisoner:
he feels its influence, and suspects all to be
.bn 064.png
.pn +1
guarding against its infection. In his imagination, the
deadly mephitic air is always about him. A reflection
of innocence, or a sense of repentance and full reparation,
may appease the conscience, but they will not take
away the remembrance of the incarceration; and it is
to be feared that such painful reflections have, when
acting upon a morbid sensibility, led to suicide, or to a
return to crime. To diminish the evil, to lessen the
effect of guilt, to save self-respect, and restore man to
the duties and enjoyments of society, are the objects of
the labors of the Agent, when he interferes to save even
the offender from such a punishment as shall operate
upon him beyond the demands of the law, and, reaching
even over the culprit, shall bring misery and disgrace
and ruin upon his dependent family.

It is in this light the services of the Agent are to be
regarded. He releases hundreds of innocent persons,
every year. He restores to family and friends those
who have been detained for insignificant offences. He
calls from the cells of the prison such as may have done
acts that would have lead to a criminal life, and he
gives them their freedom before association with the
bad has weakened their moral perception,—before they
can have formed resolutions to revenge upon society the
offence of their incarceration. He assists to save the
convict from a return to the haunts of vice, and the
associations that led to his crime and his protracted
imprisonment, and, supplying trifling sums, and aiding
in the application of funds furnished to him, he has
seen the prisoner leave the cell which he had occupied
for more than a year, and return to a distant family, to
.bn 065.png
.pn +1
commence a life of improvement, and become a useful
member of the community in which he was reared; and
it may be added that, in one instance, at least, while
the care of the Agent, in connection with an Inspector,
saved the released female from fulfilling an engagement
of crime which she had rashly formed, it placed her in
the bosom of a family that received her as a child, and
made her feel all the comforts and confidence of home
which can be felt by the repentant and the forgiven.

The immense saving to the city and county, resulting
from the efficient labors of the Agent, by which is saved
the cost of maintenance in prison, and of trial and acquittal
in court, is worthy the consideration of the tax-payer,
and is appreciated by the Inspectors of the prison,
who administer the moneys appropriated to the maintenance
of the imprisoned. This Society is specially concerned
in the moral and physical results of the labors
of the Agent, and feel that the objects proposed in the
formation of the Society for Alleviating the Miseries of
Prisons, have been greatly promoted by the successful
labors which they authorize and which they approve.

The Agent of the Society for the County Prison
makes a monthly report of his labors, and his small
expenditures for clothing furnished to the outgoing
prisoner, and for his fare to some other place. These
reports show the constancy and the value of his labors
in the right direction. We have already mentioned the
number of the releases secured by his efforts. We may,
perhaps, appropriately repeat here a remark elsewhere
made, that the services of the Agent are not required
with prisoners whom the Inspectors are by law competent
.bn 066.png
.pn +1
to discharge,—such as are committed for drunkenness,
disorderly conduct, vagrancy, breach of the peace,
and such offences; but to cases that require the intervention
of the magistrates or the courts to release the
accused, the interference of the Agent is directed.
Among the many cases which he has reported to the
Society, we select a few which serve to illustrate the
character of his labors, and their influence in alleviating
the miseries of prisons, and serving the cause of
the unfortunate innocent, whose errors may have led
them into questionable situations, or whose poverty
may have placed them in bad company or adverse circumstances.
.pm letter-start
<i>Case First.</i>—A woman was incarcerated upon the charge of the
larceny of two fifty dollar notes, of which she was innocent. Her
imprisonment was very unjust. She was taken from her home, with
her little infant in her arms, and committed to the prison, and separated
from her three other children. The Agent ascertained on
inquiry that the prosecutor had accused three other persons at different
times for taking the money that the prisoner was accused of taking.
When the Agent informed the “Court and District Attorney” of
these facts, her case was ignored, and she was released from prison,
there not being a particle of evidence against her aside from the
mis-representation made by the prosecutor.
.pm letter-end
It is scarcely necessary to comment on this case, for
though the justice of the movement is sustained by the
judicial officers of the court, we have few of the facts
which gave poignancy to the innocent sufferer.
.pm letter-start
<i>Case Second.</i>—Was that of a husband and his wife, imprisoned for
the larceny of an old three-prong table fork, of little or no value,
which he found in a pile of ashes in the street. He took, cleaned
.bn 067.png
.pn +1
and repaired it, and put a particular mark upon it, such as he had
upon all his tools in his workshop, he being said to be a respectable
mechanic. He then gave it to his wife for the use of his family, and
for <i>this they</i> were both arrested and imprisoned, on the oath of a
quarrelsome neighbor, who testified that it was her fork, and she knew
it by the mark upon it; which the prisoner said could not be the case,
as it was he that put <i>this</i> the only mark upon it. It was certain that
they both could not have stolen the fork, although each of them was
committed to prison for the same offence. They were respectable
looking people, who had never been in prison before. The woman
was in great distress of mind, and on the eve of her confinement.
They resided in “Columbia Avenue,” the extreme northern part of
the city, and were sued before a magistrate in the extreme southern
part of the city. This circumstance indicated a malicious feeling on
the part of the prosecutor, and particularly so in causing the mother
to be separated from her infant child that had been left at home
uncared for, as the officer would not allow her to return home and
take her child to prison with her. And this was mainly the cause of
her mental suffering that was so apparent to all who saw her. The
Agent deeply sympathized with them in their unfortunate condition,
and went to the magistrate and immediately procured their unconditional
discharge, all of which had been done within an hour after
the Agent’s attention was called to the case. They were then released
and permitted to return to their home, as it did not appear that they
were in any way guilty of the charge brought against them.
.pm letter-end
.pm letter-start
<i>Case Third.</i>—Two young soldiers that were from the State of
Maine. One of them was of a family of the highest respectability;
they were accused of stealing a silver watch valued at $18, for which
offence they were committed to prison. When the parents of one
heard of the imprisonment of their son, they addressed a note to the
Warden of our Prison expressing their surprise at his imprisonment.
They stated that they had never known him to do anything wrong,
but to the contrary he had always conducted himself in such a way as to
command the respect of all who knew him. They wished to know
whether it was necessary to send on money to employ counsel to
defend him. This letter was handed to the Agent, who made himself
.bn 068.png
.pn +1
thoroughly acquainted with their case, and who believed they were
innocent. The letter was answered, and the parents were informed
by the Agent that he believed their son was innocent of the charge
that he was accused of, and the case would be attended to free of
charge, and that it was not necessary to send any money. It was not
long after this that the Agent succeeded in ascertaining that these
young men were entirely innocent of the charge they were accused of,
and so far from having stolen anything, they had been robbed by
their prosecutor. After having been induced to drink <i>liquor</i> that was
drugged, they became intoxicated, and were taken out under the cover
of night and laid at the door of the adjoining house. The very party
that robbed them, went to a magistrate and made oath that they had
stolen a silver watch of the value of $18 from him; for which offence
they were committed. They had been engaged in one of the late
battles, and both of them were wounded and sent to the Chestnut
Hill Hospital, where they had <i>partially recovered</i> from their wounds,
and as they were <i>convalescent</i>, permission was granted them to visit
the city, where they got into the difficulty. The Agent succeeded in
ascertaining from one of the <i>inmates</i> of the tavern where the occurrence
took place, that the young men were entirely <i>innocent</i> of stealing
the watch, and that the prosecutor had actually <i>offered to sell</i> the watch
the next day after they were imprisoned. Soon as this fact was discovered,
the Agent got a <i>return</i> of the case from the magistrate, took
it into Court, and informed the <i>District Attorney</i> of all the facts in the
case; the prosecutor was sent for, but was nowhere to be found, as he
had <i>suddenly disappeared</i> and left for New York, he having become
<i>alarmed</i> at the Agent’s interference in the case. Their case was laid
before the Grand Jury and ignored, and they were released from prison
and permitted to return to their hospital where they could have their
wounds properly attended to. The Agent then addressed a letter to
the anxious parents of the one that their son’s innocence was fully
established, and that he was <i>honorably discharged</i> by the Court.
This intelligence was no doubt gratifying to them.
.pm letter-end
If this third case is well considered, it will present
an instance of the value of the services of the Agent,
.bn 069.png
.pn +1
and consequently of the value of the Society, which
must be gratifying to every friend of humanity. It
seems almost impossible to free our large cities from the
haunts of the vicious into which these young men had
been enticed, and while they exist it seems certain that
crime will not only abound, but progress, not merely in
amount but in impunity. The feelings of those interested
in the welfare and character of these young
men, may be imagined when they learn of their release
from prison and their full acquittal of the charge of
felony. The course of vice had indeed been entered,
and idle curiosity (at least) had been partially gratified
in the dangerous exploration by these young men, and
now perhaps they may understand the significance of
monitions, against entering the path that leads down to
destruction and associating with those “whose feet take
hold on hell.”
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
MAGISTRACY.
.sp 2
Persons visiting the County Prison, are struck with
the evidence that abounds of some great defect in the
system of primary justice in this city; and the evils so
justly and so greatly to be deplored, are often unhesitatingly
referred to the incompetency or malfeasance
of a portion of the magistrates by whom the vagrants,
the drunkards, and the violators of the public peace are
.bn 070.png
.pn +1
committed. Without offering an opinion at present on
the question, whether we owe the results of which we
speak, to the ministers of justice, or to the system upon
which they receive their office, and discharge its duties,
we are certainly right in saying that any attempt to
alleviate the miseries of public jails, must first grapple
with the administration of primary justice; must begin
with creating a respect for the officers of the law, and
must satisfy the accused that the object of arrest is not
so much the profit of the magistrate as the benefit of
society; and that while the balance is held with a clean
and steady hand, the costs are imposed less for the benefit
of the magistrate than for the punishment for a violation
of the law and the improvement of the offender.

But before we can hope for any amendment of the
system, we must enable the public to comprehend the
reality and the extent of the evil which is deplored, and
which it is the object of the friends of sound justice to
correct.

The “Station-House” and the County Prison are
crowded with persons who do not feel that they have
done an injury to others, or at most, they think their
offence is of a most venial kind. The offence of “vagrancy”
is so undefined, that it is easy to commit almost
any idle person upon such a charge, and equally easy to
let him go. “Disorderly conduct,” which appends to the
offence of drunkenness, the punishment of a month confinement
instead of a day is so uncertain in its character,
that the jubilant politician is in danger of imprisonment
if his huzzas are strengthened and multiplied by even
moderate potations. And “disorderly house” is made to
.bn 071.png
.pn +1
cover all kinds of disturbances between singing loud to
a crying child, and the repeated orgies of drunkenness
and prostitution, just as “misdemeanor” includes all indictable
offences below actual felony. And “abuse and
threats,” that formerly expressed something definite, now
fill the commitment with most undefinable charges, and
the cells with most astonished and astonishing inmates.

The whole system of magisterial justice has, in this
city, fallen into disrepute; and those who are the objects
of its penalties, seem to lose respect for its ministers and
their ministration, and to regard arrest and imprisonment
as a misfortune which is as likely to fall upon
one as another, if poor, and which therefore justifies any
effort to evade the penalty.

This was not always so; we speak of the estimate of
aldermanic justice. There never was a time when vice
and crime did not abound in a great city, and, consequently,
if respect for public rights exists, and a necessity
for order is admitted there is likely always to be business
for the police, and cases for the magistrates. But there
is a mode of conducting both arrests and “hearings,”
that makes the difference in the proceedings and their
effects. And when we shall have looked a little more
into the details of the matter as they are presented, we
shall not only see the cause of the evils which we deplore,
but shall rapidly and easily arrive at a conclusion
with regard to some of the means which are to be employed
to alleviate the miseries of public prisons, and
thus see that the subject of which we now treat, is one
that directly connects itself with the aims of the Society,
and that it demands from us an opinion of the evil which
.bn 072.png
.pn +1
it involves, and a consideration of the plans which may
be suggested as a remedy.

The small income from the office of Alderman in this
city is augmented by a salary allowed to six of them,
who may happen to be of the right kind of politics to
ensure their claims upon Councils to be elected Police
Magistrates. The changes which the Charter of the
City has undergone by amendments and substitution,
have left Philadelphia in an anomalous situation with
regard to offices. Every ward in the city has one or
more Aldermen, who possess now little else than the
functions of a justice of the peace. And the roll of
officials bears also the name of a “Recorder,” yet that
functionary has few if any other relations with the city
government than has the humblest of the Aldermen; or
if he has, it is some remnant of ancient obligation to do
service never required, or to demand fees seldom paid to
him. No one can deny that the present Recorder discharges
well the duties of a justice of the peace, so far
as his power extends; but no one will say that the office
is essential to any branch of justice in the city if all
others are well executed.

We speak now rather in abstract, but it may not be
out of the way to say, that the citizen who occupies at
present the place of Recorder, seems to illustrate the idea
of an efficient magistrate, as, without any particular call
upon him, he has been a terror and a scourge to evil
doers, and thus he magnifies his office, and makes it
honorable.

The report of our Prison Agent, extracts from which
have been given, shows to what an extent the evil to which
.bn 073.png
.pn +1
we allude has already extended. His labors procured
the release of more than a hundred persons every month.
Now, though in many instances the prisoner thus released
may have violated some law, and thus have rendered
himself obnoxious to the penalties of the statute, yet in a
greater part of the committals, investigation shows that
the idea of just convictions did not enter into the complaint,
and that the magistrate might have caused a
settlement of the matter, without recourse to incarceration,
in the infliction of fine; or at least it would be easy
so to amend the laws of the State as to empower the
magistrate to deal thus with the accused. Much the
largest part of the commitments, however, are of a kind
that do not often come to the knowledge of the Agent,
but are referred to the “Visiting Inspectors” of the
Prison. These are for drunkenness, disorder, breach of
the peace, and vagrancy; and as an Act of Assembly
gives to the Inspectors of the Prison the power to discharge
persons committed for such offences, it follows
that many committed for thirty days are released before
the expiration of their term. Intoxication is charged,
and the miserable offender is sent to the prison; perhaps
a family is dependent upon his or her labor, or an infant
needs the nourishment, which only a mother can afford;
and the miserable mother is suffering from an excess of
that from which only an infant can ordinarily relieve her.

An innocent woman has often been taken up in a
grand swoop which a spasmodic effort of the police has
made, and she is included in the long list of commitments
as drunk, or a vagrant. Many of those who were
guilty of the lower offences charged against them receive
.bn 074.png
.pn +1
no good from their incarceration, and society is not benefited
by their removal from the labor which maintains
them and a family, and the imprisonment devolves upon
the city the expenses of the support, often both of the
offenders and their families.

A considerable portion of the community that have
acquaintance with the prison by commitment, are of a
class that think all personal redress, and all protection
from wrong, and all safety from the consequences of their
own misconduct lie in an appeal to the magistrate, and
a trifling quarrel in a neighborhood frequently leads to
the arrest and incarceration of the principal members of
several families, and the offending and the offended
parties are often seen withdrawing from the contests of
hands and clubs, and contending in a foot race to see
which shall first enter complaint before a magistrate.
Often in these matters both succeed; each contrives to
get his antagonist into prison, and mulct him in costs.
Occasionally it happens, that “the race is not to the
swift;” success is found to depend on the possession of
the means to pay the first cost of the action. Perhaps
the most painful, because the most unrighteous, of this
kind of suits, are those in which a quarrelsome drunkard,
having beaten his wife, proceeds at once to the magistrate
and charges her, on oath, with assault and battery,
or with assault and threats, and the poor woman comes
down to the prison with her head bruised, her eyes
blackened, and her whole frame bearing marks of the
outrageous injury inflicted by her cowardly, drunken
husband, who, after a few days, finding his household
matters in some derangement for want of a female head,
.bn 075.png
.pn +1
obligingly releases his wife from prison, till his time
for another debauch has arrived. Nor is it to be denied
that the drunken wife often, very often, brings the husband
into similar difficulties. In some of these cases
a magistrate might, by interference, mitigate a portion
of the misery which is inflicted, and by his friendly
advice prevent much that usually follows.

This constant resort to litigation in those who have
no “cause” but what they create of themselves, is one
of the crying evils of the times. The facility of a warrant,
and the knowledge that the facility results from
its price, cause a large portion of the cases which
reach our courts of justice, or are settled, “with costs,”
between the Alderman’s office and the jury-room.

Another class of cases is found in the prison—that
of disorderly houses. Now it is well understood that
the term “disorderly house,” has a specific signification
when connected with a charge before an Alderman; yet,
on enquiry as to the character of the “disorder,” it frequently
happens that the offenders were in the exercise
of customary rights in their own apartment. Singing,
perhaps, or talking loudly; or, it may happen, that not
even such disturbances are mentioned. But the proprietor
of the house, usually an under-letter, can do
better with his contracted premises by a larger rent, or
more ready collection, he therefore incurs the cost of
magisterial interference, the tenants, he knows, cannot
find freehold bail, they will sell a part of their goods to
pay back rent and cost, and for the sake of exemption,
or release from confinement, will agree to leave the
rooms, and thus the prosecutor secures the first object
.bn 076.png
.pn +1
of his unjust movement, and is saved also the cost of a
defeat in court.

The number of persons committed on the charge of
“disorderly houses,” is astonishing; especially when it
is considered how many “disorderly houses” remain unvisited,
and the occupants not arrested. But we must
not forget the fact, that the movement of the magistrate
in these cases is sanctioned, perhaps required, by the
solemn oath of the complainant.

With these remarks we are led to the consideration
of the subject with which we commenced this part of
our Report, namely, <sc>The Magistracy</sc>, and their alleged
complicity in the evil which we deplore, and which we
would diminish for the sake of the miserable victims of
temporary power, and for the sake of the credit of our
community.

On all sides we hear the complaint of the character
and conduct of the Aldermen of the city; many of them,
it is stated, use their office to extort from the unfortunate
poor, a portion of their hard earnings, and thus deprive
the homes of the laborer of the little comforts of which
they are susceptible. They entertain complaints, it is
said, of acts which need not be construed into offence
against the law, and thus encourage litigation, and perpetuate
feuds among those whom it would seem to be their
duty, as magistrates, to “keep at peace with all men.”

We have already enumerated and repeated the classes
of cases which most encumber the dockets of the Aldermen,
and which are made of more importance than they
deserve by the effects on the income of the magistrates
which these causes produce. But the enumeration and
.bn 077.png
.pn +1
repetition alone of these would not be a part of the duties
of this Society, or form a portion of this Report, if they
did not suggest a call for remedy. It is not the evils
of prisons that constitute the object of this Society, but
the melioration of those evils.

Taking, then, the existence of the evils, as we have
only hinted at them, and admitting (as we are free to do,
and as we do with pleasure, because it is just) that while
the cry against the magistracy is universal, the fault is
really found in only a part of them, the inquiry is, “how
shall all this be remedied?”

“<i>Elect better Aldermen</i>,” say those who wish for a
better state of things. “Elect suitable men, and the
evil is at once remedied.”

Undoubtedly the plan is good; but is it practicable?
For many years the Aldermen of Philadelphia have been
elected by the people, and in many instances the choice
has been judicious, but in others either the official conduct
of the magistrate has deteriorated into the grossest
kind of improprieties, or he has been compelled to give
place to some greater favorite of the voters of his ward,
who would begin his descending march some grades
below that at which his predecessor closed his career.
So large a portion of the duties of the Alderman who has
most to do as a police magistrate, are beyond the knowledge
and sympathy of the respectable portion of the
community, that little interest is taken in his election
by those who feel a sense of shame at the improprieties
of a functionary connected with the administration of
justice; and in many parts of the city the knowledge
.bn 078.png
.pn +1
and sympathy of that class would avail nothing towards
the election of another person.

The Grand Jury recently inquiring for the city and
county of Philadelphia, made the following severe
strictures upon Aldermen:
.pm letter-start
“It has been a matter of exceeding regret that the law has not
clothed this body with discretionary power to tax the magistrates,
before whom the cases were heard, with the costs, as a proper rebuke
to that avarice which seeks to convert litigation and contention into
a source of gain,—which offers a premium for crimes, by making
the ministers of the law the transgressors, and prostituting the province
of peace-makers to that of a common barrator.”
.pm letter-end
As the Grand jury did not, of course, desire to be
directly personal when they were not about to find a
bill, they let their censure take a general course. They
set forth an evil, and that, perhaps, was enough, till
some special case of wrong should be laid before them.

But the alleviation of the evil—the remedy. It is
evident the remedy is not in the ballot-box—the root
of the evil lies far back of that; nor is it in the statutes
of the Commonwealth. The Constitution of the
State is in fault; and until that is modified, or till some
act of the Assembly can be passed superseding the
Aldermen in their special police duties, we cannot hope
for any diminution of the evil. The Aldermen of the
city are elected by the voters of their own wards, and
he who can command the most votes, can, if he desire it,
be chosen Alderman. No man of wealth seeks the place,—no
man of business habits asks for a nomination.
The rewards of the office are, at best, below that of
ordinary business; and the distinction which the place
.bn 079.png
.pn +1
confers is not that which gratifies the wishes of the ambitious.
But the place is coveted and obtained,
its emoluments spring from the fees paid by those who
come or are brought before the magistrate. If his business
is multiplied, his profits, of course, are increased;
and as he sought the place for the means of a living, he
must avail himself of the capabilities of the place to
augment those means. If people will “sue and be
sued,” if people will fight and go to law, if neighbors
will quarrel, and then drag each other before the magistrate,
it may seem, to the functionary, rather a thankless
exercise of his ability, to recommend such an
adjustment of the case as will deprive him of the fees
of office, by which he lives. And while most philanthropists
would applaud the magistrate who sat to
reconcile rather than to punish,—who dispensed with
his fees while he dispensed kindness and affection
rather than justice,—it is probable that the family for
which he was bound to provide would have to look to
some other means of support than those supplied by the
man who looked to the peace of the neighborhood
rather than the augmentation of fees. And it may as
well be added, that the magistrate who should thus
employ his functions, would soon fail of objects, provided
another alderman could be found who would grant to
passion its first demand. For it is evident that most
of the complaints that come before our aldermen are
brought by those who seek to gratify personal animosity
and a sudden desire of vengeance rather than any wish
to punish the wrong-doer for the sake of right. We
must take men as they are, not as we could wish them
.bn 080.png
.pn +1
to be. We must recognize in the office of an alderman
the means of support for the incumbent and his family;
and while all around us, men are exercising their talents
and taxing their ingenuity, to gain wealth by the advantages
which the law allows, we must not suppose that
the alderman is to sit in magisterial quiet, and suffer
the vails of office to escape his grasp, when they are the
fruits of a labor sanctioned by law or warranted by
official custom.

If we would remedy the evils about which so much
has been justly said, and concerning which the Grand
Jury has spoken so plainly, we must do something more
than talk and complain.

We have already said the evil finds its source and
sanction in the Constitution of our State. The change
of the whole mode of supplying the magistrates and
judicial officers, that was wrought by the present Constitution,
may have corrected some evils: the general
question is one which we are now not called upon to
discuss; but we may say, that experience shows that
nothing has been gained with regard to the administration
of justice in the magistrates offices of our city.
Twenty-five years experience shows that none of the
evils complained of in this department have been
diminished, while most of them have been augmented,
and new ones added to the list. This seems almost a
necessary result of the system, and thus calls for prompt,
effective remedy.

What is required in Philadelphia, is a class of Police
Magistrates, with a salary that shall secure and compensate
the services of competent men, who shall have
.bn 081.png
.pn +1
no pecuniary temptation to commit any person brought
before them, and whose character and condition shall
give weight, no less to their decisions than their recommendations.
Placed by the tenor and fixed reward of
their office above dependence upon those who shall
demand justice in others, or receive it in themselves,
they shall not shrink from their duty to condemn, more
than from their sense of propriety to discharge.

Of legal qualifications we have little to say. The
layman, fitted by character and ordinary education for
the place of police magistrate, might soon become sufficiently
learned in the law and requirements of his
place, to discharge with fidelity and success the duties
thereof. A considerable number of those now holding
the office of Alderman, and as such elected occasionally
as Police Magistrates, show themselves competent to all
the duties of their office, and worthy of the position
which would be opened to them, should the reformation
that we suggest ever be made. It is not always the
man,—it is the circumstances in which he is placed; it
is the necessities of nomination, the demands of the
election, and the condition into which the office has
been brought, that hinder some in their attempts at
good, and deprive the city of benefits from the services
of those who, under other circumstances, would promote
public order, and acquire honor by their administration
of justice and their exercise of humane powers.

And while so much freedom has been exercised in
censuring the official conduct of some of the Aldermen
of our city,—a freedom that is suggested and can be
sustained by facts,—it is due to the cause of truth and
.bn 082.png
.pn +1
justice to repeat emphatically what is readily admitted
above, that many of the magistrates are eminently deserving
of commendation, as well for the abilities they
possess, as for the use to which those abilities are applied
in the discharge of their vexatious duties. And it may
be added, that some of those who have been most censured,
have shown themselves possessed of good feelings,
and amenable to the requirements of courtesy and
humanity. The system is in fault; and till that is
changed for the better,—reformed altogether,—we cannot
look for any considerable improvement in the administration
of justice in police offices. For it is a
lamentable fact, that such is the want of confidence in
some of the magistrates, that the decisions of the able
and the good are treated with a distrust most dangerous
to public order.

Our judiciary, from the lowest offices to the highest,
was derived from England. The names of the officials,
the cause of their proceedings, the rules of their action,
are all from the parent country. If we have not derived
from these all the benefits which might be expected,
and all we see England enjoy, it is worth while
for those interested to inquire what has disturbed public
opinion, what has weakened public respect, what has
augmented the law’s delay, or what has strengthened
the general opinion of its uncertainty. So far as such
feelings, if any such exist, may connect themselves with
the “courts of record” of our State, it is not the object
of the present Report to discuss the cause, to point to
their extent, or suggest a remedy. But we have legitimately
before us the evils of a bad system of minor
.bn 083.png
.pn +1
justice, and we are therefore right in suggesting a remedy.

The progress of society abroad suggests remedies for
evils which it is the duty of the people of this country
to consider. And the mode of administering justice in
police courts in London, eminently deserves the attention
of those who deplore the deficiency and seek for a
substitute in Philadelphia. It is simple, easy, practical.
Magistrates of established character are appointed, to
hold office during good behavior. They have a salary
ample to maintain themselves and a family. Their
office has with it something of the character of the Court
of Sessions, and thus there attaches to their persons an
idea of judicial dignity, which is to be respected on the
police bench, and which respects itself when in the
world. These officers are not tempted, by inadequacy
of income, to augment the business of their office, that
they may profit by costs or compromise. Those who
are compelled by business or misfortune to appear before
them, feel that respect is due to the administration of
justice in its incipient stages, and a large portion of
those who are charged with the violation of law, appeal
with confidence to those magistrates for summary proceedings,
(which the law there allows,) in preference to
the delay which would attend a reference of their case
to a jury. Such a power on the part of the police
magistrate is found most advantageous to justice in
London, resulting in great saving to the city and county,
without lessening the terrors of the law,—rather augmenting
them by the promptness of punishment.

Should the Legislature of the State be disposed to
remedy the existing evils in this city, by providing for
.bn 084.png
.pn +1
an alteration in the Constitution, by which the mode of
acquiring, and the terms of holding, office by the Aldermen
shall be changed, it is possible that an enlargement
of power, such as we have noticed in the London magistracy,
would be granted, so that justice would be promptly
as well as carefully administered.

We have, in this chapter, touched upon one disturbing
element, and we have done it with no view to cast
indiscriminate odium upon any citizen. The evil to
which we have adverted, exists. The great cause,
however, of the evil, we have shown to arise out of
the Constitution of the State, or from a deficiency of
legislation. We lack no talent in this city for judicial
or magisterial place; but we have failed in attempts
to call those talents into the best exercise, and to insure
to them the highest public respect.

There is, however, another disturbing cause, which
we must look at steadily, if we would understand its
bearing on society, its influence on morals, and especially
its connection with the subject of prison occupation
and prison discipline. And especially ought we
to present the subject in immediate connection with a
consideration of the Magistracy. It is <i>Intoxication</i> that
crowds the police office and the alderman’s tribunal.
Hourly is the magistrate called to commit or fine the
violator of the law of temperance. The miserable
wretches come into his presence without power to
discriminate between right and wrong, with no command
of their own movements, and no sense of propriety
with regard to conduct or conversation; and
complaints are sometimes made that these creatures are
.bn 085.png
.pn +1
not treated with suitable consideration. Let us, when
we consider the duties and conduct of magistrates, not
overlook the disgusting materials to which they are to
administer justice, nor blame them if they sometimes
suffer the prisoner to hold the rank which he assigns to
himself.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
INTEMPERANCE.
.sp 2
Of any two hundred persons committed to the County
Prison, probably one hundred and fifty owe their incarceration
to drunkenness. Assault and battery, breach
of the peace, misdemeanor, vagrancy, abuse and threats,
disorderly conduct, and other charges which figure
upon the commitments sent by the magistrate with the
prisoner, are often only other terms for drunkenness
and only varieties in the <i>charge</i> or slight additions to
the offence; and even the higher offences against the
law are frequently referable to, or connected with, intemperance
in the use of intoxicating liquors; and it
generally happens that when the prisoner is questioned
with regard to the temptation to steal, to fight, or
commit some other misdemeanor with which he stands
charged, he replies that he knows nothing about such
acts, he only took a drop too much, or was a “little
tight;” he remembers a mass of things, yet nothing distinctly,
and professes to feel greatly injured in being
.bn 086.png
.pn +1
committed for a misdemeanor, when he had done
nothing but get drunk; or that he should have been
charged with assault and battery when he had only
beaten his wife or struck the officer that arrested him;
nor does he find it reconcilable with justice that he
should be charged with abuse and threats for merely
cursing the magistrate and offering to break his head
at a moment of greater soberness. This vice of excessive
drinking is then so intimately connected with
the administration of justice, either as a motive or a
stimulant for offences against the law, that it is deemed
proper to consider it more closely in connection with
prison discipline, in order that we may understand what
are the duties of society in regard to its means and subjects,
and thus we may also comprehend how entirely
its suppression becomes a means of ameliorating the
condition of public prisons. If we would lesson the
evils of prisons, perhaps the most important step would
be to diminish the number of prisoners. To strike
from the list of offences that offence which is the parent,
the assistant, and the offspring of so many more—would
seem to be a great advance in the work of those who
seek to denounce vice as well as to correct the vicious
and criminal.

How drunkenness is to be diminished in our community,
is a problem difficult of solution. Attempts
have been made of various kinds, with various degrees
of temporary success; but the appetites of one class and
the cupidity of another, seem to baffle the efforts of the
benevolent and counteract the enactments of legislatures.
It may however tend towards an amendment,
.bn 087.png
.pn +1
that something of the extent of the evil should be
made public.

The means of intemperance are indeed public and
its fruits abound, but very few stop to notice the extent
of any habit that grows up gradually in a community
and is consistent with general customs and taste, and
only to be condemned for its excess, or only to be
entirely condemned when its excess shows that the
evils of abuse outweigh all advantages of moderate
indulgence. Not many who read this report have
thought to note the multiplied number of shops, saloons,
taverns, hotels, casinos and cellars, whose maintenance
is the profit on the sale of intoxicating liquors; yet
these places present themselves all around us, and in
certain parts of the city they are in such abundance as
would lead one, a stranger to our domestic life, to suppose
that the chief employment of the people was
vending liquors, and the principle food was whiskey.
Fifty grog shops and liquor stores are found for one
bakery, so that Falstaff’s “penny for bread and a shilling
for sack,” seems no longer an extravagant partiality
for liquids over solids; and, if it should be said that
many families bake their loaves instead of depending
on the bakers for their daily bread, it may with equal
truth be replied that thousands of those who reach
Moyamensing Prison for drunkenness, maintain a household
altar to intemperance, at which their neighbors
also sacrifice (themselves and their character) in devotion
to the social jug, from which drunkenness can be
imbibed without the expense of a license or the payments
of profits to the retailer.
.bn 088.png
.pn +1

Can such things be, and drunkenness not abound?
Can so many places for the sale of liquor be maintained
with gain to the proprietors merely upon the profit of
getting people drunk without a terrible deterioration of
public morals? It is proved by the revelations of our
courts of justice, by the confession of prisoners and the
statements of sufferers, that many of the keepers of
these drinking places augment their profits by other
crimes than that of intoxicating their fellow-men, by
making indeed intoxication only a step towards almost
every other species of criminality; and while the prison
cells are crowded with the offenders and sufferers from
these haunts of vice and crime, thousands leave unrevealed
their sufferings and their losses rather than
expose their weakness and vice in frequenting such
resorts and yielding to the temptations of the place.

In presenting these remarks on the means and extent
of intemperance, it is not to be inferred that the Philadelphia
Society for alleviating the miseries of prisoners,
is about to resolve itself into a temperance society, or
create a committee to lessen the evil of intoxication.
This society has its specific duties, which it endeavors
to discharge fully and profitably; but if vices and woes
cluster, virtue and peace also associate,—and if we
would lessen any considerable evil we must seek to
diminish its cause. This society has incidental association
with almost all the benevolent and humane institutions
of the city. The repentant, impure female is
recommended to the Magdalen, the Rosine, or the Good
Shepherd. The female vagrant or the thief, is conducted
to the Howard Home or some other refuge with
.bn 089.png
.pn +1
which the Committee or the Agent is in correspondence.
The young are transferred from the cell of the prison
to the care of the House of Refuge. Is it then less
consistent with the objects of this society that it should
put itself in harmonious action with those who would
lessen the overwhelming vice of drunkenness by which
the cells of our prison are crowded, not only by drunkenness,
but by those who having by drunkenness forfeited
the esteem of society and lost their own respect, sink
into lower debasement and lose all distinction between
vice and crime, and practice theft as the means and
intoxication as the end of living.

No one unacquainted with the life of a drunkard, but
especially of an habitual female drunkard, can form a
correct idea of the irrepressible thirst which the constant
use of intoxicating liquors imposes. In a man it
is usually a love of the <i>taste</i> of drink and the habit of
social drinking; and the habit is often broken and the
male drunkard restored. In woman the desire is for
the <i>effect</i> of liquor, the feelings to which it gives rise;
and the indulgence is more frequently solitary than
social: and however strong the sense of wrong, however
deep may be the regret for the folly when the evil moment
of intoxication is over and the secondary results
succeed, still it rarely happens that the repentance is
deep or the amendment permanent. We do not know
how many women have triumphed over a strong appetite
for intoxicating liquors; thousands, of course, have
solemnly but terribly wrestled with the deadly enemy
and conquered; many thousands maintain “the irrepressible
conflict” with various degrees of success; but
.bn 090.png
.pn +1
the prison and the almshouse records show that with
another class, mighty in number and important in
interest, resistance is relinquished, shame forgotten,
and the daughter, the wife and the mother confess
themselves the captives of that one vice which sacrifices
every female virtue to the gratification of rapacious
appetite. This subject commends itself to the regard
of the philanthropist, it calls for the attention of the
magistrate, and it asks for some new legislation; what
that legislation should be in detail, we do not pretend
to say; our duty in the capacity in which we now act
is done when we thus expose the evils whose existence
and a part of whose terrible effects we discern in our
prison visitations. We do not exaggerate the means
nor the devotion to drunkenness in what we here state.
The inducements to intoxication are double those which
we have mentioned, and all vices and passions are made
subservient to the work of selling liquor, while the
effect of the poison sold is promotive of other vices.
The accursed bottle is not confined to the house, the
cellar, the dram shop, nor the saloon, it follows the
miserable devotee to the police station, and the very van
in which the drunkard is conveyed to the prison has its
illicit bottle, so that if a single one of the inebriates
should have failed of the necessary quantity for entire
intoxication, or one should have recovered a gleam of
reason, there should not be wanting the means of completing
or restoring the work; and, it may be added,
that it is with the utmost vigilance that the officers of
the prison are enabled to keep intoxicating liquors from
the cells. It is a melancholy fact that the husband
.bn 091.png
.pn +1
endeavors to smuggle a contraband bottle into the cell
where his wife is confined for drunkenness; and mothers
while lamenting the hereditary misconduct of their
daughters, seek to convey comfort to the young offender
in the form of coffee strongly “laced” with whiskey.
The right hand of fellowship extended through the aperture
of the cell door, is the means of conveying a phial
of brandy carefully deposited in the ample sleeve, and
the affectionate friend that comes to sympathize with
her incarcerated companion, exposes as she reaches forward
to reciprocate a kiss, the forbidden bottle hidden
in the bosom of her dress. It is then not only the
appetite for whiskey against which opposition is to be
made at our prison, but the deep sympathy which is
manifested for those who suffer for a want of means
and place to gratify that appetite.

Undoubtedly an immense saving in city expenditures
would be made, to the relief of the tax-payer, if such an
abuse of humanity could be corrected. And while we
know that society would recognize at once any successful
effort to suppress drunkenness, we feel that a moral
desolation would be removed, could we cut down root
and branch, the terrible Bahan Upas of our country,
whose pestiferous branches destroy all vegetation beneath
their ample shade, and spread misery and ruin
throughout the circle of influences.

We dare not say however that, because almost all
who are brought to the County Prison are habitual
drunkards, that the entire <i>abolition</i> of intoxicating
drinks would depopulate our prisons. The experience
of the world is different. In Great Britain, Ireland
.bn 092.png
.pn +1
and Germany, the frequenter of the prison is usually a
drunkard. In Italy, especially in the South of Italy,
drunkenness is almost unknown among the natives.
Three years’ residence in the city of Naples failed to
present to the narrator a single instance of a drunken
Neapolitan, high or low, rich or poor; while frequent
visitations to the prisons showed them amply populous.
Perhaps there is in Italy some prevailing vice as productive
of evil as drunkenness—perhaps drunkenness
is in other countries the resort of the bad—of men and
women who seek the gratification of a diseased appetite,
not as a consequence or means of crime, but only to
enjoy such gratifications as are consistent with and are
punished by crime. The destruction of the Bahan
Upas then may not restore herbage to the field; nay,
to find a comparison nearer home, the stately pine is
often cut down that culture and care may ensure a profitable
crop for the soil which it has overshadowed, but
a single season’s neglect shows that in the same earth
there lies concealed the germ of other trees and shrubbery,
and instead of the single overshadowing object,
fifty smaller ones spring up to occupy the ground and
prevent the growth of herbage. So the avoidance of a
great leading vice does not without watchful care insure
with certainty a growth of gentle virtues, some lesser
passions, some yet uncultivated appetites that lie latent
in the heart, spring into active growth, and become as
dominant by their multitude as the ruling one did by
its single power.

Yet however appalling may be the vice that is adopted
by those who do not fall into the habit of drunkenness,
.bn 093.png
.pn +1
there is always more hope of reclaiming the unfortunate
male offender, whatever may be his vice, than there is of
inducing the female inebriate to forsake the bottle.
Larceny is committed to supply some want, not to gratify
an imperious appetite; it leads to solitary confinement
for a length of time, and the thief is easily persuaded to
reflect, and often induced to amend. He understands,
indeed, that his offence is directly against others, and
that it provokes the injured to visit upon him the penalty
of the violated law, and the anger of an offended society,
that arms itself against him. The poor drunkard awakens
from his debauchery, and finds a craving thirst for that
which prostrated him, and feels that as he has done little
or no direct wrong to others beyond his family, his offence
is against himself, and the offended one in such a case
easily pardons. If it is a female, it is not merely the
love of liquor, in the use of which “increase of appetite
grows by what it feeds on,” but it is that desire for the
forgetfulness of sorrow, that love for the excitement of
the nerves, that oblivion of the unhappy past, and that
elevation above the miserable future which distinguishes
her delirium of drunkenness from the effects of intoxication
in man.

The impure female, in her rapid descent, is rarely
unmindful of her degradation; and thousands are redeemed
from vice by the kind interference of the humane;
but when once she has found in the use of intoxicating
liquor that paradise of the drunkard, she is rarely ever
led by persuasion to return to reason and sobriety;
nothing but forceful restraint will keep the wretched
victim from the use of the means, and that restraint will
.bn 094.png
.pn +1
not quench the thirst, nor diminish the desire, for the
deceptive dreams of happiness.

<i>Prevention! Prevention!</i> domestic discipline, social
care, and social censure, can alone diminish this evil,
and free our community from that awful scourge—a
drunken woman—and alleviate the miseries which are
found in the cell of the inebriate prisoner.

It is not to be denied that there has been a great increase
in the habit of using intoxicating liquors within a
few years. It is a growing evil of terrible dimensions
and appalling effects; and the worst part of the curse is
its continued augmentation. How is this evil to be
lessened? How is society to be saved from the terrible
maelstrom, which seems to draw all to its eddying circle,
and involves in ruin all that it embraces. It is not the
business of this Society, perhaps, to resolve itself into a
“temperance association;” but there are precedents in
its proceedings for direct action in the matter, at least
so far as concerns the prisons. We have asked, by
solemn resolve, that the use of tobacco may be restrained
in the cells; not, perhaps, merely because tobacco is in
itself so injurious, but principally because the use of that
narcotic creates a thirst, which seems to have no appeasement
but in strong drink. To use a salutary and
direct influence, then, in diminishing drunkenness, must
<i>a fortiori</i> be within the plan of our Society.

But it may be said that while the use of tobacco has
generally been among the admissible indulgence of
prisoners, strong liquors have not been allowed. It is
by no means certain that in other times the laboring
prisoners were not allowed a regular, limited, supply of
.bn 095.png
.pn +1
strong drink, but certainly not lately; yet as it is admitted
that most of the criminal and vicious that are
sent to our prisons owe their confinement to drunkenness,
or at least make their condition worse by intoxication;
and especially, as it is evident, that efforts to
redeem from crime the released, are defeated by the
facility with which intoxication may be had, it can
scarcely be doubted that the Society is in the exercise
of its legitimate powers, and in the discharge of its
assumed duties, when it encourages all good efforts to
lessen the prevailing sin and disgrace of the age, and
lends its sanction to efforts directed to the diminution of
the habit and the means of drunkenness.

How shall that be done? Shall this Society initiate a
plan for promoting temperance, or shall it lend its hearty
co-operation to some association that shall have for its
principal object that which could only be a branch, a
true, living branch, indeed, but only a branch of the
duties of the Society for alleviating the miseries of
prisons?

This Society can at least, and by the adoption of this
Report, does, bear solemn testimony against the prevalence,
the multiplication, and the existence of the magazines
of mischief, where drunkenness is secured by the
cost of the honor of the inebriate, and the disgrace of
Society. Citizens who watch with most painful vigilance
the action of the City Councils that enhance or diminish
by a <i>single per cent.</i> the tax upon property, would consult
their own interest more if they would look into this
one cause of the increase of rates. But our business with
the subject is in the interest of humanity. That is
.bn 096.png
.pn +1
cheapest, at whatever cost, which produces the greatest
good of the greatest number; and the good of the
greatest number must depend on the promotion of sound
morals.

With such a view of the prevalence of intemperance,
and with such an avowal of the motives of humanity
with which this Society regards all vices or crimes that
go to make up the sum of the miseries of our public
prisons, it may not be improper to state that among the
institutions which humanity has yet to establish in Philadelphia,
(it has already suggested it,) is a hospital or
place of reception and treatment of inebriates. The
prison punishes them, it does not cure; and few, excepting
those who have seen the drunkard in the agonies of
<i>delirium tremens</i>, or the terrors of <i>mania a potu</i>, can comprehend
all the evils which the drunkard accumulates
upon his own head, (the domestic misery which he
insures, and the general scandal which he causes, may
be otherwise considered,) but the personal suffering of
the drunkard, after his committal for protracted debauch,
is beyond description. It is not without some reason
that the cells of the prison which are especially devoted
to cases of <i>delirium</i> and <i>mania</i> are denominated “Purgatory,”
though it would seem from the unutterable
agonies and indescribable apprehension of the inmates
that even if they should “go farther,” they would scarcely
“fare worse.”

It is hoped, that when the national troubles that now
occupy public attention, and draw upon the fiscal means
of our citizens shall have ceased, there will be some
effort in the direction of a “Hospital for Inebriates,”
.bn 097.png
.pn +1
where proper moral and physical treatment may restore
to families and society, those whose intemperate habits
have alienated them from the affections of friends, or
failing to restore them to reason and propriety, a home
may be provided where they cannot by habitual indulgence,
degrade themselves further, and by which
families and friends may be spared the disgrace of a
drunken inmate.
.sp 2
.hr 25%
.h2
HOUSE OF CORRECTION.
.sp 2
In the preceding divisions of this Report, it has been
shown that the County Prison is peopled and re-peopled
by persons who pass regularly from vice to
vice, or from one degree of vice to another, marking
their progress with a short residence in the cells of the
prison, remaining at the longest only thirty days, and
associating with those who may be their teachers or
pupils in misdemeanors. It is not pretended by those
who send these offenders to the prison, that the incarceration
will amend their habits,—it is only the means
of punishment; nor is it more than desired,—scarcely
to be hoped,—by those who seek to alleviate the miseries
of the prison, that the confinement of thirty days
will tend to repentance and amendment of the vicious
offender.

It is evident that more is required,—more in the way
.bn 098.png
.pn +1
of wholesome discipline, more in time, more in direct
appeals and instruction, more in the enforcement of
industry. The prison cannot do much more than it is
doing for the vicious. The solemn pledges of the intemperate
to avoid intoxicating drink are slightly regarded
when the means of violation are enticingly
offered, and all the vices which have procured imprisonment
lose their terrors, or double their attractions,
when the temporary punishment is accomplished.

It is evident then that we need a resort for the
vicious that will offer to society some hope that even if
the vice is not avoided, the vicious shall be kept where
they will cease to degrade society by their misconduct
and lead others to destruction by their example.

We need a “House of Correction,” a place to receive
those men and women who will not be reclaimed by
monitions, or short confinement. We need a place
where time for thinking can be found, and where the
food for reflection may be supplied.

But in this case we cannot throw the censure for
deficiency on the Legislature of the State. The wants
of the community are admitted, and the right to supply
those wants granted: the means are withheld by the
city authority. Resolutions for building a Municipal
Hospital for the reception, care and cure of those attacked
with the small-pox, are adopted, and the means for carrying
into effect those resolutions are supplied by the
Councils of the city. That is well, and denotes a paternal
care, on their part, of the interest and health of
their constituents. But why—when authority is given,
why not provide a Hospital for those struck with the
.bn 099.png
.pn +1
pestilence of drunkenness and the accumulated miseries
that come in its train? Is there a disease in the
whole catalogue of human suffering that is more epidemic,
if not contagious, than intoxication? or is there
one that multiplies itself more by social contact? And
why then should the vagrant, the breaker of the peace,
the drunkard, multiply his or her disease more than
the sufferer by the small-pox or cholera? If the hospital
for the small-pox is a retreat for the sufferer, and
his family and neighborhood need to be relieved from
the danger of his condition, the House of Correction
would be no less an asylum for the vicious, in which
they could grow better by care, and escape the evil of
communicating their mental disease to their neighbors.

In whatever light the House of Correction is regarded,
it presents the highest claims on society for its establishment.
Is it to be a place into which the vicious
are to be driven by the law, that they may be punished
for their offence, and society saved the disgrace and
danger of their presence? Society has a right to demand
such a forceful withdrawal of the elements of crime
from its midst. Is it to be a place of enforced refuge
for the willing or unwilling victim of vice, where habits
of disorder may be broken and new habits of industry
and propriety established, where good counsel shall
make reasonable and acceptable the moderate discipline
of the place, where good example shall illustrate the
lessons of good morals, and the exhibition of orderly
propriety of the place be made to contrast with the
squallor and misery of the resorts of vice from which
the inmates have been gathered, and thus virtue enforced
.bn 100.png
.pn +1
and resolutions of good formed, and their exercise
for some time at least insured? Then it is solemnly
urged that the House of Correction is called for by all
that humanity can contrive and sound policy can
suggest.

In this matter the Society has done its part, and is
ready, when empowered, to continue its labor in the
direction of amending the vicious. But whether the
Society have or have not any direct relations with the
House of Correction, it must feel that the interests of
this great community, of humanity and of virtue, suffer
by the delay in providing for its erection. If there be
truth in the statements submitted with regard to the
number and character of those who are habituées of
the County Prison, we need no argument in favor of the
House of Correction.
.sp 2
.hr 25%
.h2
AUXILIARY SOCIETIES.
.sp 2
“To do good and to communicate” should be the
object of every philanthropist, as it certainly is the aim
of this Society; and it is with pleasure that we now
announce that a correspondence between the President
of the Society and several distinguished gentlemen in
different parts of this State, warrant a hope that before
long, Societies, auxiliaries to this, will be established in
various counties of the Commonwealth, and the philanthropy
.bn 101.png
.pn +1
of the good of both sexes will be called into
new action and concentrated upon the great object of
lessening the miseries of public prisons in their neighborhood,
by suggesting improvements in the police and
general administration of the establishments, and by
dealing directly and affectionately with the miserable
inmates of the cells or the crowded rooms.

The correspondence with those to whom the measure
has been opened, shows a readiness on the part of some
to begin the work; but prudential considerations have
suggested a postponement of the undertaking, in some
counties, till a strong and steady co-operation can be
secured from those who are now absent in the service
of the country, or till the state of the country will allow
men of public spirit and of philanthropic principles to
withdraw their attention from national matters. Certainly
a postponement upon such grounds is to be preferred
to a failure of efforts from a want of thorough
co-operation.

It is desirable that auxiliary societies should be established,
in order to call into exercise, and direct into
proper channels, the spirit of philanthropy that abounds
in our State, and to give object and employment to that
self-denying devotion which marks the character of
woman, and is found in a class of men that rarely are
named with public benefactors, though they are found,
when opportunities present, where humanity has its
most repulsive duties and earns its highest rewards.

A correspondence between the parent Society and its
auxiliaries in the interior of the State, or with independent
associations laboring to the same end and with
.bn 102.png
.pn +1
similar means, would diffuse information that would
stimulate exertion and promote the great object of alleviating
the miseries of prisoners. Especially would
such auxiliaries often assist the agents and committees
of the parent Society, by information as to the character
of prisoners, and aid in procuring employment for
the repentant vicious and criminal, who would strengthen
their good resolution by seeking occupation where the
chance of meeting old associates would be greatly diminished,
and where temptations to a recurrence to former
faults would not abound. It is now believed that the
hopes of forming these auxiliaries will soon be realized.
But there has always been found some difficulty in the
first steps towards an organization. The willingness of
many needs information to strengthen resolve; and
especially is it found that where there is to be a concurrent
action, there is great need of some representative
of the views and sentiments of the parent Society, to
concentrate and direct the efforts of those who, with
the best motives and most earnest wishes for success,
pause upon the initiatory step, from distrust as to their
ability to organize and direct a society, or an apprehension
that they may lack the hearty co-operation of others
no less philanthropic or energetic than themselves.

We, perhaps, then shall need, at a proper time, some
representative of the parent Society specially deputed
to stir up the public mind in the direction of humanity
in prisons, and to take advantage of the effects of his
labors to unite the exertions of the good in the form of
auxiliaries, that shall have their committees in every
place of imprisonment, doing the work of philanthropy
.bn 103.png
.pn +1
by alleviating the miseries of prisons and improving
the moral condition of the prisoners. These auxiliaries
will aid the parent Society in influencing legislation
favorable to the cause of humanity, and, in proportion
to their number and to the character of their members,
they will be felt and their power acknowledged by the
Representatives of the people, not in any attempt at
dictation, but in the mild, steady presentation and
advocacy of measures of amelioration that shall triumph
by their inherent beauty and mercy, influencing public
sentiment and purifying legislative enactments.

In a subsequent part of this Report, under the head
of “Correspondence,” will be found large supplemental
abstracts of British Parliamentary Reports; and it is
thought that a few words explanatory of the British
and Irish system might, in this part of our Report, be
made useful in aid of the plan for auxiliaries. England
has learned much from us in the work of Prison Discipline:
we might learn something of her, (more, indeed,
than we <i>shall</i> acquire,) were our institutions more assimilated,
and especially were we as geographically circumscribed
as she is.

The “Prison Reports,” physical and moral, in Great
Britain, are all to the Government of the nation; and
every part of every city jail seems to work with as distinct
a reference to the whole system of prison regulation
as the lower clerkships of a State Department do
to the administration of the whole. This, it must be
admitted, is easy in that country, where there is but
one legislature to direct, and one government to administer
and execute. It would be impossible in this
.bn 104.png
.pn +1
country, for the National Congress to issue ordinances for
the administration of <i>State</i>, county, and city prisons.
To say nothing of State rights and State sovereignty,
there would be insurmountable difficulties in prescribing
and carrying out rules for prison discipline and dietaries
for all the jails from Oregon to Maine. So that, when
we read of the happy and harmonious working of the
prison laws in Ireland and Great Britain, we must call
to mind the proximity of each establishment to the
other, and of the whole to the Government, to whose
chief officers they are bound to make report, and with
whose agents they are bound to co-operate. In England
and Ireland the difference of longitude is so small, that,
by the Sovereign’s command, it is made mid-day at the
same moment in both kingdoms. In the United States,
something more than human power would be required
to work out that wonder, and something more than constitutional
prerogative would be necessary to enforce it.
We must take things as they are, and work with the
means and in the space which are allowed. If we cannot
expect national interference in behalf of prison
discipline, we certainly may appeal to the State in
which we live to exercise and dignify its sovereignty
by legislation that will adapt prisons and their discipline
to the use of society, and while the House is one of
penal discipline, it shall be a place of moral improvement.
We scarcely expect the Legislature of the State
to initiate the good work. It is the duty of those who
feel most anxious for its establishment, to prepare the
means and present the arguments; and it is believed
that no means of inducing a systematic arrangement of
.bn 105.png
.pn +1
prison discipline throughout the State exists outside this
Society. Persons abound who see and deplore the evils
of the present want of system, but they lack the full
information, and especially do they lack concurrent
action; and it is believed that the establishment of
auxiliary societies throughout the State would produce
the ends proposed, viz., properly constructed prisons,
the establishment and maintenance of proper discipline;
and the whole co-operative and correspondent, each with
the other, till the system work, with regard to the government,
as perfectly in Pennsylvania as it does in Great
Britain, and much more effective in the interest of humanity
and virtue. We have little to change, excepting
the structures of our prisons, and the consequent classification
and treatment of prisoners; little to unlearn
in their management; we are not wedded to any past
theory. It is generally admitted, that much of what
this Society condemns is wrong; the only doubt, or supposed
difficulty, is how it can be remedied. That
doubt and that difficulty will be removed when auxiliary
Societies shall be established to correct and embody
public sentiment, and when the parent Society,
through its branches, shall be allowed to bring its moral
action into co-operation with the physical efforts of the
Commonwealth, to alleviate the miseries of public prisons.
.bn 106.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
COMPENSATION TO PRISONERS FOR OVER-WORK.
.sp 2
Among the inquiries instituted by the Society this
year, was one that related to the earnings of convicts
in the Eastern Penitentiary, which arose out of a complaint
made by a United States prisoner, who had received,
as he thought, less for over-work than was in reality
due to him. The character of the prisoner, or the title
of the court by which he was sentenced, had nothing to
do with the character of the claim, or the interest which
the Society felt and would manifest in his behalf. He
was a prisoner, and as such, whether in the County Jail
or the State Penitentiary; whether sentenced by a Police
Magistrate, or by a Judge of the Court of the United
States, there could be nothing in his case to alienate
him from our sympathies, or deprive him of the benefit
of our interference in his behalf.

A committee was instructed to present the case of the
complainant to the proper authorities of the Penitentiary,
and to ascertain, in the first place, on what principle the
over-work of prisoners was estimated, and to make
especial reference to the case of the United States prisoner,
which had suggested the investigation. It need scarcely
be said that these inquiries were to be made with that
friendly feeling and high respect which have marked
the intercourse of the Society with the authorities of the
Eastern Penitentiary, and that the questions were answered
with the freedom and feeling of those who have
an established, well devised plan of action, and are conscious
.bn 107.png
.pn +1
of an adherence to that plan in all its execution;
and the friendly spirit of the Committee of this Society
was reciprocated by those to whom the appeal was made.

As settling a question about which some doubt existed,
and especially as giving information that must be valuable
to many, and interesting to all, the report of the
Chairman of the Committee on the Penitentiary is
subjoined.

.pm letter-start
.nf c
<sc>To the Acting Committee, &c.</sc>
.nf-

As Chairman of the Visiting Committee of the Eastern State Penitentiary,
I have been requested to make some inquiry into the manner
of determining the value of the work done by the prisoners, and the
allowance to be made to them for “over-work.” The inquiry has been
made accordingly, and the following may be given as the result:—

In the first place, it is an important fact, that the law of the State
only directs that convicts shall be sentenced to “hard labor,” leaving
the <i>manner</i> of executing the sentence to the Inspectors and Wardens,
or those having the immediate control of the Jails and Penitentiaries.
There is no provision for any compensation to the prisoners for this
labor; the primary, and probably the sole purposes for which it was
made a part of the sentences, being to enforce it as a salutary part of
the prison discipline, and also as a means of compelling the prisoners
to contribute something towards the expense of their maintenance;
consequently, any allowance made to them for over-work is altogether
a gratuity, which they have no right to claim.

In the exercise of the discretion vested in the Inspectors and Warden
of the Penitentiary, they judged that the introduction of rewards to the
prisoners for industry would have a salutary tendency in several directions,
and they therefore allotted to each of them, a certain quantity of such kind
of work as should be given him, to be performed in a day, or a month,
to pay for his keep. This is sometimes called “the task,” and is so
moderate, that with ordinary skill and application, it can be accomplished
with ease. Such a money valuation is affixed to this work, as
will admit of the Institution obtaining from their outside customers a
.bn 108.png
.pn +1
small advance, to provide tools, working materials, &c. The prisoner
is expected, at the price affixed, to earn for the Institution from twenty
to twenty-five cents per day. No penalty, however, is visited on him
for a failure, unless it is the result of culpable sloathfulness or insubordination.
Every thing done beyond this allotted task, is credited to
the prisoner as “over-work,” at the same rate affixed to the “task,”
half of it for the use of the County, and the other half for his own use,
to be paid to him at the expiration of his term; or portions of it, during
his imprisonment, are applied, at his request, to the purchase of books,
or, perhaps, a carpet for the floor of his cell, or some other little comforts
beyond the prison allowance which the authorities may permit
him to be supplied with, or remitted to his family.

Under this system, many of the convicts, on the well known and
generally acknowledged principle, that “the hope of reward sweetens
labor,” are stimulated to so apply themselves, that they not only fully
do what is claimed of them by the Penitentiary, (and which, without
this encouragement, would often fail to be performed,) but they sometimes
accumulate the very handsome sum of several hundred dollars
against their discharge. One of them recently earned $14.31 <i>for his
own use</i> in one month—equal to $171.72 per annum—and remarked
that with a full supply of materials, he would have been able to have
doubled his earnings. The system, indeed, works admirably, and its
influences are salutary in several respects. The interests of the Institution
are advanced by it, and the present comfort of those in confinement
is promoted, and the susceptibility of their minds to the favorable
action of reformatory influences is increased by having their time
occupied by what they feel to be profitable employment. Also, without
having the character of compulsory labor, it trains them to habits of
industry, and practically convinces them of the important truth, that
labor is a thing of real value. These habits, and this conviction, will
be of great value to them when they again enter into the world, and
the money they take with them will be an important aid in starting
them afresh in the business of life.

In allotting the tasks, if any of the prisoners appear to be disheartened
under an apprehension that they are greater than they can accomplish,
and therefore think it useless to attempt it, the Warden
reduces them, and thus leads them on gradually, and the result fully
.bn 109.png
.pn +1
proves that a greater amount of work is actually obtained from them
under this system, than would be by the more exacting plan.

The law and rules in these respects, as applied to United States
prisoners, having also been under discussion in our Society, special
information has been desired on that branch of the subject. It being
understood that the General Government pays for their board, doubts
have been expressed whether they are bound to labor at all; and if they
do, it has been suggested that they should receive a credit for the
<i>whole</i> value of their work. The first branch of the question is answered
and settled by the fact, that they are sentenced to under go imprisonment
for a certain term, <i>in conformity with our State Laws</i>—that
is, “at hard labor.” Next, as to compensation, their board being
paid. It is true the United States pays for each of its prisoners $2.50
per week, which is for board, clothing, fuel, medical attendance, and,
indeed, all his ordinary wants, and is hardly half of the cost to the Commonwealth,
of each of those in confinement. The Penitentiary was
erected by the State of Pennsylvania, at a cost of about $600,000, <i>for
its own use</i>. The interest of this sum, and an annual appropriation
made, to meet current expenses, such as salaries of officers, &c., amount
together to about $50,000 per annum, which, as the average number
in confinement does not exceed 400, makes a yearly cost to each of,
say $125, <i>in addition to their board and incidentals</i>. It is fairly said,
that, although we may be willing to submit to the loss on our own
prisoners, it is but reasonable that we should be protected from it,
when accommodating the General Government. The result is, that
United States prisoners, as regards labor and compensation, are treated
throughout in the same manner as our own.

The same principle, as to compensation for labor, though differing
somewhat in its practical details, has been introduced into our County
Prison, with very satisfactory results. Whether it has been adopted
in our Western State Penitentiary at Pittsburgh, or not, we are not
clearly informed; and we are not aware that it is to be found in any
Jail or Penitentiary beyond the limits of our State. It is one of the
advantages of the Pennsylvania Separate System of imprisonment that
it better admits of such an arrangement, than where the prisoners are
congregated together in the workshops.
.ti +20
E. H. BONSALL.

<i>Philadelphia</i>, 11<i>th</i> <i>Mo.</i> 19, 1863.
.pm letter-end
.bn 110.png
.pn +1

While on this subject, it is deemed advisable to present
a statement of the plan for labor and extra work
which is in operation at the County Prison at Moyamensing;
premising, however, that the penal servitude
in the County Prison is generally so much less than that
in the Penitentiary, that it is found necessary in many
particulars to accommodate the assignment of work to
the <i>time</i> of the prisoner sentenced, as few who come into
the prisons have regular occupations, and a six months’
sentence does not allow time enough to acquire any
trade sufficiently to earn money thereby.

And it may be remarked here, that the civil war
which has disturbed our country for more than two
years, has cut off one of the most important branches
of prison labor, viz., that of cotton weaving, by which
hundreds of prisoners could pay all the expense resulting
from their incarceration, and often take with them,
at the termination of their sentence, more money than
they would have <i>saved</i> from their earnings, had they
been at large, indulging in the evil habits of occasional
excessive drinking, and suffering the consequent misery
of that delirium which only the inebriate can know.

Cotton weaving, and the preparation of the yarn
for the loom, which was once so important a branch of
employment, has, as we have already stated, almost
ceased to be carried on in this prison. The sound of
the shuttle is now scarcely heard where, a few years
ago, the continued rattle, in almost every cell, gave
notice of profitable industry. It was the custom of the
prison, at the time to which we refer, to assign to
prisoners a certain fixed task, and to allow them a fair
.bn 111.png
.pn +1
compensation for over-work, so that a good and industrious
weaver generally earned for himself about twelve
dollars a month. Of course, he made more for the prison.
The return of peace, and the introduction of raw
cotton, will, undoubtedly, revive the manufacturing in
the prison, and enable many, who now have but small
employment, to make their time and their punishment
profitable.

The Cordwaining Department has been more active;
and in that a different system of labor and compensation
prevails.

Here the prisoner is charged two dollars and fifty
cents ($2.50) a week for his board, to be deducted from
the compensation for work actually performed.

The prices allowed for good work are as follows:
.sp 2
.ta l:25 h:25
For sewed boots,   | 45 cents per pair.
For pegged boots,  | 30 cents per pair.
For rogans sewed,  | 35 cents per pair.
For rogans pegged, | 28 cents per pair.
.ta-
.sp 2
To those who purchase these articles, the price seems
low; yet the average clear profit to each prisoner is
about ten dollars a month,—a sum which, under ordinary
circumstances, he would scarcely exceed, if at full
liberty, with some of those habits that attend the man
who is the candidate for, or the graduate of, a prison.
Some prisoners considerably exceed ten dollars a month:
they are usually not only faster but better workmen.

But, as many of the prisoners are without any trade,
(and perhaps they owe their imprisonment in part to a
.bn 112.png
.pn +1
neglect of some one to give to them a means of acquiring
an honest living,) it follows that some time is necessarily
consumed in acquiring such a skill in shoemaking
as may be turned to their profit in prison, especially
when the sentence is not for a long time. But
many, it is believed, have made such advance in the
art, under personal instructions, as to place them in a
position to do some part of the work of their trade,
and thus by practice to perfect themselves in a respectable
occupation. Too much importance can scarcely be
attached to this result, even of a short imprisonment.

Attempts have been made to introduce some kinds of
labor for the benefit of prisoners who had short terms
of incarceration, or who seemed destitute of abilities to
acquire a trade; but these efforts have not been so successful,
and, in the present absence of cotton weaving,
some of the convicts remain wholly or nearly unemployed.

In the Female Department there is no regular employment
by which labor is compensated in money.
The tedium of the cell is relieved by ordinary female
work, such as making and mending the clothes of other
convicts, and providing clothes for those who seem to
require some addition to their clothing, when they leave
at certain seasons. There is a considerable demand
upon the peculiar talents of these prisoners, and it
would seem that if only half the industry (with economy
and temperance) were practised out of the prison
which they manifest willingly in the cell, they would
have no temptation to steal, or to covet their neighbor’s
goods, “nor anything that is their neighbor’s.” These
.bn 113.png
.pn +1
females are, however, not dismissed from the prison
without some consideration for their industry. They
usually come in with very few clothes. They are dismissed
with at least comfortable garments; and if
their home is at a distance, means are supplied to reach
it. In this matter, also, this Society assigns special
duty to its Agent; and in many cases the poor creature
who having tasted the pleasures of sound resolutions for
the future, begins to feel the terrors of inability, on her
departure from the prison, to escape the associations
that led her there, is suddenly surprised with the gratifying
information that she will be aided by the Society
to leave the city, when she leaves the prison, and may
abide in the cell, or in some institution or family, till
she can be safely “sent <i>home</i>” at the Society’s expense.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
CORRESPONDENCE.
.sp 2
.h3
UNITED STATES.
.sp 2
We have received reports of various philanthropic
societies in the States of Connecticut and Massachusetts.
They have mostly in view objects similar to those of
this Society: that is, the alleviation of public evils, by
direct action upon the minds and consciences of those
by whom those evils come.

Among these are the schools in Massachusetts for
.bn 114.png
.pn +1
alleviating the condition of girls and of boys,—separate
institutions, but working admirably in the fulfillment
of the designs of the founders.

The Report of the Board of Trustees of the “State
Reform Schools of Connecticut” is exceedingly interesting.
These last seem, in design, to correspond very
much with the “House of Refuge” in this city; and
it is gratifying to notice that all of them appear to be
in a flourishing condition.

There is one “Report” that specially arrested our
attention,—that of the “Massachusetts State Agency
for Aiding Discharged Convicts.” Here seems to be a
true charity, not dependent, alone, on individual efforts
and contributions. It appears, by the Report, that the
amount expended by the “Agency,” on account of “the
government of the State,” was $1,656 32. That, of
course, as the Agent says, “will meet the discharged
convicts’ wants for a brief period.” If we had not
extended our Report this year much beyond usual
limits, we should feel disposed to copy most of the
Report of this Charity into our own Annual Statement.
The following, however, is too well put to be omitted:

.pm letter-start
“Society has a vital interest in a mission that induces the night-burglar
to abandon his trade and allow men to sleep in safety, and that
converts the felon’s tools into proper implements, and brings his mind
and heart into a <i>willing</i> frame for house-<i>building</i> instead of <i>shop-lifting</i>
and house-<i>breaking</i>. We approach an employer, and for <i>his safety</i> confide
to him our knowledge of the past life and present state of the
applicant, now penitent and resolved on reform. By awaking sympathy,
we open a door to honest industry, which he enters, and is surrounded
by shop mates, ignorant of his crime, ready to fellowship him
without prejudice; so that, feeling safe from those taunts that would
.bn 115.png
.pn +1
otherwise assail him, and which, surely, have no healing or strengthening
power, he becomes inspired with hope, and courage to make
self-reliant effort, trusting that, with the added blessing of Heaven, he
will henceforward be an honest man.”
.pm letter-end

Many of the Reports which we have received are
from State Prisons, Penitentiaries, &c. They, of course,
are interesting for the statistics they contain, and will
be acceptable to those who are directly interested in,
and responsible for, the condition of penal institutions.
But we feel naturally more interest in the progress of
improvement in the care of the prisoner, than in the
cost of his maintenance. It is gratifying to find that,
in all these prisons, the voice of instruction is heard,
and that, in addition to stated religious exercises, there
is personal visitation, and this seems to be followed up
by the established preacher or “moral instructor.”

The State “Schools” in Massachusetts for rearing,
instructing, and reforming girls and boys, not only in
separate buildings, but in separate parts of the State,
appear to be doing immense good. The reports upon
the conduct of many who have graduated from the
Schools, show success; and some remarks intimate also,
that the failure to reform all, has excited unwelcome
criticism. We do not copy the reply: it is exactly
what every “visitor” of this Society feels,—it is what
the managers of the House of Refuge in this city would
say. The largest anticipations of the self-sacrificing
philanthropist are not to be realized. The true philosopher
will appreciate the benefit to the individual and
to society, resulting from a single reformation.

We have received the Eighteenth Annual Report of
.bn 116.png
.pn +1
the Executive Committee of the Prison Association of
New York. It is a clear, explicit statement of the
doings of the Agent and Committees of the Association,
and will be read with deep interest by those who have
a sympathy with the unfortunate and a desire to assist
into goodness those that have done wrong. The details
of proceedings by the Agent are quite similar to those
set forth by Mr. <sc>Mullin</sc>, the Agent of our Society, and
show a low condition of primary justice in New York,
and a wretched state of the lower stratum of society in
that city. Tyranny in the small landlords, utter debasement
of the moral faculties in the multiplied liquor
dealers, and a determination on all hands to do the
worst by others and the best (according to their own
estimate of good) to themselves, distinguish the condition
and conduct of those who in New York live by
fleecing the shorn and miserable, and making vice of
every kind subservient to their plans of personal profit.

The Report to which we now refer, contains much
that is usually presented in the Annual Report of the
Inspectors of the Prison. The statements, however,
are interesting as showing the condition in New York
of those affairs which occupy the attention of our own
Society.

We notice one circumstance in the Report of the
New York Society worthy of attention, viz., that the
agents of that Society have used their influence with
the courts to increase the severity of the sentence intended
to be pronounced upon a convict. This was
justified by a knowledge of the antecedents of the
offender, and of the character of his mind. We are
.bn 117.png
.pn +1
not aware that any interference exactly of that character
is to be recorded of those who represent our
Society; but we have occasion to believe that in one or
two instances an opinion was given <i>against</i> a re-consideration
of a sentence with a view of lessening its severity;
and that opinion was accepted. There was more
mercy in such a course than in shortening the term of
imprisonment. In one instance, at least, the beneficial
results are obvious.
.sp 2
.h3
GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND.
.sp 2
After this Annual Report was prepared and accepted
by the “Acting Committee” of the Society, there were
received from London several volumes of Parliamentary
Reports on the condition of the various prisons in England
and Ireland in 1862, and also a large folio volume
containing “a Report of the Select Committee of the
House of Lords on the Present State of Discipline in
Gaols and Houses of Correction;” together with the proceedings
of the Committees, Minutes of Evidence,
and an Appendix for 1863. The “Reports” to which
allusion is first made, are from the Inspector General
of Prisons, and they refer to the condition and operation
of all the prisons in each kingdom, and are followed by
special Reports from each prison, separately made by
the proper officers to the Inspector General. The minuteness
of these Reports is truly wonderful. Every
authorized movement in each prison is set forth, the
discipline and dietetics explained in all their particulars,
the accommodations of the inmates, the number of beds
.bn 118.png
.pn +1
and blankets, and all the minutiæ of their management.
The exact cost of each branch of supplies is given,
and the character and changes of food for each class.

We note too that in Ireland every prison is supplied
with moral and religious teachers, of various denominations.
Generally there are one clergyman of the Episcopal
Church, one of the Presbyterian Church, and one of
the Roman Catholic Church. These seem to devote their
services to the moral and religious instruction of those
who may, by denominational distinction, belong to their
ministry, and each makes an annual report of the moral
condition of his charge, and such remarks upon the
condition of affairs in the prison as may be the result
of his observation. He also gives the number of his
visits during the year. They are all salaried officers;
each receives from $150 to $200 per annum.

The details of the exact condition and number of
every article supplied to the prison, show the care that
is bestowed upon the stores of the prison; and the
tables of the number, condition and offences of the
prisoners are instructive to those who would be familiar
with prison management, with its cost, and other requirements.

In every part of these Reports is found the reiterated
opinion of the visiting officer, (whose experience
of many years entitles his views to the greatest respect,)
that no good moral results are to be expected from social
confinement; nothing but the separate system can be
relied on to give moral efficacy to imprisonment for
crime.

It is noticed too, that in Great Britain and Ireland,
.bn 119.png
.pn +1
as in this city, and, we suppose, in most of the large
cities of the Union, there is a class of men and women,
and especially of the latter, that seem to divide their
time between the prison cells, and places of debauchery
and preparation for imprisonment. In the Report for
the prison in the county of the town of Drogheda, (the
district containing eighteen thousand inhabitants,) there
are females who are constant “recurrents;” and it is
said that, out of those committed during the year 1862,
one had been previously in custody ninety-two times,
and the rest from twenty-eight to forty-nine times.

Separate Reports are made upon the condition of convict
prisons, both in Great Britain and Ireland.

In the Report for common prisons of Great Britain,
there is rather less perspicacity, and there seems less
attention paid to the details of the institutions. The
moral and religious instruction is ordinarily committed
to a clergyman of the Established Church; but in most
of the Reports it is stated that Dissenting and Catholic
prisoners may have the services of clergymen of their
own denomination, if they desire it. In Cardiganshire,
(Wales,) it is stated, “every facility is given to protestant
dissenters for seeing ministers of their several
persuasions, but Roman Catholics are unknown in the
prison.” Whether Catholics are not admitted, or none
are sentenced to its cells, or whether the existence of
such a denomination is ignored, or whether none are
found in that district, it is not stated.

The county and borough jails throughout England
seem not to be in the best condition to produce moral
improvement.
.bn 120.png
.pn +1

We may remark here, that the Episcopal Church,
being the established denomination in England and
Wales, we find all the prisons supplied with a clergyman
of that church. So far as that goes, it is laudable,
and it may be added, as an additional ground for commendation,
that Dissenting and Roman Catholic Clergymen
are admitted, when their service is required by
prisoners of their denomination. We are not willing
to criticise closely, but it would seem that, as visiting
clergymen are paid by the public money, and as their
office is to awaken as well as to satisfy an appetite for
moral and religious instruction, it is scarcely within the
limits of Christian charity to make no provision to call
dissenters and other prisoners to a sense of duty. And
this is the more evident, from the fact that, in Ireland,
where only a very small minority are of the
Established Church, prisoners of that denomination are
supplied with a special religious teacher, as well as
those of the other two great divisions. There is, however,
in some of the English prisons, a “lecturer, who
instructs his hearers not only in moral, but in physical
sciences.”

It is much however to know that the great truths of
religion are taught in the public prisons of England,
and it is more to know that there are many willing
learners, who, without this means of improvement,
would remain in ignorance, if not of religious truths,
at least of the necessity and advantage of receiving
and practising them.

The Report of the Directors of the Convict Prisons
of Ireland, is interesting to those who feel desirous, in
.bn 121.png
.pn +1
this country, to do all the good possible to convicts.
The very great proportion of inhabitants of Ireland
who are not of the “Established Church,” makes it
necessary to give officially, religious and moral instruction
by clergymen of different denominations, and
hence we find that the development of the true state of
the prisons, includes the Annual Reports of the Clergy
of the Episcopal and the Roman Catholic Churches,
and of that denomination of Dissenters which has probably
the largest number in the prison, or which can
most easily supply from the neighborhood, a clergyman
to lead religious service. And we learn from the Reports
of the different clergy, that religious service,
according to the requirements of the several denominations
represented by the clergymen, are held twice on
every Sunday and recognized religious holiday, and
that the usual instruction in doctrine and morals is also
given to classes; all, of course, without interference
with each other.

In many respects these Parliamentary Reports may
be regarded as of more consequence to Boards of Prison
Inspectors, than to the “Society for Alleviating the
Miseries of Public Prisons,” as they set forth the economy
of the institutions, the discipline, the means of
comfort, and the character of employment, as well as
the results of all these, and the exact cost; and thus
they may become useful as indicative of what Boards
of Inspectors should carefully shun or promptly adopt,
with such modifications and adaptations as difference of
circumstances renders necessary.

But, in Great Britain and Ireland, much of the labor
.bn 122.png
.pn +1
assumed by the Philadelphia “Society for Alleviating
the Miseries of Public Prisons,” is undertaken by the
Government; and the closeness of the investigation of
their affairs, and the fulness of the Reports, are consequent
upon the interest which philanthropic individuals
have awakened throughout the country, and the action
which has been secured by both Houses of Parliament.
The great volume of Reports of the action of “a committee
of the House of Lords” is of deep interest, even
in this country, as showing not merely the condition of
certain great prisons, but as illustrating, especially, the
effect of different systems of treatment and labor.
The elevated rank of the persons who composed the
commission of inquiry, shows the importance which the
House of Lords attached to the subject; and the constancy
of attendance, and the searching character of
questions put to those under examination, show the
fidelity of the distinguished noblemen to the interests
submitted to their care.[#]
.pm fn-start
The select committee consisted of the Duke of Marlborough,
Marquis of Salisbury, Lord Steward, Earl of Carnarvon, (who was
elected Lord President,) Earl of Malmsebury, Earl of Romney, Earl
Cathcart, Earl of Ducie, Earl of Dudley, Viscount Eversley, Lord
Wodehouse, Lord Lyvedon, Duke of Richmond, Lord Wensleydale.
.pm fn-end

Of the five hundred and twelve folio pages of these
Reports, there is not one that is without interest to
every active member of this Society. There are 5,337
questions propounded by the various members of the
commission, and answers rendered by those who have
been in the administration of the prisons, or who had
been exercising the duties of visitors, inspectors, physicians,
.bn 123.png
.pn +1
&c., of the several prisons; and those answers
present a most minute exhibit of the exact state of the
prisons, and all that relates to their administration.

In some of the prisons, we find that there is a physician
employed at <i>seventy-five</i> dollars a year, and that
he visits twice a week.

So far as we have examined the Dietary of the different
prisons in Great Britain and Ireland, we find
some meals enriched with meat, in England, but none,
as far as we discover, in Ireland. Prisoners are weighed,
and their provisions augmented or improved, or diminished
in quantity and quality, according as their weight
increases or decreases. And the kind of labor is changed
to suit their health and weight. They must require
much personal supervision. Ale, wine and brandy are
used in the prisons, when the prisoner is under medical
treatment; and it would seem, from some Reports, that
medical treatment was more frequently called for in the
prisons where such indulgences are prescribed. It may
be remarked here, also, that consideration is given to
the previous <i>habits</i>, and pursuits of prisoners, when
they enter, and the diet, with regard to meat and ale,
somewhat modified by the amount which had been used
before conviction.

The Committee are decided in their views of the
necessity of uniformity in discipline, dress and food, in
the prisons of Great Britain; and as, geographically
considered, the kingdom is small, with little variety of
climate or produce, such a desideratum may be easily
supplied. We cannot hope for anything like an attempt
at uniformity in our Federal Government; but there
.bn 124.png
.pn +1
appears no immovable obstacle to a uniform system of
prison discipline and practice in this State. But that
cannot be hoped for, till there is a general knowledge of
its wants. This will probably be the result of the
establishment generally in this State of County Societies,
auxiliary to the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the
Miseries of Public Prisons.

One spirit pervades all the Reports of the Noble
Committee, and it is aroused and sustained by the
answers to questions propounded by them to the Inspectors
and other officers appointed to look after the
economy and discipline of the prisons of all kinds
throughout the kingdom, and that is <i>the entire necessity
of the separate confinement of the convicts</i>, and the full
belief that the same kind of treatment would be beneficial,
so far as time would permit, for every class of
prisoners. They distinguish between solitary and separate
confinement. The former is recommended as a
prison punishment,—the latter as a system of regular
treatment. On this subject the Committee say, as a
result of the testimony taken before them: “Where
separate confinement exists, it exercises both a reformatory
and deterrent effect. The committee are of opinion
that the principle of separation should be made to pervade
the entire system of the prison.” And while
they do not admit that the adoption of the system need
cause any relaxation of the rule in school or chapel,
and at exercise, they intimate that the “<i>cellular</i> instruction”
(as they denominate what we have in our Report
spoken of as religious and moral instruction in and at
the door of the cells) should not be relaxed.
.bn 125.png
.pn +1

It will be understood that the attempts at separate
confinement in England have, in some places, been
made by an effort to accommodate the old borough and
county prisons to the new system. Poor as the chance
of success might appear, it is worthy of remark, that
the results satisfy both the Inspectors and the Noble
Committee, that it is the true system of penal and
reformatory imprisonment. On that subject the Committee
say they “consider that the system generally
known as the separate system must now be accepted as
the foundation of prison discipline, and that its rigid
maintenance is a vital principle in the efficiency of
county and borough jails.”

This sentiment pervades the whole Report, and is
suggested and sustained by the testimony of all those
who were under examination before the Committee.

It is a subject of regret that we cannot copy at
length the testimony of some of the witnesses called
before the Committee of the House of Lords: we however
find one question, with an answer thereto, that is
too direct to be omitted.

.pm letter-start
1757. Question by the <i>Earl of Carnarvon</i>.

You have given the Committee one instance, and we have heard
from another witness that the reputation of Leicester Gaol has a
deterring effect; can you give the Committee any reason why you
think it is more deterring than some other prisons?

Answer by <i>William Musson, Esq.</i>, Governor of Leicester Gaol.

I think that our system of discipline is very strict; we never allow
the separate system to be broken through on any consideration; the
prisoners are in separate cells; they are exercised in separate yards,
and they have separate stalls at Chapel; and I may say that when they
.bn 126.png
.pn +1
are taken out to be tried in Court, they go in separate partitions in
the wagon, and are arraigned separately.
.pm letter-end

.pm letter-start
1758. <i>By Earl of Dudley.</i> Is not the separation relaxed when they
are with the schoolmaster in class?

No; they are separated then.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start
1759. Do they not sit at the same table?

No: they are in the Chapel in separate stalls; we use the Chapel as
a school-room.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start

1785. <i>Earl of Carnarvon.</i> In your opinion, the advantage of separation
outweighs any inconveniences which may result from it?

Yes; I think so.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start
1786. <i>Lord Wodehouse.</i> Do you ever find that prisoners when
confined for long periods in separate cells, suffer at all mentally from
the separation?

There is a great variety of minds, and it does not influence all alike.
.pm letter-end


In another part of our Report for this year, it has
been stated that much good, it is believed, has been done
to individuals, by meeting the prisoners on their arrival
in the van, and releasing those committed for the first
time, provided that it is apparent that they have not
been frequent offenders, and have not chosen the path of
vice; and it is stated that by this course the self-respect
of many young persons has been saved, and they have
been snatched from a vicious course, which would scarcely
have been avoided had they been confined with old
offenders. And when the power to release did not rest
with the Inspectors, the Agent was at once despatched
to procure the release of the committed person; and
that failing, care has been used to place the novices in
separate cells, and provide them with advice, books,
.bn 127.png
.pn +1
and some little work. On this subject we have the
opinions of the Inspectors of Prisons for the North and
Middle districts of England.


.pm letter-start
2156. By the <i>Duke of Marlborough</i>. You stated that you did not
think short sentences of much avail in effecting reformation upon a
prisoner; but do you not think that short punishments may be a
deterrent?

No; I think that a man who is sent to prison for seven days or
twenty days or a month, becomes marked, and he is not in prison long
enough to enable him to exercise an influence for good over him.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start
2157. Take the case of a man who has not been accustomed to
vice or crime, and who finds himself in prison for a month for an
offence into which he has been hurried, and finds the prison to be a
very unpleasant thing, and the discipline to be very severe, and that
he is subjected to a great many things which he did not expect before
he entered the prison, do you not think that the recollection of that
month’s confinement may have a deterring effect upon that man in
future?

I think that to a man of the character which your Grace has
described, a month’s imprisonment would do more harm than good.
If that man escaped the taint of a prison, and was bound over under
certain securities, he would be more likely to turn out well than if he
had been subject to the discipline of the prison for months; it is too
short a period in itself to have any deterring effect on him.
.pm letter-end


In another part of the Report of this Committee of
the House of Lords we have a statement of what is understood
by separate confinement.


.pm letter-start
2662. Separate from what?

Man from man; they never see each other to know each other or
to speak to each other.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start
2663. By the separate system you only mean separation of prisoner
from prisoner?

Just so.
.pm letter-end
.bn 128.png
.pn +1


.pm letter-start
2664. Not the secluded system in which a man is shut up entirely?

No; quite the contrary.
.pm letter-end


.pm letter-start
2665. I ask the question in order that your answer may be recorded
here, for this simple reason, that a great many people have an idea
that the separate system is simply a secluding of the prisoners entirely;
whereas, the separate system is only, as you have stated in your answer,
the separation of prisoner from prisoner?

Yes; from all evil communications.
.pm letter-end

In reply to a remark by the <i>Earl of Dudley</i>, that the
prisoners daily saw several officers of the prison, and
occasionally others, it is said,

.pm letter-start
“Just so. The <i>solitary</i> system does not exist in England.”


We are struck with the statement of general health
in some of the prisons in England; for example the
Bristol Gaol. T. A. Garden, Esq., Governor of that
prison, in his testimony before the Committee of the
House of Lords, says: “During the time that I have
been Governor—twenty-six years—we have never lost
a female prisoner; and we do not lose more than one
male prisoner in twelve months. Those that we have
lost came to us, perhaps, in the last stage of consumption.
I do not know one single case that has been taken
ill on the premises and died. The average number of
prisoners is one hundred and sixty.”
.pm letter-end

The whole of the Parliamentary Reports, as has
already been stated, came to hand after the preparation
of this Annual Report, and its submission to, and acceptance
by, the Acting Committee of the Society; so
that it was inconvenient to swell the publication by
extracts from the British Report, even where matters
.bn 129.png
.pn +1
of interest were explained at length; and to supply as
far as possible the want of those extracts, digests of
some of the Report and statements have been made,
which, with all deference to the economy of space, must
have swelled the division of the report in which they
should appear much beyond what may be regarded
as a fair proportion. It will be well to recollect when
we read the strong testimony which the Governors and
Inspectors of gaols in Great Britain bear to the superior
efficacy of the system of separate confinement; that as yet
in many of these gaols they are working with old edifices
only partially adapted to the new system, and they are in
a state of transition from the old system of physical to that
of moral discipline. They see and feel the means of
good which are almost within their reach, but they have
to approach them slowly, respecting the established
opinions of a portion of the community, while they follow
as far as possible, the suggestions of the better informed.
They will soon make the public sentiment by which they
will be sustained in their work of tempering justice with
mercy, and rendering punishment for offences the means
of reforming the offender.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
NOTICE OF DECEASED ACTIVE MEMBERS.
.sp 2
In treating of what this Society has done, we are
compelled to pause and record a part of what it has been
called to suffer in the loss of its active members in the
past year.
.bn 130.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.h3
REV. C. R. DEMMÉ.
.sp 2
We have to deplore the death of the Rev. C. R.
Demmé, D. D., Pastor of the German Church in north
Fourth Street, who for many years made the Eastern
Penitentiary the scene of his most welcome and profitable
labors. His great desire was to do good to his
fellow man; and Providence that lighted up that wish
in his heart, blessed him with a sound judgment, as to
the choice of objects on which his gifts and acquirements
would be best exercised, and the selection of time and
means for his ministration. He knew how repulsive
usually is the convict’s cell to those of his vocation; and
he felt also how important to those who would be useful
there, is a knowledge of modern languages; and especially
did he resolve to devote himself to those of his own
country, (Germany,) whom he could approach by many
avenues which love of the “Father land” opens to the
heart. And many who heard his kind monitions, lived
to bless his benevolence. He was a man of steady and
well regulated zeal, devoid of ostentation; practical in
all his plans, and eminently useful in his labor in concurrence
with this Society.
.sp 2
.h3
JACOB T. BUNTING.
.sp 2
In the month of December, Jacob T. Bunting, an old
and active member of this Society, died. He was known
to his acquaintances as one that had at heart the good
of his fellow men; and in this Society he was recognized
as a hearty co-operator in the good work of alleviating
.bn 131.png
.pn +1
the miseries of prisons. Earnest in his efforts to discharge
his duties at the cells of the prisoners; he sat in
council with us, awaiting rather the judgment of others,
than attempting to enforce his own opinions, yet influencing
by his experience, and conciliating by his
courteous deference. The Society feels and mourns the
loss of such a member. Mr. Bunting was in his seventy-first
year.
.sp 2
.h3
TOWNSEND SHARPLESS.
.sp 2
On Wednesday, the 30th of December, died Townsend
Sharpless, one of the Vice-Presidents of this Society.

There are men who seem formed to discharge a certain
class of duties, beyond which they lack zeal and fail
of efficiency. But Townsend Sharpless seemed to fulfil
the injunction of Scripture, “Whatsoever thy hand
findeth to do, do with thy might.” In business or
rational recreation, in works of general benevolence, in
the councils and labor of this Society, he was constant,
zealous and successful. No half-way measures satisfied
his plans, or gratified his wishes. He satisfied himself
first that the work was one of benevolence, and then he
made it a duty, and discharged it. In the walks of
business there was no man who seemed better to understand
the whole routine of trade, and few were ever more
devoted, or more successful. As a philanthropist the
same zeal, the same method secured equal success to his
labors. And warm-hearted in his friendship, his social
relations were of the most pleasing and gratifying kind.

The Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public
.bn 132.png
.pn +1
Prisons, then, in referring to the death of such a member,
feel that they have lost in the demise of Townsend
Sharpless, a valued member, a respected Vice-President,
an exemplary merchant, a useful citizen, and a practical
philanthropist.

As the Scriptures inform us that it is “well with the
righteous,” we have only to mourn in the death of our
several valued colleagues, our personal deprivations, and
the loss which the cause of humanity sustains in the
withdrawal from its labors of men whose experience
gave weight to their counsel, and efficiency to their
labors. The starred names of our muster-roll show how
much of purity, piety, zeal and judgment have been
vouchsafed to this Society. The cause in which they
labored is transmitted to our hands. In addition to
their motive to stimulate us, we have their bright examples
by which to direct our course and regulate our
conduct.
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
CONCLUSION.
.sp 2
The Society looks back with much gratification upon
its labors. The existing active members feel how much
they owe to the philanthropic efforts of the founders of
the Association, and to those, who, having exerted themselves
with corresponding zeal in the good cause, have
bequeathed to men of this day the <i>improved</i> work, and
.bn 133.png
.pn +1
the augmented duties. Every point gained developes
the resources of humanity, while it presents new objects
for its exercise. How prisons are conducted, and how
prisoners are treated, where there is no voluntary
organization to alleviate their suffering, history and the
report of travelers tell. Undoubtedly religion meliorates
the condition of the incarcerated, whether his offence be
vice or crime; but religion supplies itself with means
and instruments for its holy work, and we look for
good results only where there have been corresponding
means. To find the effects of unalleviated punishment
upon tried offenders, is not necessary to look far back
into ages which the world calls “dark,” because light
was less diffused than at present; it is only to seek
the nation or community where arbitrary power not only
inflicts the wrong of too severe punishment, but, by its
terrors, prevents the suggestion and adoption of means
by the humane which may lessen the effect of the
severity, by keeping between the sufferer and the world
a connection of feeling and sympathy that will lead
him to resolve some good when the punishment for the
bad shall have been all inflicted, which shall make him
feel, indeed, that this will be a use to him of virtue,
and that he may hereafter have a reward in the recognition
of its existence in him by the society to which he
may be spared. Seek the government that understands
by criminal law only the punishment of the guilty, and
we shall see that authority seizes the violator of its
enactments or decrees, and treats him as if all of humanity
had perished in him with the conception of his
.bn 134.png
.pn +1
crime, and, dragging him from the decencies, the enjoyments
and the hopes of society, it

.pm verse-start
Chains him, and tasks him, and exacts his sweat
With stripes, that mercy, with a bleeding heart,
Weeps when she sees inflicted on a beast.
.pm verse-end
.ni
The difference between that mode of dealing with the
convict and the lesser evil, that of allowing him to
perish in inactivity, and acquire strength in bad resolves,
and instruction for future crimes, is what policy and
unaided humanity have wrought out of the condition
of the offender. The difference between the latter condition
and that of the inmates of the Philadelphia County
Prison, and especially the Eastern Penitentiary, is what
results from the labor of the Philadelphia Society for
Alleviating the Miseries of Prisons. It is something, in
the first contrast, that the convict has a prison; it is
more, in the latter, that the prison is made a school of
physical and moral reform.
.pi
To have been instrumental in working out such a
difference is an occasion for felicitation and thankfulness,
even though there be felt a consciousness that with such
objects so well defined, and means so complete, much less
has been done to alleviate the miseries of prisons, and
arouse the attention of society to the good work, than
might have been hoped for. But a work of this kind
once begun, must, of course, go on. The hands that are
now stretched forth may lose their power, but others will
be employed; and year by year, as we have seen, so shall
we see, volunteers dedicating themselves to a duty which,
though painful and often repulsive, has with it the
.bn 135.png
.pn +1
promise of reward from Him who by precept and example
devolved it upon us.

The important work of convincing society that it has
a greater interest in the reformation of a public offender,
than in his punishment, or that it is its true interest to
make his punishment a means of his reformation, must
not be allowed to fail for want of efforts or advocacy.
The great work of demonstrating the truth that crimes
are multiplied by the companionship of the culpable,
must be forwarded. The construction of prisons, and
the administration of their affairs, must still be carefully
considered as one of the great objects, a leading object
of this Society, and a means of alleviating existing
miseries.

The discipline, the labor, the compensation of prisoners,
must have constant attention; and the results of investigations
and experiments be made public, for the promotion
of the great object of this Society.

The great work of establishing auxiliaries to the
Society must be carried forward with prudent zeal, so
that, by co-operation, the labors of all who unite with us
in objects and views, may be more effective; and, indeed,
that we may by argument and illustration, increase
the number of those who unite with us in object
and views.

We must augment our correspondence also, that we
may fully understand the plans and labours of philanthropists
in other States and other nations, and make
them comprehend our own views, and the means by
which we seek to accomplish our object.

All these considerations, and others that seem to
.bn 136.png
.pn +1
regard the physical condition of prisoners, must continue
to occupy the attention of our members, and
chiefly because, through those physical aids, we are to
reach his moral life. But with all these efforts towards
the instruments of good, we must continue, with unwavering,
with augmented exertion, our endeavors to
reach <i>directly</i> the hearts and consciences of those whom
we would benefit. To do this effectively, we must have
patience, as well as good will,—we must <i>endure</i>, as well
as <i>do</i>: we must <i>learn</i> the great lesson of <i>teachers</i>, before
we undertake the business of instruction; we must feel
it the great duty to ourselves, and our mission, to “bear
and forbear.” We must learn to labor and to wait,—to
bestow our toil this day and every day, but to look at
a distance for the reward of our efforts, in the fixed
reformation of its objects, and to be “instant in season
and out of season,” to admonish, advise, induce and
encourage. The experience of those who have spent
years at the doors of the prison cells, is not that of multiplied
fruits. The value of a single soul must be fully
appreciated, that the one redeemed from vice may be
regarded as a consolation for the hundreds that make
no improvement from efforts in their behalf. In short,
we must find our pleasure in the discharge of a duty,
and leave to Him, whose commands we obey, to give
the increase for which we labor.

We may spend days and weeks, as indeed many have
spent months, in seeking to awaken the conscience of the
hardened offender to the evils of his course, and arousing
him to the danger of their tendencies; and when
the object of this solicitude shall have passed from our
.bn 137.png
.pn +1
care, and ceased to hear our lessons, we may hear of
him in the midst of debauchery and villainies, apparently
ten-fold more a child of the devil than when we
sought to soften his heart, and succeeded in raising his
tears in the criminal cell. This is the experience of all
who undertake to reclaim those who are hardened in
crime or steeped in vice. But are we, on that account,
to relinquish our labors or to forego hope? Are we to
say that this backsliding is the last of the seventy times
seven, and therefore we may stand excused from further
effort? That very backsliding ought to be expected.
The return of the offender to his offence is in the course
of the timid, half-repentant wrong-doer, we know. We
see it in regard to amendments of life that have relation
to private interests and individual character. We must
look for it in those who have for a long time cast off
respect for social proprieties and wholesome regard to
statute laws. The probability that few to whom we
address ourselves in the cells of the incarcerated will
give much heed to our exhortations, and their liability
to return to their ways of sin and shame, notwithstanding
their apparent desire to accept our ministration and
profit by the means of improvement which we present,
are known to us all before we enter upon the service.
We accept the appointment with a knowledge of the
difficulties it presents. We receive the mission to those
whom the schoolmaster and the preacher have failed to
influence to good; and we are to thank God for even
the small returns from our laborious gleanings, rather
than to arraign his providence or dishonor our pursuit
by complaining of small returns.
.bn 138.png
.pn +1

Charities have their grades, and they are entitled to
commendation not always for the amount of benefit
they have conferred, or the number that they have
assisted, but rather from a consideration of the difficulties
they encounter, and the spirit in which they are
conducted.

Colleges and schools have received and instructed
the sound minded at all times, and the asylums for the
insane and the orphan have been working wonderful
good among the mentally afflicted and the fatherless
children; but it was left for the present age to see men
of character and science stooping to the wants of the
idiot, and by painful, protracted labor and unheard of
patience, irritate into some kind of life, the low faculties
of the mentally infirm, and call into usefulness and
love, those who had been condemned, by universal
judgment, to helpless idiocy. And if this is going on in
our midst,—if the wretched, drivelling child, whose
mind and body seems to be given over to utter helplessness,
can be and is called into profitable exercise and
lofty accountability, shall we hesitate to dedicate some
portion of our time to the reformation and right direction
of those whose physical powers are all that vice
has left them, or whose sense of responsibility to God
and man is only clouded by the indulgence of vicious
appetites, or deadened by a repetition of those enormities
which make a sense of responsibility a curse? It
is most true, as is often asserted by those who have
some experience of the faithlessness of a prisoner’s promises,
that few who seem to listen with respect to moral
instruction at the doors of their cells, ever carry into
.bn 139.png
.pn +1
execution their solemn promises. The state which
made them contemplate and promise reformation is
changed, and they seem to feel released from their
pledges. They have before them a sense of the degradation
to which their vices have reduced them, and
they shrink from a contemplation of a perpetuation of
that degradation. They feel that they stand in the
presence of those whose superior moral or social position
is only the result of superior virtue, and they think it
easy to check the appetites whose indulgence is vice,
when the reward is near. They promise, and they go
forth into a world that remembers only their follies or
their crimes. The means of gratifying their appetites
are available, virtue is difficult, because the rewards
are postponed; and while they are in probation with
their best friends, and under condemnation among the
many, they have fewer present inducements to virtue
than they had thought, and so they fall back into the very
faults which had made them prisoners before, and which
send them again to the cells with drunkards and vagrants,
who harden them into shamelessness.

But are we to forbear to seek to reform because they
have failed to keep their promise? Are we to cease to
advise kindly, and warn earnestly because they have
again yielded to their degraded and vitiated taste?
Shall we say that this man or that woman has shown
himself or herself irreclaimable, and therefore we will
spend no more time, no more kindness, on such an one?
Who shall say that all is lost while life remains? Who
shall say that the seeds of moral truth are dead in his
.bn 140.png
.pn +1
heart because they have not yet germinated? How long
vitality remains in vegetable seeds we all know. Shall
there be less vitality in the seeds of moral truth? The
wild grass grows, the useless weed, or the poisonous
plant springs up into life, and seems to invoke and warrant
entire condemnation of the soil; but let these be cut
down, and how often come forth the sweet herb and the
profitable grass, whose seeds have lain dormant while
those profitless or poisonous productions were covering
the surface. At some later day, in some season of great
emergency, some hour of bitter trial, truths that seemed
to have fallen profitless on the heart of the miserable
prisoner, may come forth and bless with usefulness and
peace the few closing days of a life that has been heretofore
dedicated to folly and vice. Let us, then, sow the seeds
by all waters; let us not withhold, morning or evening,
our hands; and, when we have reason to believe that
these seeds have found a place in the consenting mind
of the listener, let us water them with the refreshing
influences of our experience, and warm them into growth
by that affection which is the basis of true philanthropy.
It is thus we may alleviate the miseries of prisons, and
make the criminal’s cell the vestibule to the temple of
virtue and piety.

In conclusion, let it be repeated with emphasis, that
we are not to be driven from our efforts at personal
reformation, by any failure of the prisoner to justify, in
liberty, the hopes which he had warranted while in
confinement. As often as he returns to his cell, he
should return to our care,—our instruction. The last
.bn 141.png
.pn +1
resolve may be permanent. The last “repentance may
be unto life, never to be repented of.” And we shall
have occasion, perhaps, in our observations upon life, to
conclude that the best of mankind will find the fruition
of their highest hopes less in the amount of their innocency
than in the frequency of their repentance.
.ti +20
<l>JAMES J. BARCLAY,</l>
.ti +25
<i>President</i>.
.ti +6
<l>JOHN J. LYTLE,</l> <i>Secretary</i>.
.ti +12
<sc>Philadelphia, January 1864.</sc>
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
LIFE MEMBERS.||<fs=0.75em>ON PAYMENT OF TWENTY DOLLARS AND UPWARDS.</fs>
.sp 2
.in 15
.nf l
Ashmead, H. B.

Barclay, James J.
Bache, Franklin, M. D.
Bonsall, Edward H.
Besson, Charles A.

Cope, Caleb

Ellis, Charles

Fotteral, Stephen G.
Foulke, William P.

Hacker, Jeremiah
Horton, John
Hollingsworth, Thomas G.

Knight, Reeve L.

Leaming, J. Fisher
Love, Alfred H.
Longstreth, William W.

Marshall, Richard M.

Ogden, John M.

Perot, Joseph
Perkins, Samuel H.
Parrish, Dillwyn
Powers, Thomas H.
Potter, Thomas
Pennock, George

Sharpless, Charles L.
Sharpless, Samuel J.
Steedman, Miss Rosa

Turnpenny, Joseph C.
Townsend, Samuel

Whelen, E. S.
Willits, A. A.
Weightman, William
Williams, Henry J.
Waln, S. Morris

Yarnall, Charles
Yarnall, Benjamin H.
.nf-
.in 0
.bn 142.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
MEMBERS.
.sp 2
.in 15
.nf l
Armstrong, William, M. D.
Anderson, V. William
Atmore, Frederick B.
Ash, Joshua P.

Brown, John A.
Brown, Moses
Brown, Thomas Wistar
Brown, Abraham C.
Brown, N. B.
Brown, David S.
Brown, Joseph D.
Brown, Mary D.
Bell, John, M. D.
Biddle, William
Biddle, John
Barton, Isaac
Burgin, George H., M. D.
Bohlen, John
Binney, Horace, Jr.
Bayard, James
Beesley, T. E., M. D.
Beesley, B. Wistar
Bowen, William E.
Bettle, Samuel
Bettle, William
Baldwin, Matthias W.
Barcroft, Stacy B.
Baily, Joel J.
Burr, William H.
Boardman, H. A.
Bacon, Richard W.
Bacon, Josiah
Brock, Jonathan
Barclay, Andrew C.
Brooke, Stephen H.
Baines, Edward
Bispham, Samuel
Broadbent, S.
Brant, Josiah
Brooks, Henry
Beckwith, J. H., Rev.

Corse, J. M., M. D.
Cope, Alfred
Cope, M. C.
Cope, Henry
Cope, Francis R.
Cope, Thomas P.
Colwell, Stephen
Caldwell, James E.
Caldwell, William Warner
Cresson, John C.
Claghorn, John W.
Chandler, Joseph R.
Carter, John
Carter, John E.
Campbell, James R.
Comegys, B. B.
Childs, George W.
Child, H. T., M. D.
Chance, Jeremiah C.
Coates, Benjamin
Chamberlain, Lloyd
Conrad, James M.
Cooke, Jay
Collier, Daniel L.
Comly, Franklin A.
Cope, Herman
Collins, Jos. H.
Corlies, Samuel Fisher
Campbell, Edward S.
Crenshaw, Edmund A.

Ducachet, Henry W., D. D.
Dawson, Mordecai L.
Dorsey, William
Dutilh, E. G.
Ditzler, William U.
Dreer, Ferdinand J.
Dickinson, Mahlon H.
Davis, R. C.
.bn 143.png
.pn +1
Derbyshire, Alexander J.
Derbyshire, John
Duane, William

Earp, Thomas
Evans, Charles, M. D.
Evans, William, Jr.
Evans, Robert E.
Evans, J. Wistar
Erringer, J. L.
Edwards, William L.
Elkinton, Joseph
Elkinton, George M.
Ellison, John B.
Emlen, Samuel
Eyre, William
Erety, George

Farnum, John
Fraley, Frederick
Fullerton, Alex.
Farr, John C.
Frazier, John F.
Ford, William
Ford, John M.
Furness, William H.
Field, Charles J.
Fox, Henry C.
Franciscus, Albert H.
Funk, Charles W.

Garrett, Thomas C.
Griffin, E., M. D.
Greeves, James R.
Gilpin, John F.
Grigg, John
Gummere, Charles J.

Hunt, Uriah
Hockley, John
Holloway, John S.
Husband, Thomas J.
Hughes, Joseph B.
Homer, Henry
Homer, Benjamin
Hand, James C.
Hazeltine, John
Hastings, Matthew
Huston, Samuel
Hacker, Morris
Hacker, William
Hunt, William, M. D.
Hurley, Aaron A.
Harbert, Charles
Hunn, Ezekiel
Hunneker, John
Henderson, Robert

Ingersoll, Joseph R.
Ingram, William
Iungerich, Lewis

Jackson, Charles C.
Janney, Benjamin S., Jr.
Jeanes, Joshua T.
Jenks, William P.
Jones, Isaac C.
Jones, Jacob P.
Jones, Isaac T.
Jones, William D.
Jones, Justice P.
Jones, William Pennel
Johnson, Israel H.
Johnson, Ellwood
Johnston, Robert S.
Justice, Philip S.

Kaighn, James E.
Kane, Thomas L.
Kelley, William D.
Kelly, Henry H.
Ketcham, John
Kiderlen, William L. J.
Kimber, Thomas
Kingsbury, Charles A., M. D.
Kinsey, William
Kirkpatrick, James A.
Kintzing, William F.
Kitchen, James, M. D.
Kneedler, J. S.
Knight, Edward C.
Knorr, G. Frederick
Klapp, Joseph, M. D.
Klein, John

Laing, Henry M.
.bn 144.png
.pn +1
Lambert, John
Latimer, Thomas
Leeds, Josiah W.
Lewis, Henry
Lewis, Edward
Lippincott, John
Lippincott, Joshua
Longstreth, J. Cooke
Lovering, Joseph S.
Lovering, Joseph S., Jr.
Ludwig, William C.
Lynch, William
Lytle, John J.

McCall, Peter
Meredith, William M.
Milliken, George
Myers, John B.
Morris, Isaac P.
Maris, John M.
Morris, Charles M.
Morris, Wistar
Morris, Caspar, M. D.
Morris, Anthony P.
Morris, Elliston P.
Montgomery, Richard R.
Mercer, Singleton A.
Mullen, William J.
Megarge, Charles
Martin, Abraham
McAllister, John, Jr.
McAllister, John A.
McAllister, William Y.
MacAdam, William R.
McAllister, T. H.
Marsh, Benjamin V.
Morton, Samuel C.
Merrill, William O. B.
Morrell, R. B.
Mellor, Thomas
Mitcheson, M. J.
Mead, John O.

Norris, Samuel
Neall, Daniel
Needles, William N.
Nesmith, Alfred
Nicholson, William
Neuman, L. C., Rev.

Ormsby, Henry
Orne, Benjamin

Purves, William
Parrish, Joseph, M. D.
Poulson, Charles A.
Perot, William S.
Perot, Francis
Perot, Charles P.
Perot, T. Morris
Patterson, Joseph
Patterson, Morris
Patterson, William C.
Potter, Alonzo, D. D., Rt. Rev.
Price, Eli K.
Price, Richard
Pearsall, Robert
Pitfield, Benjamin H.
Peters, James
Potts, Joseph
Parry, Samuel
Palmer, Charles
Perkins, Henry
Potts, Thomas P.

Quinn, John A.

Richardson, Richard
Richardson, William H.
Robins, Thomas
Robins, John, Jr.
Ritter, Abraham, Jr.
Rasin, Warner M.
Robb, Charles
Rehn, William L.
Rutter, Clement S.
Ruth, John
Roberts, Algernon S.
Ridgway, Thomas
Robinson, Thomas A.
Randolph, Philip P.
Rowland, A. G.
Richards, George K.
.bn 145.png
.pn +1

Smedley, Nathan
Shippen, William, M. D.
Scull, David
Schaffer, William L.
Scattergood, Joseph
Shannon, Ellwood
Sharpless, William P.
Simons, George W.
Smith, Nathan
Stokes, Samuel E.
Shoemaker, Benjamin H.
Speakman, Thomas H.
Starr, F. Ratchford
Saunders, McPherson
Stokes, Edward D.
Sloan, Samuel
Smith, Joseph P.
Stuart, George H.
Stewart, William S.
Stewart, James

Townsend, Edward
Taylor, Franklin
Taylor, John D.
Taylor, George W.
Trewendt, Theodore
Tredick, B. T.
Thomas, John
Taber, George
Troutman, George M.
Thornley, Joseph H.
Thissel, H. N.

Van Pelt, Peter, D. D.
Vaux, George

Wharton, Thomas F.
Wood, Horatio C.
Welsh, William
Welsh, Samuel
Welsh, John
Wetherill, John M.
Williamson, Passmore
White, John J.
Wainwright, William
Wright, Samuel
Wright, Isaac K.
Willets, Jeremiah
Wiegand, John
Wilstach, William P.
Williamson, Peter
Warner, Redwood F.
Walton, Coates
Williams, Jacob T.
Wilson, Ellwood, M. D.
Woodward, Charles W.
Whilldin, Alexander
Watt, John H.
Wickersham, Morris S.
Wetherill, John, Jr.
Way, J. Tunis
.nf-
.in 0
.bn 146.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
CORRESPONDING MEMBERS.
.sp 2
.ta r:4 h:65
     |Senor Soldan, Peru, South America.
     |John S. Richards, Reading, Berks Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |Townsend Haines, West Chester, Chester Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |Andrew G. Curtin, Harrisburg, Dauphin Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |Charles W. Higgins, Pottsville, Schuylkill Co., Pennsylvania.
     |Charles Lott, Lottsville, Warren Co., Pennsylvania.
     |Morris C. Jones, Bethlehem, Northampton Co., Pennsylvania.
     |Henry Eckroid, Muncy, Lycoming Co., Pennsylvania.
     |George Willits, Catawissa, Columbia Co., Pennsylvania.
     |Wm. A. Thomas, Bellefonte, Centre Co., Pennsylvania.
Dr.  |David, Copenhagen, Denmark, Europe.
     |Robert Smeal, Glasgow, Scotland.
Rev. |E. C. Winis, New York.
Hon. |John Princkle Jones, Reading, Berks Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |John Nesbit Cunningham, Wilksbarre, Luzerne Co., Penna.
Hon. |Warren J. Woodward, Reading, Berks Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |Henry G. Long, Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |A. L. Hays, Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania.
Hon. |John Peirson, Harrisburg, Dauphin Co., Pennsylvania.
Dr.  |John Atlee, Lancaster, Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania.
     |William J. Allinson, Burlington, New Jersey.
.ta-
.sp 2
.hr 25%
.bn 147.png
.pn +1
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE IV.
.sp 2
The Treasurer shall keep the moneys and securities, and pay all
orders of the Society or of the Acting Committee, signed by the
presiding officer and Secretary; and shall present a statement of
the condition of the finances of the Society at each stated meeting
thereof.

All bequests, donations, and life-subscriptions shall be safely
invested; only the income thereof to be applied to the current
expenses of the Society.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE V.
.sp 2
The Acting Committee shall consist of the officers of the Society,
ex-officio, and fifty other members. They shall visit the
prison at least twice a month, inquire into the circumstances of
the prisoners, and report such abuses as they shall discover, to
the proper officers appointed to remedy them. They shall examine
the influence of confinement on the morals of the prisoners.
They shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, which shall
be submitted at every stated meeting of the Society; and shall
be authorized to fill vacancies occurring in their own body, whether
arising from death, or removal from the city, or from inability
or neglect to visit the prisons in accordance with their
regulations. They shall also have the sole power of electing new
members.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE VI.
.sp 2
Candidates for membership may be proposed at any meeting
of the Society or of the Acting Committee; but no election shall
take place within ten days after such nomination. Each member
shall pay an annual contribution of two dollars; but the payment
of twenty dollars at any one time shall constitute a life membership.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE VII.
.sp 2
Honorary members may be elected at such times as the Society
may deem expedient.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE VIII.
.sp 2
The Society shall hold stated meetings on the <i>fourth</i> fifth day
(Thursday) in the months called January, April, July, and October,
of whom seven shall constitute a quorum.
.sp 2
.h3
ARTICLE IX.
.sp 2
No alterations of the Constitution shall be made, unless the
same shall have been proposed at a stated meeting of the Society,
held not less than a month previous to the adoption of such
alterations. All questions shall be decided, where there is a
division, by a majority of votes; in those where the Society is
equally divided, the presiding officer shall have the casting vote.
.bn 148.png
.pn +1
.sp 4
.hr 25%
.sp 4
.h2
OFFICERS OE THE SOCIETY.|1864.
.sp 2
.ta r:20 l:25
     <sc>President</sc>,  | JAMES J. BARCLAY.

<sc>Vice-Presidents</sc>, | WILLIAM SHIPPEN, M. D.
                          | JOSEPH R. CHANDLER.

      <sc>Treasurer</sc>, | EDWARD H. BONSALL.

   <sc>Secretaries</sc>,  | JOHN J. LYTLE,
                          | EDWARD TOWNSEND.

   <sc>Counsellors</sc>,  | HENRY J. WILLIAMS,
                          | CHARLES GIBBONS.
.ta-
.sp 2
.nf c
<i>Members of the Acting Committee.</i>
.nf-
.in 15
.nf l
Charles Ellis,
William S. Perot,
Thomas Latimer,
John M. Wetherill,
Abram C. Brown,
Benjamin H. Pitfield,
James E. Kaighn,
Alfred H. Love,
Jeremiah Willits,
William H. Burr,
George Taber,
William L. J. Kiderlen,
Mahlon H. Dickinson,
William Ingram,
James Peters,
Robert E. Evans,
Charles Palmer,
Charles P. Perot,
Abram Martin,
Wm. Armstrong, M. D.,
William Nicholson,
Charles W. Funk,
Philip P. Randolph,
Samuel Townsend,
Albert G. Roland,
Benj. H. Shoemaker,
Lewis C. Neuman,
Wm. Warner Caldwell,
Henry Perkins,
George M. Elkinton,
William R. MacAdam,
J. M. Corse, M. D.,
E. Griffin, M. D.,
William Hacker,
Isaac Barton,
J. H. Beckwith,
Thomas A. Robinson,
John H. Watt,
George Milliken,
John Klein,
Theodore Trewendt.
.nf-
.in 0
.sp 2
.nf c
<i>Visiting Committee on the Eastern Penitentiary.</i>
.nf-
.in 15
.nf l
Edward H. Bonsall,
John J. Lytle,
Edward Townsend,
Abram C. Brown,
James E. Kaighn,
Alfred H. Love,
Jeremiah Willits,
William H. Burr,
George Taber,
William L. J. Kiderlen,
Mahlon H. Dickinson,
James Peters,
Robert E. Evans,
William R. MacAdam,
Charles Palmer,
William Nicholson,
Charles W. Funk,
Samuel Townsend,
Albert G. Roland,
Benj. H. Shoemaker,
William Hacker,
J. M. Corse, M. D.,
E. Griffin, M. D.,
Isaac Barton,
George Milliken,
J. H. Beckwith,
Theodore Trewendt.
.nf-
.in 0
.sp 2
.nf c
<i>Visiting Committee on the County Prison.</i>
.nf-
.in 15
.nf l
William Shippen, M. D.,
Charles Ellis,
William S. Perot,
Thomas Latimer,
John M. Wetherill,
Benjamin H. Pitfield,
William Ingram,
Charles P. Perot,
Abram Martin,
Wm. Armstrong, M. D.,
Philip P. Randolph,
Joseph R. Chandler,
L. C. Neuman,
Henry Perkins,
George M. Elkinton,
Wm. Warner Caldwell,
Thomas A. Robinson,
John Klein.
.nf-
.sp 2
.in 0
<l>☞</l> <sc>William J. Mullen</sc> is Agent of the County Prison, appointed by the
Inspectors, and acting under their direction, and also appointed by the Prison
Society.

.pb
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.ul
.it Transcriber’s Notes:
.ul indent=1
.it The tables on pages 111 and 146 were changed to remove ditto marks.
.it Missing or obscured punctuation was corrected.
.it Typographical errors were silently corrected.
.it Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation were made consistent only when a\
predominant form was found in this book.
.if t
.it Text that was in italics is enclosed by underscores (_italics_).
.if-
.ul-
.ul-
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