ON THE

PREVENTION AND REPRESSION OF CRIME,

INCLUDING

PENAL AND REFORMATORY TREATMENT:

PRELIMINARY REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER

Enoch Cobi Hines

APPOINTED BY THE PRESIDENT TO REPRESENT THE UNITED STATES
IN THE CONGRESS, IN COMPLIANCE WITH A JOINT
RESOLUTION OF MARCH 7, 1871.

Referred to the Committee on the Judiciary and ordered to be printed.

FORTY-SECOND CONGRESS, SECOND SESSION.

CONGRESS OF THE UNITED STATES,
In the House of Representatives, May 17, 1872.

The following resolution, originating in the House of Representatives, May 14, 1872, has this day been concurred in by the Senate:

Resolved by the House of Representatives, (the Senate concurring,) That there be printed five thousand extra copies of the preliminary report of the Commissioner of the United States to the International Penitentiary Congress of London, with accompanying documents; one thousand copies to be for the use of the Senate, two thousand for the use of the House, and two thousand for the State Department.

Attest:

EWD. MCPHERSON, Clerk.

CONTENTS.

MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES

THE COMMISSIONER'S REPORT

Page.

55

ACCOMPANYING DOCUMENTS.

A. OFFICIAL REPORTS OF EUROPEAN GOVERNMENTS ON THE PRISONS AND PRISON

ADMINISTRATIONS OF THEIR RESPECTIVE COUNTRIES..

Questions on which the reports are founded.

I. France..

II. Belgium

III. Netherlands

IV. Switzerland

V. Italy

VI. Great Britain

1. The convict prisons of England.

2. The borough and county jails of England..

3. The reformatories of Great Britain..

4. Industrial schools of Great Britain....

VII. Ireland

The convict prisons of Ireland.

VIII. Russia

1. Count Sollohub's report

2. Questions proposed by Count Sollohub in view of the ap-

proaching international penitentiary congress.......

IX. The North German Empire

B. ALEXANDER MACONOCHIE AND HIS PRINCIPLES OF PRISON DISCIPLINE..

I. Task sentences should be substituted for time sentences..

II. The prisoner's destiny should be placed measurably in his own

hands...

III. The example of necessary reform, as a condition-precedent to re-

lease, would be found more deterrent than that of severe

suffering...

IV. Punishment for the past should be distinctly separated from train-

ing for the future..

V. Fixed rations should be abolished, and the prisoner should be re-

quired to earn his food and other privileges and comforts....

VI. The primary aim of public punishment should be the reformation

of the criminal..

VII. Prison discipline should work with nature, not against it..

VIII. Greater use should be made of the social principle in penal treat-

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ment

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IX. It is the living soul that must be won, not the inert and obedient

body...

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X. The prisoner's self-respect should be cultivated to the utmost..

XI. Moral forces should be, as far as possible, substituted for physical

force....

XII. Unsuitable indulgence is as pernicious as unsuitable severity.

XIII. Education is a great force in the reformation of criminals....

XIV. Religious instruction and culture are all-important as a means of

reformation

XV. Industrial labor alone is reformatory; the tread-mill, crank, &c.,

are deteriorating rather than reformatory....

XVI. Arbitrary classification is impracticable, and would be useless if it

were practicable......

XVII. In a reformatory prison discipline the employment of the prisoners

as sub-officers is attended with good effects.....

XVIII. Undue restraint on correspondence, and a too minute supervision,

are of evil tendency in prison management....

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