ART. II.-1. Reports of the Board of Managers of the Prison Discipline Society. 2. Fifth Annual Report of the Prison Discipline Society. Boston. 1830. pp. 330. WE regret that we have not sooner called the attention of our readers to the subject of prison discipline, and to the Reports we have named above. It is a subject, the importance of which, in the present state of our community, can hardly be exceeded or exaggerated; and it is treated, in the Reports of the managers of the Boston society, in so thorough and able a manner, as to leave little to be desired or added. In our notice of them we propose merely to invite attention to the subject; or rather, we wish to urge the propriety of devoting some portion of our time or substance to this interesting and important mode of exercising Christian charity. If it be true of any form of mercy, that 'it blesseth him that gives, and him that takes,' it is doubly so of this, which seeks to devise the best means of saving society from crime, and reclaiming the guilty violaters of its laws; of restoring those, who, either through a long course of vice, or a single false step, have forfeited their station in society; of awakening the better principles which slumber within them, and thus imitating and coöperating with the providence of God; of promoting at once the good of those within and those without the walls of the prison, and producing effects, the advantage of which may be felt by others and by ourselves, through the whole course of the life that now is, and of that which is to come. It is quite enough for our purpose, however, to point out the direct, immediate, temporal advantages which may ensue from a judicious reform in the discipline of our prisons. The facts stated in these Reports afford abundant means of doing this, and, at the same time, hold out the most encouraging prospect of success as the reward of exertion. When the reform of the criminal code was adopted, which substituted imprisonment as the punishment for various crimes, instead of death, the pillory, or the scourge, arrangements were made, which, from want of sufficient attention to the great difficulties of the subject, or of that knowledge which perhaps experience alone could supply, were entirely inadequate to the end proposed; and instead of converting our jails into peniten tiaries, rendered them schools in which vice was taught with great ability and success. The unrestrained intercourse of the prisoners with each other, the want of classification, and the improper regulation of the intercourse of the officers with the prisoners, afforded facilities of corruption which were eagerly used by the abandoned inmates of those receptacles of crime; and every year great numbers were discharged from them, either by the expiration of the time for which they were sentenced, or by the frequently abused power of pardon, whose residence there had served no other purpose than to qualify and perhaps induce them to venture upon crimes which they had, previously, little inclination and little ability to commit. It was thought enough if these prisons could be made profitable in a pecuniary way to the Commonwealth; this, indeed, was regarded as the great test and criterion of the usefulness of the institution, as if the crimes conceived, planned, and matured in those abodes of profligacy, would not levy a heavier tax on the community, than if their inmates had all been supported, in luxury, during their lives, by the treasure of the state. As the saving of life, without increasing the burdens of society, was generally regarded as the great benefit to be derived from penitentiaries, productive labor naturally became the principal object of attention to the directors and officers of these institutions. Nothing or little else was thought of, than to make the labor of the convicts profitable; and if, by any extraordinary stimulus, more than was estimated as a fair day's-work could be obtained from them, the profits were reserved for themselves, or shared with their immediate supervisors. Thus, an intelligent, active young man might be thoroughly initiated into the arts and mysteries of iniquity by a few months' residence in the state prison, and be discharged with his education finished, his apprenticeship served, and a fund in his pocket against future accidents, or to be used as a means of procuring assistance or protection in his too probable course of crime. This need not be stated hypothetically. It is matter of history. It was well known to be so; and great was the fear and the sorrow felt by the philanthropic, lest it should eventually be necessary to give up the hope of any reform, and resort to the previous system of punishment, barbarous as it was, in preference to establishing, by public authority, schools of mutual corruption. The evils of the penitentiary system, as it was called, were universally perceived to be enormous; they became too crying to be longer neglected; and wise and prudent men, in different parts of the country, began to turn their attention to the subject, and devise means of amending the whole system. The formation of the Prison Discipline Society has contributed in no small degree to this object. By its labors, or rather by those of its Secretary, who is its principal agent, by his personal investigations and unremitted industry, the secret mischiefs of the prison-house have been developed, whatever good has been effected has been made known, and many most valuable improvements have been introduced. Above all, the attention of the public, and especially of those who are in places of power, and therefore of responsibility, has been in some degree roused; the necessity of legislative interference and executive watchfulness has been demonstrated; and there is now reason to hope, that a fair trial of a truly penitentiary system may be made in many, if not all parts of our country. The intercourse between the prisoners will be restrained, and that between the officers and the convicts will be differently regulated. Silent solitude at night, silent labor by day, religious services daily and weekly, and elementary instruction to the ignorant, must produce a very different state of things in our prisons from what existed when instruction was neglected, silence was not enforced, and the daily and nightly communications of convicts were adapted to bring them all to one level of gross and shocking depravity. To exhibit the progress which has been made in the improvement of state prisons, and the agency of this Society in introducing it, we propose to give a very brief table of the contents of the Reports which have been annually made by its Secretary. In the first, the best principles of the construction of prisons were pointed out, in relation to security, inspection, light, ventilation, cleanliness, and health. The proper regulations with regard to neatness, classification, diet, employment, and punishment were given; the comparative increase of the population of the country, and of crime, wast stated, with the causes and remedies of many existing evils; and on all these subjects an already intimate acquaintance with them, and a clear perception of the proper course to be pursued, were manifested. In the Second Report, the principal evils existing in the different penitentiaries were stated more in detail, and the necessary remedies were also dwelt upon. Very interesting accounts were given of the crimes which brought convicts to these places of punishment, and of those the taste for which they were likely to acquire there; of the system of mutual instruction in vice and roguery; of the mischief of confining together the old and the young, the lunatic and the sane; and of the great expense and the great mortality of some of the prisons. The necessity was shown of attention to the causes of crime, and the means of its increase; and the best methods of checking its growth within the prison walls were insisted on; such as, the selection of proper officers, constant employment by day and solitary confinement by night, silence at all times, and the opportunity for intellectual and religious instruction. A view of the condition of many of the prisons in the country was then given, most of which had been the subject of the personal inspection of the writer; and the list of them will show a diligence and perseverance worthy of all commendation. It comprises an account of the state prisons of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York City, Sing Sing, Auburn, New Jersey, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Baltimore, Washington, Virginia, and a brief notice of those of Georgia, Kentucky, and Ohio. In the Third Report, a statement was made, showing what had been done towards effecting a reform in many of the prisons before mentioned, providing instruction, and diminishing expenses; what prisons yet required improvement; and generally what had been accomplished, and what yet remained to be done in this great and good work. One very interesting table is given in this Report, of a considerable number of convicts, respecting whom inquiries were made after their discharge from the Auburn prison, where they had been subjected to the best existing system of discipline; and there is great reason to rejoice in the probability it shows, that the effect of that discipline was not lost, but in many instances exhibited itself in a permanent influence on their characters. But we intend to recur to this subject again. In the Fourth Report, additional information was given with respect to what had been done in relation to the discipline of prisons; an abstract of the criminal law was added of the states of Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachu setts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, and of the provisions of Mr. Livingston's code for Louisiana. The inequality of the laws, in these states, was pointed out, and the disproportion, in some of them, between the punishments for crimes of different degrees of atrocity. The importance of having the laws known and intelligible was also insisted on. Statements were then made, showing the direct and indirect effects of the labors of this Society. In the Fifth and last Report, the history of reform in prisons was continued; and that we may give to our readers, if there are any of them who have not perused these Reports, an idea of the nature of the reform desired and pursued, and of the business-like yet interesting manner in which all these papers are written, we shall extract that part of it which relates to the prison in Charlestown. 'In Massachusetts, the New Prison was finished and occupied during the last year. A competent witness, on the spot, says, a greater change was produced in the behaviour of the convicts, in a few weeks after they entered the solitude of the New Prison, than had been produced by the combined influence of all the causes which had been brought to bear upon it during the preceding year and a half. Soon after the new building containing the dormitories was completed, a small building, containing an apartment for the accommodation of a Sabbath School, was erected, where about fifty convicts of the younger class are instructed, on the Sabbath, under the immediate superintendence of the Chaplain. 'The Legislature, at the last session, having witnessed the progressive improvement in this Institution, authorized the erection of a new chapel. This chapel was commenced in April, and finished and dedicated to the service of Almighty God, in May. It is a very convenient, economical, and pleasant place of worship. 'These improvements in the buildings at Charlestown are not more worthy of notice than the improvement in discipline. This will be apparent from a brief statement of facts concerning it, arranged according to the division of time. From the locking up at night till morning light, all the convicts, except an average of about five in the hospital, are in the new building, in separate cells, and in cells so arranged, that a sentinel, on duty, can preserve entire silence among three hundred. The space around the cells being open from the ground to the roof, in front of four stories of cells, in a building two hundred feet in length, furnishes a perfect sounding gallery, in which the sentinel is placed, who can |