SEPARATE SYSTEM AND PRISON DISCIPLINE. TO THE EDITOR OF THE
SPECTATOR.
London. September 1842.
Sin—Many persons, and in fact all persons who are acquainted with the working of what is called the moral discipline of the prisons of Great Britain, will hail with satisfaction the completion of the Model Prison about to be put into operation for the experiment or the Separate system on an improved plan of the Penitentiaries of the United States. It remains, however, to be seen whether the Penitentiary system is emphatically a mild and humane system, or whether it would not be more advantageous ultimately to do away with the ignominious death of strangulation, and abolish the demoralizing system of transportation as a secondary punishment, and adopt this improved system of discipline as the only effectual mode of attaining the true ends of punishment.
The Separate system does not appear to be rightly understood by a class of
persons who oppose it as incompatible with the rights of the criminal—opposed, too, in the face of acknowledged facts, standing on record in the United States, where solitary confinement has gained great repute, and has been introduced into the prisons of New Jersey, and into the county gaols in Pennsylvania and New York. The public mind has closely connected the idea of the Penitentiary system with the dark dungeons and the oppressive cruelty of the middle-ages. To assert that modified solitary confinement is harsh and op- pressive, dangerous to the health and body, or destructive of the sanity of the mind, is to affirm that which is contradicted by the experience of those who have been subjected to this discipline. The truth of this bold assertion has been triumphantly disproved by the fact that not a single instance of mental derangement has been caused by separate and solitary confinement under the present Pennsylvania system. What shall we say of that system of discipline which actually facilitates pri- soners of most abandoned characters to have intercourse with the young of- fender' and convey the most odious, mischievous, and abominable suggestions? Let itbe recollected that the society of a prison lends to vice and crime a moral support of incalculable strength. A single irreclaimable convict is able to taint the whole confederacy, to repress any rising thought of amendment, to sear the conscience, and to fix the wavering spirit in the ways of guilt. No system of inspection, no strictness of discipline. can prevent an understanding between convicts when they are allowed to be in each other's company. The principle or feeling of association still continuing, however strict the watch kept over them, stands in the way of every attempt at reformation.
We have long tried the effect of relaxation of discipline, of improved classifi-
cation, of associated labour; and what has been the result? Crimes have in- creased in number, and juvenile delinquency has rapidly spread. It is time to adopt some better plan. Let the experiment be made of the Separate system as exemplified in the Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia, which has proved to be productive of all the benefits which the most earnest and sanguine advo- cates for the improvement of prison-discipline have ever ventured to desire. The penitentiary system in the United States may be regarded as a proud monument of philanthropy. In this distinctive trait of elevated character the republic stands alone. She has always been distinguished for her charity to- wards the frailties of human nature, and her anxious solicitude to reform rather than to punish those who may have strayed from the path of rectitude. I direct the attention of those persons who oppose this improved mode of re- formation to the defective state of prison-discipline. The prominent features that have characterized our prisons for a number of years past, form a question which is but little understood, when every eff i
ort s attempted to be thwarted to ameliorate the condition of the criminal.
The criminal returns show an average of 124,000 offenders who annually pass through the gaols of England and Wales, comprising 225 prisons. We may safely estimate that 25,000 of these prisoners are females; 10,000 incarcerated for debt, whose treatment is not one jot better than their companions in crime, the poacher and the thief—for debt, from its humiliating punishment, is classed as a crime also; and 15,000 juvenile offenders, 1. e. prisoners under seventeen years of age. Crime still preponderates between the ages of sixteen and thirty. It is computed that considerably more than half the num- ber of offenders of every age, although less than one-third of the whole popula- tion, is between these ages.
The Criminal Calendars attest, that until the last thirty years, but a few young persons were to be found in the gaols in this country. In the year 1815, the extraordinary increase of juvenile offenders strongly arrested the public atten- tion. Hence the cause of the formation of the Society for the Prevention of Juvenile Delinquency; who report, that numbers of boys are in the habit of associating with professed thieves of mature age, and prostitutes, and of fre- quenting houses of infamous resort, where they planned their robberies, divided their plunder, and indulged in nearly every species of depravity.
The extent of juvenile offenders is perhaps the most deplorable feature in our criminal records; not merely in the ignorance and poverty of parents, and the consequent neglect of their offspring, but in a great measure in the cor- ruption produced by imprisonment itself. Our prisons, as at present conducted, contaminating as they are to adults, are still more ruinous to the mora's of the young. The offences for which juvenile delinquents are committed for trial consist almost entirely of those against property, in fact of thefts. The In- spectors report, that out of 2,356 committals, no fewer than 2,146 are included in the class of offences against property without violence ; and 1,669 are for simple larceny. The charges are often of the most trifling kind ; such as stealing an orange, a few apples, or two biscuits. At the Sessions of the Central Criminal Court, I observed a child only nine years of age sentenced to three months' imprisonment, on the charge of stealing a few ounces of acidu- lated drops. For such offences as these, a mere child suffers several weeks' incarceration before trial ; which only tends to harden the conscience and deprave the mind. Our Magistrates are in general well disposed to receive practical suggestions for the improvement of their respective prisons, and there is a fair field for the revision of the existing laws ; but I cannot help regarding their conduct as justly reprehensible in not disposing of petty cases in a sum- mary manner, instead of entailing upon counties the expense of prosecutions, and occupying the time of juries uselessly with such frivolous cases. It is now necessary to refer to the number of offenders who are punished for bvaches of the regulations of the prison ; it is calculated at 60,000 per annum ; while an average of 40,000 are punished with stoppage of diet. Such a practice is not consistent with the care which the state owes to the health of the pri- soner; and, according to the gaol-return, their diet is Is. 11d, per head per week, which miserable allowance is not in general too high. We ought to bear in mind, that in endeavouring to impart to our prisons all the usefulness and efficiency of which such establishments are capable, we bare no right to inflict on the prisoner while in custody any thing detrimental either in mind or body. "The convicted delinquent," says BUXTON, "has his rights; all measures and practices in prison that may injure him in any way are illegal, because they are' not specified in his sentence. He is, therefore, entitled to a wholesome atmosphere, decent clothing, and bedding, and a diet sufficient to support him." I have not the slightest doubt that the necessity of prison-labour has re- ceived from all who are engaged in the administration of the penal system a large share of attention ; but the views with which labour has hitherto been enforced, appear to me to be mischievous and erroneous. The prison, not sa- tisfied with releasing the most guilty from the prison-labour and regulations, actually raises him to a post of authority over his less guilty fellow, prisoners, there to exercise over them either the favouritism or petty tyranny in which his partiality or dislike may prompt him to indulge. The number sentenced to hard labour exceeds 100,000 per annum ; 30,000 of which are suffered to re- main in a state of idleness. Can any thing be conceived more detrimental to the criminal, both mentally and morally, than this subversion of all discipline— that total want of efficient officers to guide and control the prisoners and enforce employment, as provided by the provisions of the acts of 2 and 3 Victoria P "One of the most important duties," says Horror:, "is that you should not send forth the man committed to your tuition a less industrious man, a less sober, or a less competent man, than when he entered your walls. Good policy requires that, if possible, you should dismiss him improved." The total inadequacy of religious instruction in ourgaols is the most deplor- able feature of the system of prison-discipline. The great evil is, that no proper means are taken to provide the convicts Ishii the regular daily visits of a chap- lain. The Inspectors report, that twenty prisons in the most populated districts have no appointed chaplain, school, or schoolmaster; nor is there any provision made for the instruction of the prisoners, as required by the Gaol Acts of 4 George 1V. c. 64, sec. 10, rule 10. These prisons arc in the jurisdiction of the Magistrates and the Corporations of the cities and boroughs of Bedford, Read- ing, Abingdon, Windsor, St. Albans, Colchester, Halstead, Melton,* Newbury, Buckingham, Berkhampstead, Llitchin, Harwich, and Dover. According to the InspectorerReports, the average namber who can neither read nor write exceeds 40,000 per annum ; while upwards of 30,000 can only read and write imperfectly. Thus 70,000 of these offenders may be said to have been deprived of almost all moral aid from education. The Gaol Returns for the past years, of offenders who are in this state of ignorance, show an increase of nearly 3,000 per annum. This is a heavy responsibility, and a deep reproach to the state for having neglected the moral training and general welfare of so many of her children.
The whole tenour of the evidence upon the subject of prison-discipline uni- versally affirms the total and deplorable inadequacy of religious instruction, and proves that the greatest mischief proceeds from the intercourse which is per- mitted or imperfectly restrained in the several prisons in the kingdom. The comparatively innocent are seduced ; the unwary are entrapped; and the ten- dency to crime in offenders not entirely hardened is confirmed by the language, the suggestions, and the example of more depraved and systematic criminals. It will be seen distinctly, that the master evil is gaol-contamination. When the experiment is made or the example of the Separate system followed, of treating the criminal with wholesome severity which overlooks not his guilt, but at the same time with judgment and humanity, and the mass of our popu- lation shall receive adequate instruction, to impress them with a just sense of their duty towards God and towards their neighbour, and placed in a situation as to form habits of order and honesty, we may then, and not till then, anti- cipate the comparative disappearance of crime.
The defective state of prison-discipline attests the unfortunate mistakes which have been made in the mode of applying an efficacious cure to so wide- spread and mischievous an evil. We must persevere in denouncing this grievance to our fellow citizens until the public voice combines with them to
• In these prisons there are no regulations for their government, no register or ac- count book, nor any journal to record the punishments f.r prison offences, as provided by the Gaol Act.
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