THE NEW REFORM IN CORRECTIONAL DISCIPLINE.
A REALLY important move in correctional discipline has been effected at Birmingham, by Mr. MATTHEW HILL, according to a plan which he learned from some benevolent Magistrates at War- wick. The plan is, to induce the employers of young persons con- victed of offences to take back their erring servants after the expiry of their sentence. Since Mr. HILL has been Recorder of Birming- ham he has acted on that plan; and the result, as he states with great moderation, if not absolutely satisfactory, is encouraging : in about two-thirds of the number of cases it has been eminently suc- cessful; and so many youths, who under the old system would have been lost, are recovered to themselves and to society. Forti- fied by that practical success, the excellent Recorder urged his townsmen to erect the plan into a general custom of the place ; and they have concurred. This is so far an adoption of what we con- ceive to be the sound principle of correctional discipline, and so far it is a departure from the principle of retributive punishment, the source of so much embarrassment in the existing system. It has succeeded ; it is popularly adopted ; and we shall see its working after it is the avowed custom. Many would fear lest by removing from punishment some of its worst terrors, and seeming to extend some degree of impunity to crime, it might act as a premium to misconduct : and certainly, if the principle of retributive punish- ment were sound, the fear would be justified. If the plan succeed after its avowal mitigates the "terror" of punishment, it must greatly shake the prejudices in favour of the old principle. What are the objects of punishment ? Some persons, judging of possibilities by past results, are content with very humble ob- jects indeed ; but the most desirable are, so to alter the will of the offender as to prevent his repetition of the offence, and so to alter the will of others under the influence of the same erring disposition as to prevent their commission of the offence. Correctional disci- pline is supplementary to education : if people were better edu- cated—better trained, so much the less punishment would be needed : but the object of both is the same—to make people do right. If, departing from the empirical course of random experi- ment which has characterized correctional discipline, we were to consider, a priori, from the contemplation of human nature, what would be the most likely method of producing the desired influence
on the will, it is improbable that any but superficial thinkers would hit upon the principle that has hitherto been received. We should probably judge that to act upon the fears of the trespasser was a very imperfect mode of influencing him for good, quite as likely to arouse a wild courage and bad perverse passions as discretion. It is true that most intelligent thinkers now admit the folly of all punishment in a vindictive sense ; but still, discarding revenge as felt by the inflicter, they retain retribution as felt by the subject of punishment. Punishment is ordinarily regarded as penalty for past transgressions, used as a deterring example for the future : he who is disposed to transgress is to be frightened away from his temptation by the fear of an imprisonment which be has seen another suffer for yielding to the like temptation. This, however, is a very im- perfect form of example. If he who is disposed to transgress were to see that another transgressor was subjected to a discipline not only irksome in itself but having the effect of making the trans- gressor subsequently averse from the same trespass, he would be much more apt to jump to the conclusion, that as the frustration of his will is finally inevitable, it is better to avoid the irksome process of correction and to stand corrected at once. Not that the con- elusion would be matter of nice calculation, for your criminal is not a reflective person ; but the mind is unconsciously swayed by what it sees others forced to obey. Disappointed at the bad results of present systems, people are inclined to give up the reformation of the criminal himself as hopeless ; as if the means of reformation hitherto tried were so perfect as to justify any such casting-away of humanity ! But what should be predicted of the infliction of a penalty for past transgression, when the past too proverbially cannot be recalled ? What, but that it would provoke bitterness, listless despair, passions the very reverse of that hopeful, cheerful exercise of healthy will which is the beginning of all real amendment ? For it seems to be forgotten that it is alone by and through the will of the criminal himself that he can be reformed. His will must, at the outset, be quite baffled, if the punishment be one fixed, and not to be avoided or mitigated in any presently sensible degree by his own con- duct. Such must be the effect of all fixed penalties for past transgressions. But, say that the correctional discipline is used as a means of compulsion for the future, and avowedly so applied to the transgressor : now the whole moral effect of the discipline is changed ; it does not relate to something that can no longer be done or undone, but to that which is altogether to be done or avoided; • there is an alternative--the irksome discipline or compli- ance with the dictates of authority. If the criminal yield, the example is complete. To assume that he is uncured, is to deny the efficacy of the discipline ; and therefore it is necessary to cap the process by assuming that the quondam criminal is no longer criminal, and letting him start fair, that defect in his education having been supplied. Mr. HILL'S is an imperfect form of the pro- cess here recommended ; for, by introducing the ingredient of hope, he has given to discipline a prospective instead of a retrospective bearing; and we see how encouraging is his success. Perhaps if the correctional discipline had been more perfectly converted to a means of compulsion for the future, the success might have been more perfect.
We have an analogy in the treatment of the unhealthy body. The physician does not administer physic for the past disease : if he discovers that the patient had a fever last year, but kept it secret at the time, he does not now administer the mass of physic which would then have been due ; but he regards existing disease alone, and that only as the symptom and index of what is neces- sary to restore the body to health. And he has no fixed dose, no set penalty for the disease, which must be inflicted whatever occur: far from it, the state of the patient while under treatment modifies the regimen, and cordial fostering succeeds to rigorous depletion. So with the criminal : under the regimen of the cor- rector, he should feel how his own conduct influences his condition for better or for worse ; and in the slight relaxation of present rigour, following mechanically upon his own improved demeanour, should be made to feel the earnest of that full immunity which vir- tuous conduct secures. Children and imperfectly-educated people understand things and deeds better than verbal precept. We have even in the law some slight, and indeed not very happily applied, use of discipline as a means of prospective compulsion instead of retro- spective penalty, in imprisonment for debt : when the debt is paid the debtor is free.
It is time that principles should at least be considered in the supplementary branch of social education ; and, without insisting on the adoption of those recommended, we may at least desire that they should be examined with others. Mr. HILL'S improvement in the practice at Birmingham is a great step towards the intro- duction of principles into correctional discipline. He would bestow an inestimable service on his country, if he would turn his humane and discriminating mind, and the opportunities of his station, to further account, in considering whether the system cannot be re- formed altogether.
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