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soner daily, and one pint of good gruel for breakfast, and upon good behaviour half a pound of meat on a Sunday.

21. That proper scales, weights, and measures should be provided in the gaol.

22. A messenger to be appointed for the accommodation of the debtors.

‘23. A laundry, and a matron under whose directious the female prisoners should do all the washing.

24. A bell to be fixed for sounding alarms in cases of escape.

25. The chaplain to keep a diary of observations, subject to the inspection of the visiting magistrates. He should read prayers, and preach a sermon every Sunday morning, and read prayers in the evening, and also read prayers every Wednesday and Friday. He should visit the sick, instruct prisoners in their moral duties, give spiritual advice, and religious consolation to such as may desire it. He should distribute amongst them religious books, and form a sort of school for the instruction of the children.'-Buxton, p. 61-64.

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subdued, civil, submissive, and decent throughout-their persons cleanly, and their looks cheerful-all the rooms clean and sweet. By this excellent system,' says Mr. Buxton, the prisoner gains habits of order, self-restraint, and subjection of mind. The most boisterous tempest is not more distinct from the serenity of a summer's evening; the wildest beast of prey is not more different from our domesticated animals, than are the noise, contention, licentiousness, and tumult of Newgate, from the quietness, industry, and regularity of the Maison de Force.

In the prison of Philadelphia, where the great features of discipline are distribution, employment, and religious instruction, the effects are still more impressive. Mr. Turnbull, speaking of the various trades carried on in the prison, of blacksmith, carpenter, turner, shoemaker, tailor, weavers of cloth, linen, and carpeting, grinding of corn, sawing and polishing marble, cutting stone, and rasping logwood, observes, that there was such a spirit of industry on every side, and such contentment pervaded the countenances of all, that it was with difficulty Among the creditable exceptions to the neg- he divested himself of the idea that these men lected state of our prisons at this period stood surely were not convicts, but accustomed to the gaol of Bury; where the benefits of a simple labor from their infancy.' 'An account is opened mechanical, as well as moral arrangement, have with every prisoner; he is debited with the been practically and decisively displayed for amount of the sum stolen, or embezzled, with many years; and, connected with which, the the expenses of his prosecution, with the fine name of Mr. Orridge, the governor, will long be imposed by the court, with the cost of his board mentioned with honor. The facts, as Mr. Bux- and clothes; and he is credited with the produce ton observes, will speak for themselves:-and of his labor.' All the dress, every mattress, the writer of this paper has verified them. No sheet, rug, and coverlid, is woven by the male, prisoner, at the time of Mr. B's visit, was ill; in and made up by the female prisoners. All eighteen years but one prisoner had escaped; in laughing, singing, and conversation, during the every 100 of the prisoners not five were found hours of work, are prohibited; and the silence who had been there before; never any riots, or which is observed is the first and most striking quarelling, or swearing. Yet, for twenty years, circumstance which arrests the attention of a Mr. Orridge informed us he had never used irons stranger. Great attention is paid to the promoin this prison. tion of moral and religious improvement by a supply of useful books, and by the regular performance of divine service. No keeper is permitted to carry a stick, or any offensive weapon. No fetters or irons are seen in the prison, the punishment is solitude, and no instance has occurred of its being necessary to inflict it upon the same person twice. In the four years preceding the commencement of the new system 104 prisoners escaped in the four succeeding (except on the day of its establishment) not one escaped.

The researches of the modern advocates of prison reform have not, as we have intimated, been confined to their own country.-At the Maison de Force, at Ghent, the same practical testimony is borne to the good effects of a sound system of gaol discipline. Here was observed by Mr. Buxton an entire separation of men from women, the sickly from the healthy, the untried from the convicted, and the misdemeanants from the felons. The building, being yet unfinished, does not admit of more subdivisions of classes, which certainly might be carried farther, and probably will when the capacity of the structure will admit of it. A very important feature of the system of classification is that of children from men and women; and in general it may be observed that the division into classes should have reference to moral as well as technical distinctions. The utmost order and regularity were found to prevail in this prison. While at work, no prisoner was allowed to speak; and so strictly was the rule observed that the questions put to them by Mr. Buxton were not answered. No noise but the noise of the shuttle. Corporal punishment, formerly allowed, was then dispensed with, because, as the governor stated, it was found to be unnecessary. The penalty was privation of work. The behaviour of the prisoners was

Under the old system the number of the most heinous crimes committed in the city and county from January, 1787, to June, 1791, was 129. Under the new system in the whole state, during the same period, twenty-four. At the time of the yellow fever, in 1793, great difficulty was found in obtaining nurses and attendants for the sick at Bush-hill hospital. Recourse was had to the prison. The request was made, and the apparent danger stated to the convicts. As many offered as were wanted. They continued faithful till the dreadful scene was closed-none of them making a demand for their services till all were discharged.

'One man committed for a burglary, who had seven years to serve, observed, when the request was made to him, that having offended society

he should be happy to render it some services for the injury; and, if they could only place a confidence in him, he would go with cheerfulness. He went he never left it but once, and then by permission to obtain some articles in the city. His conduct was so remarkable as to engage the attention of the managers, who made him a deputy-steward; gave him the charge of the doors, to prevent improper persons from going into the hospital, to preserve order in and about the house, and to see that nothing came to or went from it improperly. He was paid, and after receiving an extra compensation, at his discharge married one of the nurses. Another man, convicted of a robbery, was aken out for the purpose of attending a horse and cart, to bring such provisions from the vicinity of the city as were there deposited for the use of the poor, by those who were afraid to come in. He had the sole charge of the cart and conveying the articles for the whole period. He had many years to serve, and might at any time have departed with the horse, cart, and provisions. He despised, however, such a breach of trust, and returned to the prison. He was soon after pardoned, with the thanks of the inspectors. Another instance of the good conduct of the prisoners during the sickness happened among the women. When request was made to them to give up their bedsteads, for the use of the sick at the hospital, they cheerfully offered even their bedding, &c. When a similar request was made to the debtors, they all refused. A criminal, one of the desperate gangs that had so long infested the vicinity of Philadelphia, for several years before the alteration of the system, on being discharged, called upon one of the inspectors, and addressed him in the following manner: Mr.

I have called to return you my thanks for your kindness to me while under sentence, and to perform a duty which I think I owe to society, it being all in my power at this time to afford. You know my conduct and my character have been once bad and lost, and therefore whatever I might say would have but little weight were I not now at liberty. Pursue your present plan and you will have neither burglaries nor robberies in this place.'

Of the very deplorable state of the females in Newgate before Mrs. Fry's well-known visits no one can be ignorant; of the change produced by the Bible, a school, and constant employment, among these desolate and vicious beings in a short compass of time, it is difficult to form an adequate conception. At the first visit, says a young lady who accompanied Mrs. Fry, and who related the circumstances to Mr. Buxton, 'the railing was crowded with half-naked women, struggling together for the front situations with the most boisterous violence, and begging with the utmost vociferation. She felt as if she was going into a den of wild beasts, and she well recollects quite shuddering when the door closed upon her, and she was locked in, with such a herd of novel and desperate companions. This day, however, the school surpassed their utmost expectations; their only pain arose from the numerous and pressing applications made by young women, who longed to be taught and em

ployed. The narrowness of the room rendered it impossible to yield to these requests, whilst a denial seemed a sentence of destruction, excluding every hope, and almost every possibility of reformation.'-p. 122.

The visits of these ladies were incessant. They often spent the whole day in the conduct of this extraordinary school, joining in the employment, sharing the meals, and engaged in the inspection of their pupils. The first experiment was upon the untried part of the prisoners, and the success with which it was attended encouraged an extension of the scheme to those who had undergone their trials, and the inauguration of this great undertaking is thus set forth by Mr. Buxton :- Nothing now remained but to prepare the room; and this difficulty was obviated by the sheriffs sending their carpenters. The former laundry speedily underwent the necessary alterations-was cleaned and white-washed-and in a very few days the Ladies' Committee assembled in it all the tried female prisoners. One of the ladies began by telling them the comforts derived from industry and sobriety, the pleasure and the profit of doing right, and contrasted the happiness and the peace of those who are dedicated to a course of virtue and religion, with that experienced in their former life, and its present consequences; and, describing their awful guilt in the sight of God, appealed to themselves, whether its wages, even here, were not utter misery and ruin. She then dwelt upon the motives which had brought the ladies into Newgate; they had left their homes and their families, to mingle amongst those from whom all others fled; animated by an ardent and affectionate desire to rescue their fellow-creatures from evil, and to impart to them that knowledge which they, from their education and circumstances, had been so happy as to receive. She then told them that the ladies did not come with any absolute and authoritative pretensions; that it was not intended they should command, and the prisoners obey; but that it was to be understood, all were to act in concert; that not a rule should be made, or a monitor appointed, without their full and unanimous concurrence; that for this purpose each of the rules should be read, and put to the vote; and she invited those who might feel any disinclination to any particular freely to state their opinion'-Buxton, p. 127, 128. The rules were then read, and every hand was held up in testimony of approbation.

At the date of Mr. Buxton's book a year had elapsed since this labor of love had been in operation, and it is surely enough to state that 'only one lady had in all that time heard an oath ; that though card-playing had in some instances been resumed, and about half a dozen instances of intoxication had occurred, the rules had been generally observed; that the ladies had been treated with uniform respect and gratitude; that they had reason to rejoice in the improved conduct, and, as they trust, in the confirmed moral habits of the prisoners; several had received the rudiments of education, and had learned for the first time the truth of the Christian religion; many had left the prison: who were them filling their stations in life uprightly and respectably. Only

one discharged from the prison had been again committed for a transgression of the law.' The five golden rules of which the plan of this proceeding was composed were:

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1st. Religious instruction,'-perusal of the Scriptures morning and evening. They have found the prisoners remarkably ignorant of the first principles of Christianity, and they have reason to think that a prison, in excluding many objects of worldly interest, occupation, and pleasure, and in the pause which it produces in the career of life, and in the apprehensions it sometimes excites, is well calculated for the inculcation of religious impressions.

2dly, Constant employment is a grand and an indispensable requisite in the reformation of a prison. They would feel themselves totally incompetent to restrain the passions of this unruly race, if their minds were not engaged in useful and active objects.

3dly, Rules simple and lenient, but rigidly enforced, and, if possible, the concurrence of the prisoners in their formation.

4thly, Classification and separation to the greatest possible extent.

5thly, They recommend that prisoners should be treated as human beings, with human feelings; with that disinterested kindness which will engage their affections; yet as human beings degraded by crime-with that degree of restraint, and with those symbols of degradation, which may recal a sense of their guilt, and humble their pride.'-Buxton, p. 139.

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Of the success of Mrs. Fry and her associates it was well said at the time: Let us hear no more of the difficulty of regulating provincial prisons, when the prostitute felons of London have been thus easily reformed and converted. Let us never again be told of the impossibility of repressing drunkenness and profligacy, or introducing habits of industry in small establishments, when this great crater of vice and corruption has been thus stilled and purified. And above all let there be an end of the pitiful apology of the want of funds, or means, or agents, to effect those easier improvements, when women from the middle ranks of life-when quiet unassuming matrons, unaccustomed to business, or to any but domestic exertion, have, without funds, without agents, without aid or encouragement of any description, trusted themselves within the very centre of infection and despair, and, by opening their hearts only, and not their purses, have effected, by the mere force of kindness, gentleness, and compassion, a labor, the like to which does not remain to be performed, and which has smoothed the way, and ensured success, to all similar labors. We cannot envy the happiness which Mrs. Fry must enjoy from the consciousness of her own great achievements;but there is no happiness or honor of which we should be so proud to be partakers: And we seem to relieve our own hearts of their share of national gratitude in thus placing on her simple and modest brow that truly civic crown, which far outshines the laurels of conquest, or the coronals of power-and can only be outshone itself by those wreaths of imperishable glory which await the champions of faith and charity in a

higher state of existence.'-Edinburgh Review, September, 1818.

We have been detained longer than we anicipated by the topics of Mr. Buxton's admirable volume; but they have enabled us to bring the great facts and elements of the subject before the reader.

Looking more at large into the subject, we shall find our English law to recognise from the earliest periods three great classes of prisonersthe debtor, the accused criminal, and the convicted criminal. It is clear that the imprisonment of each proceeds upon totally different principles, and there are even subdivisions of these classes of some importance. We imprison the man suspected of crime,for instance solely to secure his appearance on the day appointed for trial; it is matter of necessity, and the law has therefore only recourse to it where no adequate substitute by way of security can be provided; for, under the imputation of the heaviest crimes, it lodges a power with its higher officers of estimating and accepting such substitute. It is agreed, says Blackstone, that the Court of King's Bench, or any judge thereof in time of vacation, may bail for any crime whatsoever, be it treason, murder, or any other offence, according to the circumstances of the case. 4 Com. p. 299. We imprison the convict for punishment; and the debtor in execution partly for punishment of the fraud which he is presumed or proved to have committed on his creditor, and partly as a mode of compelling him to produce or render available for the discharge of his debts that property which cannot be directly reached. Though, however, the objects which the law has in view, in these three cases of imprisonment, are thus various, and though the duties which are incurred in consequence toward the unhappy subjects of it will naturally have proportionate varieties, yet in some respects they will be entirely the same; certain things are proper, certain things necessary in every prison, and for every prisoner.

In the first place a universal requisite is security; an insecure prison is a solecism in terms; on this point it would not be necessary to say a word, if all people were as well agreed in respect of the means as of the end. The ancient practice was to rely more upon fetters and manacles, than the walls of the prison or the vigilance of the gaoler; but the new prison bill enacts that no prisoner shall be put in irons by the keeper of any prison except in cases of urgent and absolute necessity, and the particulars of every such case shall be forthwith entered in the keeper's journal, and notice forthwith given thereof to one of the visiting justices; and the keeper shall not continue the use of irons on any prisoner longer than four days, without an order in writing from a visiting justice specifying the cause thereof.'-s. x. reg. 12. No one can doubt the propriety of such a regulation-we are satisfied that fettering the debtor or the accused criminal as a matter of course was always illegal ; how far it stood within the protection of the law in the case of the convict seems not so clear. The common argument, that it is unlawful to exceed the terms of a sentence, and that a sentence of imprisonment says nothing of fetters, proves

nothing; the sentence says nothing of many other prison privations, the legality of which cannot be doubted; it is general in its terms, and includes every circumstance which goes to make up the idea of legal imprisonment, so that the question always comes round to what is legal imprisonment. Waiving, however, a legal discussion, which the statute just cited renders unnecessary, we agree with the warmest opposers of the practice that it was always inexpedient to iron even the convict, unless his own refractoriness or desperation made it necessary. Observation too will warrant us in going a step farther, and expressing an opinion that the frequent necessity for the use of fetters almost amounts to proof of some mismanagement in the prison in which it shall exist. It is not the least merit in the prison bill that, by the restrictions imposed on the use of them, greater care and more skilful management become necessary on the part of governors of prisons.

The next requisite of all prisons clearly is that they should be healthy and clean. Air and exercise, food and clothes such as are necessary for the sustentation of health, together with medicine and attendance when sick, stand upon the same principle; except in that short and awful interval which precedes execution, and which is spent in preparation for it, there can be no time or circumstance under which any prisoner may not demand all those things which are ordinarily necessary for the preservation of life. We are aware that, in some of these last particulars, we may be thought to push the claims of the prisoner farther than justice requires; there are those who deny in the whole any claim of right which he can set up to food, clothing or lodging, and others who, admitting the abstract right, would yet practically reduce the quantity and quality below the scale implied in our remarks. It is more difficult to decide, whether, in particular instances, the introduction of more generous food or greater comforts should be allowed according to other considerations than those of health; in other words, whether the ability of the party to purchase, or his industry and good behaviour, should procure him luxuries denied to his fellow-prisoners in general. There is long practice, and high authority in the favor of the affirmative; with regard to debtors, it is, we believe, universally allowed to them to procure from without any food or liquor, subject only to certain prohibitions and regulations; and as to prisoners who labor, it has long been the custom, in some of our best regulated prisons, to stimulate industry by allowing a portion of the profits earned by the prisoner to be spent by him in this way.

The prison bill steers a middle course, allowing the introduction of food, not extravagant or luxurious, to debtors, or accused criminals, who receive no allowance from the county; and prohibiting it in the case of convicts, except under the permission of the visiting justices, or the regulations of the quarter-sessions. -s. x. reg. 14 and 15. Mr. Holford asserts that, the prisoners whose labor is most productive in the Penitentiary at Millbank, are not those whose behaviour entitles them to most conside

ration, or of whose eventual restoration with credit to society the chaplain entertains the most favorable expectation.' p. 53. It is obvious, indeed, that the system of allowing them in all cases a participation in the fruit of their labors, must be unfavorable in many respects to the reformation of prisoners; its tendency being to confirm in the habit of looking to immediate self-indulgence, as the motive for action, men who have already found that motive too strong for their prudence or their conscience. Such a system seems to us to be founded upon a mistaken view of many of the objects of imprisonment. Howard found one great evil of our prisons to be a total want of employment, and he described in very fascinating colors the appearance which those presented in which the prisoners were fully employed. Undoubtedly a salutary change was produced-the giving all prisoners an opportunity of working, and compelling some to work, were among the most efficient causes of the great improvement which has taken place in our prisons; but it is to mistake the means for the end, when prisons are estimated by the cheerful activity of the laborers, and the quantity of productive labor within their walls. A prison ought still to be a place of terror to those without, of punishment to those within; let us reform criminals if we can-it is a great and glorious object, uncertain in the result, but imperative in the obligation. Punishment, however, is certain; and it is one mode of punishment, severely felt by those who have led a life of self-indulgence, but unattended with any cruelty, to tie them down to a coarse, uniform diet. Two exceptions may be urged: we may be asked whether we would extend the rule to persons of the higher ranks of life, and convicted of offences such as libel, provocations to duel, &c., which ordinarily are understood to carry with them less of moral turpitude. We confess that we can see no reason for not carrying the rule so far; the health of the party must of course always be the first object, and it would be for the medical attendant to see that no change of habit was made so violent in its nature as to affect it; but rank or education ought not to lighten punishment; if they make the feelings more susceptible to an equal infliction, it must be remembered also that the moral restraint and social obligation were stronger, and that the violation of them merits a severer suffering. The case of debtors.also may be here pressed; but, health being secured, we cannot say that there appears to us any injustice in subjecting them also to the mortification of their appetite. Every debtor in execution either can or cannot pay his creditor; if he can, and will not, preferring to spend in self-indulgence the substance which in truth belongs to his creditor, it is well that he should be prevented from gratifying so unjust a desire; if he cannot, then he is supposed to be in a state of destitution, and the prison allowance must be a relief to him.

We have been induced, from the importance of the subject, to hazard some repetition, after our extract from Mr. Buxton with regard to these rights of prisoners. But, waiving many minor, yet important considerations, such as the difficult of preserving uniform discipline, or

consistent details in a prison, in which the prisoners are allowed a different scale of diet, varying according to their own fancies, we come to these conclusions-that all have a right to be fed, and that all should be confined to the same prison allowance, qualifying the rule in individual cases according to the directions of the medical officer of the prison; and, if any other variation be allowed, we should prefer the indulgence being granted as the reward of orderly behaviour, to the regulating it by the amount of the prisoner's earning.

The prisoner, of whatever description, has further claims to be protected from the corruption of bad society, and to be afforded an opportunity of performing uninterruptedly his religious duties.

Upon this head, of religious instruction and attendance, the prison bill has made a most important improvement in our criminal law. The duties of the chaplain are marked out with fulness and precision; the inmates of a gaol require, and they will henceforward receive, even more minute and constant attendance than the poor of the most favored parishes. He is made one of the most responsible and important officers of the prison; his salary is regulated, not extravagantly and yet liberally, with reference to the number of prisoners; a pension is provided for him in case of sickness, age, or infirmity; and the situation may be now made to present, if the magistracy are disposed to act in hearty accordance with the legislature, which we do not doubt, an ample, and not undesirable field for the exertion of zeal and talent in the Christian ministry. We have now stated, though not so concisely as we could have wished, the claims which we conceive prisoners of every description seem to us to have on the country: on the other hand, the rights which the country has over the inmates of its prisons will vary with the causes which place them there; but there are certain general powers which it may justly exercise in all cases.

It has a right to general order and decency within the prison; and for this purpose it may enforce proper discipline on every individual, and reasonably punish the breach of it. For the same purpose, it may regulate the prison hours, and the mode of employment of all the prisoners, even of those whom it has no power of compelling to labor, restricting it to such kinds of work as may be fittingly and wholesomely carried on within the walls, directing the sale of the produce, and apportioning the earnings in such manner as may best accord with the regulations of the place; it has a right to restrain the intercourse of the prisoners with each other, and to exercise an entire control over the visits of friends from without.

This last is a matter of importance, and of some difficulty; on the one hand, to deny even to the convicted prisoner all intercourse with his family and friends is not merely a measure of great severity, requiring some clear advantage as its justification, but, in our opinion, is to throw away a powerful mean, under proper regulations, of encouragement and moral improvement; on the other hand, it cannot be doubted that great injury is done to the discipline of the prison, and

to the public, by an indiscriminate admission of visitors. A prison whose gates are perpetually admitting idle spectators will necessarily lose half its terrors. Those salutary ideas of loathsomeness and misery which men associate with a gaol, and which naturally tend to the prevention of crime, cannot fail to be much weakened by a sight of the cleanliness and order, the decent apparel and seeming comfort, which are found within the walls; men commonly judge from what they see, and make little account of what they do not see, the solitude and wearisomeness, the hard fare and hard labor of the prisoners. They will therefore leave the prison, believing that the sufferings of confinement have been exaggerated; and what they believe they may act upon; or at least they will eagerly circulate the statement.

The notion of a fee on admission is rather strange to our feelings, but we take for granted that that is not the only requisite. The regulations of the Prison Bill, as we understand them, put the matter on the right footing; prisoners only committed for trial are to receive visits at proper times and under proper restrictions, settled by the governor, or visiting justices; and convicts only under such rules and regulations as may be determined on at the quarter-sessions.

In this part of our subject one more topic remains to be discussed, but of great importance, the employment of the prisoners. It is obvious that this can have reference only to those who are confined upon suspicion, or for punishment of crimes; but with regard to each of these classes great difference of opinion prevails as to the principle and the mode of enforcing it. The law and common sense agree in making a wide distinction between prison employment and hard labor. The former is undoubtedly desirable for all prisoners, and every proper and rational inducement should be held out to them to engage in it-inducements which experience warrants us in saying will scarcely ever fail of success. It is a question, however, to which late circumstances have attached some consequence, whether there is any legal power, directly or indirectly, to compel persons, either untried or sentenced simply to imprisonment, to labor. The general practice, we believe, varies much in this respect between these two classes; in a great, perhaps the greater number of prisons, in which the reformation of the prisoner is attempted, a convict sentenced to imprisonment only is directly or indirectly compelled to work as a part of prison discipline; but in scarcely any is the same rule observed with regard to persons only committed for trial. It would be as difficult, perhaps, to find a direct authority in law for compelling the convict to work as the untried prisoner; but many of the reasons which apply with great cogency against compulsion on the latter certainly do not exist in respect of the former. Where a man has been proved guilty of a crime against society, for which it is thought necessary to punish him by seclusion, society has a right to subject him to such discipline as may be thought likely to make him harmless to her interests when he shall be restored to liberty: this would warrant direct compulsion. And, as to the indirect compulsion of withholding

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