I4S Basil Hall's Account of the Penitentiary 



all work is discontinued ; the prisoners again form themselves 

 into a close line under their turnkey, and when the order is 

 given to march, they return hack to their cells. Each one 

 now stops before his door, with his hands by his side, motion- 

 less and silent like a statue, till directed by a signal to stoop 

 down for his breakfast, which has been previously placed for 

 him on the floor of the gallery. They next turn about, and 

 march in, after which the iron doors of their cells are locked 

 upon them, while they take their comfortless meal in solitude. 

 At Auburn, where this system was first put in operation, it 

 was the practice, at the time of my visit, to allow the 

 prisoners to eat their meals in company. But experience 

 having shown that even this degree of sociability, trifling as 

 it was, did some harm, and that much good was gained by 

 compelling them to mess alone, the plan above described has,. 

 I believe, been introduced in all the other similar establish- 

 ments in America, of which I am glad to say there are now 

 a great many. 



After twenty minutes have elapsed, the prisoners are 

 marched to their work ; which goes on in the same uninter- 

 rupted style till noon, when they are paraded once more to 

 their cells, where they take their lock-up, unsociable dinner^ 

 and then pace back again to their dull silent round of hard 

 labour. On the approach of night, the prisoners are made to 

 wash their hands and faces, as they did in the morning on 

 leaving their cells, and then, as before, at the sound of the 

 yard-bell, to form themselves into lines, each one standing in 

 order according to the number of his night's quarters. As 

 they pass through the yard they take up their cans and tubs, 

 and proceed finally for this day to their cell doors, where 

 their supper of mush and molasses, a preparation of Indian 

 corn meal, awaits them as before. At a fixed hour they are 

 directed by a bell to undress and go to bed ; but. just before 

 this, and as nearly at sunset as may be, prayers are said by 

 the resident clergyman. It is very important to know from 

 the best qualified local authorities, that the efficacy of this 

 practice, considered as a branch of the prison discipline, and 

 independently of its other valuable consideration, has been 

 found very great. 



Captain Lynds, the superintendent at Sing Sing, and the 

 gentleman who is, I believe, universally admitted to have the 

 greatest share of the merit which belongs to the first practical 

 application of this system, is decidedly of opinion that it is 

 not and never can be complete, unless there be a clergyman 

 permanently attached to the establishment, whose exclusive 

 fluty it shall be to attend to the prisoners. Indeed he told 

 me himself, that he had originally taken the opposite line, 

 from a belief that this division of authority with a st. : 



