PRISONS 



425 



seek for means of earning an honest livelihood with 

 all the disadvantages which his connection and 

 imprisonment obviously entail upon him. The 

 first statutory recognition thcit it was right and 

 expedient to make some provision for prisoners on 

 discharge was in 32 Geo. III. chap. 45, by which 

 justices might convey any such person by pass 

 back to his parish ; anil at the opening of the 

 chapel of the New House of Correction for Middle- 

 sex, the chaplain, the Rev. Samuel Glasse, pointed 

 out that, the discipline and training of the prison 

 having it might be hoped supplanted the prisoners' 

 habits of idleness and profligacy by habits of indus- 

 try, the magistrates might be able to speak of them 

 according to their merit or demerit to the parish 

 officers. He observed, however, that this would not 

 provide for the cases of Irish delinquents who had no 

 settlement in the United Kingdom, but who were 

 not few in number, as indeed they are not at this 

 present day, when they furnish to British gaols an 

 entirely disproportionate number of inmates. He 

 thus showed the necessity for doing what in more 

 recent times has been undertaken by societies for 

 the aid of discharged prisoners. In 1823 the Gaol 

 Act enabled a moderate sum of money to be paid 

 for the benefit of discharged prisoners out of the 

 rates, or from public benefactions belonging to the 

 gaol, in order that they might resort to any place 

 of employment or honest occupation. In 1862 

 societies for the aid of discharged prisoners received 

 statutory recognition, and the money awarded by 

 the justices for the assistance of any prisoner, to 

 an amount not exceeding 2 per head, might be 

 handed over to these societies for their benefit. 

 This act was obviously a recognition of societies 

 which already existea, but it afforded a great 

 stimulus to the formation of others. The earliest 

 of the existing societies, according to the list pub- 

 lished by the Reformatory and Refuge Union, was 

 the Hampshire Society, which dates from 1802 ; 

 Dalston Female Refuge dates from 1805 ; the 

 Sheriffs' Fund, which deals with City cases, from 

 1807. When the prisons were handed over to the 

 government in 1878 there were about 30 discharged 

 prisoners' aid societies acting in connection with 

 the prisons, then 113 in number, and still number- 

 ing 66, even after the reduction which took place 

 in the first two years. 



The transfer of all prisons to the government in 

 1878 had a most important effect in adding to the 

 number of those societies. The Prisons Act had 

 been passed partly to ensure uniformity of treat- 

 ment of prisoners in all localities, and those who 

 advocated the claims of the discharged prisoner 

 were not slow to perceive that the same principle 

 might be made to apply to the system of helping 

 them to obtain honest employment on completion 

 of their sentence ; and, further, that the difficulty 

 they had met with in inducing many of the local 

 authorities to provide funds, or in raising private 

 subscriptions, might be overcome, now that the 

 government was responsible, because they were 

 virtually bound to continue the grants which had 

 been made by many local authorities, and could 

 not refuse to make similar grants in places where 

 the local authorities had hitherto failed to do so. 

 In connection with this the Commissioners of 

 Prisons took action with a view to securing the 

 proper appropriation to this purpose of many 

 charities and benefactions devoted in former times 

 to the assistance of prisoners, but the exact objects 

 of which were no longer applicable to existing cir- 

 cumstances. These funds were more or less within 

 the cognisance of the Charity Commissioners, and 

 some of the largest of them had already been 

 diverted to objects quite disconnected from prisons 

 or prisoners ; out by means of an act passed in 1882 

 steps were taken by which most of these funds have 



been appropriated for the benefit of discharged 

 prisoners through the agency of the above-named 

 societies. The government makes to each society 

 a grant each year proportioned to the number of 

 prisoners to be relieved, in supplement of any of 

 their charitable funds ; but, as it is necessary to the 

 object of the society and of its work that local aid 

 and local interest should be excited in the work, it is 

 made a condition that private subscriptions should 

 be given at least equal in amount to the sum the 

 government are prepared to allow. Besides the 

 grant of money handed over directly to the society, 

 the gratuity earned by a prisoner during his sen- 

 tence may be paid him through the agency of the 

 society, who thus have command over all the funds 

 availaole for setting the prisoner out again in a 

 fresh career, and can take care that it is not wasted 

 in the indulgence to which a man or woman is 

 naturally tempted on first release from the restraint 

 and privation of prison life. The result of this 

 encouragement has been that there are now seventy- 

 three societies in active operation in England, 

 besides many homes and refuges chiefly devoted 

 to helping women. There are nine discharged 

 prisoners' aid societies in Scotland, and only three 

 in Ireland. It is difficult, of course, to exhibit by 

 any precise statement the results attained by these 

 societies, but there can be no sort of doubt that 

 they do admirable work. It is not, however, by 

 any means those who spend most money who 

 produce the best results. Money, no doubt, is an 

 absolute necessity, but what is even more import- 

 ant is personal care and interest in the person who 

 has fallen into crime, perhaps from weakness of 

 character, from bad bringing up, from misfortune, 

 from evil connections, or whatever the cause may 

 be, and who, after the experience of prison life and 

 the teaching he has received, may desire to enter 

 upon a new career. 



United States. In the early part of the 19th cen- 

 tury the most advanced examples of prison discip- 

 line and construction were to be found in the United 

 States, and although in the second half of the 

 century this prominent position has not been main- 

 tained, the importanceof the improvements initiated 

 in America cannot be forgotten. Following closely 

 on Howard's report, the ' Philadelphia Society for 

 Assisting Distressed Prisoners ' was founded in 1776 

 the first of the kind in the world ; and, though 

 dissolved during the war, was reorganised in 

 1787, and is still at work. Large measures of 

 reform were quickly secured : by 1790 the principle 

 of separation was recognised, and in 1794 all con- 

 victs were separated and secluded ; in the latter 

 year, also, capital punishment was abolished in 

 Pennsylvania for all crimes but murder in the 

 first degree. It thus became necessary to devise 

 some substitute for capital punishment. At 

 the Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia, opened 

 in 1829, the so-called ' Pennsylvania System ' 

 of permanent seclusion of convicts was carried 

 out ; the evil effects arising from the rigorous 

 application of this principle have been already 

 referred to in this article, and even at Philadelphia 

 the system is not now strictly enforced, whilst in 

 all the other American prisons what is known as 

 the ' Auburn System ' silent labour in association 

 by day, and separation by night has been adopted. 

 In the southern states prisoners are leased out to 

 the highest bidders for the term of their sentences ; 

 but this system, which condemns the convicts to a 

 slavery that is not modified even by considerations 

 arising from personal ownership, is gradually 

 being abandoned. The first place of detention 

 for juvenile delinquents was opened at New York 

 in 1825; the first reformatories on the cottage or 

 family system were established in Ohio for boys 

 at Lancaster in 1858, for girls at Delaware in 1878. 



