702 



PRISON DISCIPLINE. 



advantageously applied to moral depravity ; a de- 

 pravity often increased, it not caused, by the tempta- 

 tions to which physical suffering has itself exposed 

 men. It has happened, too, in this, as in so many 

 other human pursuits, that the end has been for- 

 gotten in attention to the means ; and the object 

 iias appeared to be rather secretly to harass and 

 oppress the subjects of punishment, than either to 

 deter others from the commission of crime, or to 

 amend the habits of the guilty themselves. None 

 would be prevented from the commission of crime 

 by penalties which were unknown ; and, in the 

 extreme depression of every physical and mental 

 quality, it were absurd to expect any reformation of 

 the unfortunate subjects ol human severity. In all 

 ages anil nations of which we have any record, from 

 the most refined people of ancient times to the most 

 civilized of a more modern era, have such extremes 

 of severity been used in the punishment of criminals 

 as justly to deserve the appellation of cruelty. 

 Torture, in every horrible variety ; chains ; stripes ; 

 solitary confinement in darkness, dampness, and 

 idleness ; promiscuous crowding of offenders, of 

 every degree of guilt, in the same loathsome, pesti- 

 lential, narrow vaults ; insufficient and unwholesome 

 food ; filth ; illness of the body, and sickness of the 

 soul, are some of the evils which have, in every 

 age, been wantonly, carelessly, or ignorantly in- 

 flicted upon the violators of law; and, what is 

 worse, they have been inflicted upon those who have 

 violated no law ; upon many who have been proved 

 innocent, after suffering the infliction of some or 

 all of the ills enumerated in this atrocious catalogue, 

 and upon many whose imprudence alone has exposed 

 them to the vengeance of an equally imprudent 

 creditor. Society has, unquestionably, a right to 

 punish the offenders against its laws, and against 

 those of God ; but has it, under any circumstances, 

 a right to inflict such suffering as we have named? 

 Has it a right to trifle with or endanger the health, 

 the intellect, or the remaining principles of any, 

 even the worst, of its members? It requires no 

 metaphysical examination of the reasons on which 

 the just and necessary power of society is founded, 

 to answer in the negative. All feel that the proper 

 adaptation of the means to the just end of punish- 

 ment ought to be constantly kept in view. A strik- 

 ing illustration of the truth of this remark may be 

 found in the universal outcry of horror and indigna- 

 tion, which was heard throughout the civilized world, 

 when Howard disclosed the misery everywhere 

 suffered by the prisoner ; in the guilty conscious- 

 ness with which those who exercised control over 

 prisons universally shrunk from the disclosure of the 

 atrocities committed under their authority, or, at 

 l>est, allowed by their negligence ; and in the im- 

 mediate formation of associations to promote the 

 necessary reform in the construction and government 

 of prisons. From the year 1777, when Howard's 

 work on the state of the prisons in England and 

 Wales was first published, may be dated the origin 

 of the study of the best system of prison discipline. 

 There were, indeed, previous noble examples of 

 attention to those who were sick and in prison, but 

 it then became a subject of general interest. The 

 effect of Christianity in softening the character, and 

 meliorating the condition of men, had been per- 

 ceptible, even in the treatment of the culprit ; and, 

 from time to time, there had arisen in the world 

 men distinguished for the kindness they exhibited 

 to those to whom kindness was almost unknown. 

 The names of Carlo Borromeo, Claudius Bernard, 

 and St Vincent de Paul, ought never to be forgotten 

 among those who have shown mercy to the captive. 

 But Howard deserves still greater veneration for 



his persevering philanthropy and entire devotion to 

 his noble object. The sphere of his exertions was 

 not limited to his immediate neighbourhood, but 

 extended first throughout his native land, afterwards 

 to adjoining kingdoms, and embraced at length the 

 whole of Europe. 



Nothing more was necessary than to witness the 

 state of abject misery existing in prisons, in order 

 to perceive the necessary remedy, in many cases. 

 Thus the evils arising from crowded and filthy rooms, 

 and from want of circulation of air, could be pre- 

 vented only by a better construction of the build- 

 ings ; while those arising from the exaction of fees 

 from the prisoner, and from the sale of liquors by 

 the officers, could be remedied only by a new system 

 of discipline. Many of the ideas, therefore, which 

 have been since acted upon, in the construction and 

 government of prisons, were suggested by Howard, 

 while experience has produced some improvements 

 in his plans. It cannot be said that any regular 

 system of prison discipline was introduced by How- 

 ard ; nor has it even yet been carried to the per- 

 fection which may reasonably l>e expected ; but the 

 progress already made affords the greatest encou- 

 ragement. It would not be easy to trace this pro- 

 gress with exactness, assigning to each labourer in 

 the cause his due share of merit ; nor is it neces- 

 sary ; for there is no great difficulty in discovering 

 the general remedies for the various evils of im- 

 prisonment. The essential requisites in a prison 

 are obviously security of construction and healthi- 

 ness of situation ; and, in its management, classifi- 

 cation, oversight, labour, and instruction. It is in 

 the previous arrangements for securing these ad- 

 vantages, and in the practical application of these 

 general principles, that the difficulties lie ; and so 

 numerous are these difficulties, that great diversities 

 of feeling and opinion have arisen ; and very few 

 have been found to agree in the details for carrying 

 into effect a general system. The very first attempt 

 in England to introduce a practical reform in the 

 construction and management of prisons failed, for 

 want of unanimity in the commissioners appointed 

 by parliament as to the location of the new estab- 

 lishment, though Howard himself was one of the 

 board. From that time to the present, no uniform 

 plan has been generally adopted in England ; but 

 as the results of a successful system are good 

 sources of instruction, we shall present our readers 

 with a view of the rise and progress of the plan 

 which is now beginning to be generally adopted in 

 the United States of America, and which affords 

 such encouragement to the hopes of the philan- 

 thropic. 



At the very time when Howard was devoting 

 every power of his mind and body to the discovery 

 and disclosure of the evils of imprisonment, the 

 society of Friends in Philadelphia, acting on the 

 principles of the wise and benevolent founder of 

 their sect, were endeavouring to abolish the use of 

 some of the cruel and injudicious modes of punish- 

 ment thenpractised (such as the pillory, the scourge, 

 &c.), and to substitute for them, as well as for 

 capital punishment, the milder, and, as they 

 believed it would prove, more efficacious measure 

 of imprisonment for a longer or shorter period, 

 according to the nature of the offence. Their efforts 

 were interrupted by the revolutionary war ; but, 

 after the adoption of the Federal constitution, they 

 again urged their views upon public attention with 

 so much perseverance as to succeed in a great part 

 of their object ; and it is said, by one well qualified 

 to judge, that, " so mature were the views of the 

 early reformers, that, had they been fully carried into 

 effect, many of the evils afterwards experienced 



