edd 
1884.] 655 | Vaux. 
character and large ability gave great weight to their opinion, the Legisla- 
ture could not fail favorably to regard the prayers of the society. 
But it was not till 1821, that, after the last effort of the society to ob- 
tain the necessary and essential legislation, the law was passed on March 
20, 1821, for the erection of a State Penitentiary within the city and 
county of Philadelphia. 
Justice, simple justice, to the labors which resulted in the enactment of 
this law, and the men who secured its passage, makes it proper to give 
this memorial of the society on which the Legislature was induced to act. 
It is a statement, or the epitome of the reform, for the half century pre- 
ceding its publication : 
To the Senate and House of Representatives of the Commonwealth of Penn- 
sylwania in General Assembly met : 
The memorial of the Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries 
of Public Prisons, respectfully represents : 
That it is now nearly forty years since some of your memorialists asso- 
ciated for the purpose of alleviating the miseries of public prisons, as well 
as for procuring the melioration of the penal code of Pennsylvania, as far 
as these effécts might be produced through their influence. 
In performance of these duties which they believed to be required of 
them by the dictates of Christian benevolence and the obligations of hu- 
manity, they investigated the conduct and regulations of the jait, and 
likewise the effects of those degrading and sanguinary punishments which 
were at that period inflicted by the laws of this Commonwealth. The 
result of these examinations was a full conviction that not only the police 
of the prison was faulty, but the penalties of the law were such as to frus- 
trate the great ends of punishment by rendering offenders inimical, instead 
of restoring them to usefulness in society. 
With these impressions, alterations in the modes of punishment and im- 
provements in prison discipline were from time to time recommended to 
the Legislature, by whose authority many changes were adopted, and 
many defects remedied. 
These reforms, from the nature of existing circumstances, were, how- 
ever, of comparatively limited extent, but as far as the trial could be 
made, beneficial consequences were experienced. 
Neighboring States and remote nations directed their attention to these 
efforts, and, in many instances, adopted the principle which had influenced 
the conduct of Pennsylvania. 
At the time of making the change in our penal code, substituting soli- 
tude and hard labor for sanguinary punishments, the experiment was | 
begun in the county jail of Philadelphia, rather than the execution of the 
laws should be deferred to a distant period, when a suitable prison might 
be erected. Under all the inconveniences then subsisting, the effects 
produced were such as to warrant a belief that the plan would answer the 
most sanguine wishes of its friends, if it could be properly tried. But 
PROC, AMBR. PHILOS. SOC. xxz, 116. 4m. PRINTED AUGUST 21, 1884. 
