a 
1884, | 663 [Vaux. 
vict punishment which are now so general are identified with the initial 
experiment in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 
It would doubtless be out of place in this paper to discuss the evils 
which attach to the profit-making congregate prisons. 
The peril to society, the corrupting influences, the degradation and 
training in crime, which are inseparably connected with association of 
convicts, must exist while it is maintained. 
It need only be stated that in old communities, or States where those 
who are convicted of crimes, of whatever physical and mental condition, 
capables and incapables, are indiscriminately incarcerated in a prison on 
the congregate, profit-making, self-supporting plan, the outcome exceeds 
the income. As a fact, underall the circ umstances, such institutions can- 
not be proved to yield a profit to the State. 
The theory of self-supporting congregate prisons under the conditions 
just mentioned is not always sustained. The sturdy adults, selected from 
the aggregate of all persons convicted in a State, m: iy yield by their asso- 
ciate labor a profit to the prison. If so, then such a prison is a State man- 
ufactory. This is not regarded as a judicious adaptation of the purpose 
of a penal institution for the punishment of offenders against social 
security. 
The State Penitentiary at Philadelphia is the only institution in the 
United States in which the “Individual treatment system ’’ is administered. 
In England some of its features are engrafted on the penal discipline ot 
its prisons, so far as the social conditions of that country accept them as 
practical. In France, Belgium, and Italy, greater progress than elsewhere 
in Europe has been made in adopting the separate plan in the prisons of 
those nations. 
In some of the States of the Union there is a gradual approach to the 
principle of separation of convicts in prison, and a tacit acknowledgment 
of the value of the Pennsylvania system. ‘The chief obstacle to a more 
thorough conformity is the proclaimed cost. It is hardly possible to con- 
vince those who legislate for, or conduct State penal institutions, even in 
States claiming to be enlightened, that any plan which does not pay its 
expenses is for the general interest of the people. Under this pretext this 
general delusion is vitalized. ‘Till it shall be acknowledged ‘a delusion, 
and the substantial interests of the public best considered by adopting the 
reform which is slowly manifesting its value, the Pennsylvania system 
must wait for its coming triumph. How long a period may intervene is 
problematical. Be it ag it may, it must not deter ordishearten. The pro- 
cess of development in social science is necessarily deliberate. The con- 
sideration and clear comprehension of the relations of society to the vio- 
lators of its laws are unattractive to the mind of the public. The code 
defining crimes changes as social conditions change. Education, hered- 
ity, customs, prejudices, false training, insubordination, and bad associa- 
tion, are among the incentives to unregulated individual conduct in com- 
munities, and thence crime is the outcome. How to deal with these 
PROC, AMER. PHILOS. 800, xx1. 116. 47. PRINTED OcT. 29, 1884. 
