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1The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison
2Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. , by Anonymous
3
4This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere in the United States and most
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10
11Title: The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. IV, No. II, April 1949)
12
13Author: Anonymous
14
15Release Date: April 3, 2018 [EBook #56908]
16
17Language: English
18
19Character set encoding: UTF-8
20
21*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL--PRISON DISCIPLINE ***
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26Produced by Larry B. Harrison, Wayne Hammond and the Online
27Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This
28book was produced from images made available by the
29HathiTrust Digital Library.)
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37
38
39  TERMS:--ONE DOLLAR A YEAR IN ADVANCE.
40
41  THE
42  PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL
43  OF
44  PRISON DISCIPLINE
45  AND
46  PHILANTHROPY.
47
48  PUBLISHED QUARTERLY
49
50  UNDER THE DIRECTION OF “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING
51  THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS,” INSTITUTED 1787.
52
53  VOL. IV.--NO. II.
54
55  APRIL 1849.
56
57  PHILADELPHIA:
58  E. C. AND J. BIDDLE,
59  SOUTHWEST CORNER OF FIFTH AND MINOR STREETS.
60
61
62
63
64CONTENTS OF NO. II.
65
66
67  ART. I.--HOUSES OF REFUGE,                                          49
68
69  II.--MORTALITY AND CRIME,                                           63
70
71  III.--STATE PENITENTIARIES,                                         70
72
73
74  NOTICES.
75
76  No. 1.--Institutions for the Insane,                                79
77
78  2.--The precise present character of transportation explained,
79      with suggestions by Ignotus,                                    86
80
81  3.--Statistics of Truantry and of Juvenile Vagrancy in the City
82      of Boston,                                                      88
83
84  4.--The London Christian Observer’s notice of Rev. Mr. Field’s
85      work on the Advantages of the Separate System of Imprisonment,  92
86
87  5.--Kentucky State Penitentiary,                                    93
88
89  6.--An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of
90      Convicts, one from the other, to Produce Disease and
91      Derangement,                                                    94
92
93  7.--New York Eye and Ear Infirmary,                                 95
94
95  8.--Shelter for Colored Orphans,                                    95
96
97  9.--Paupers and Prisoners in Cincinnati,                            95
98
99  10.--Insane Asylum in North Carolina,                               95
100
101  11.--Corrupt Police,                                                96
102
103
104
105
106CONSTITUTION
107
108OF THE
109
110“_Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons_.”
111
112
113When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded
114on the precepts and examples of the Author of Christianity, are not
115cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow-creatures: and when
116we reflect upon the miseries which penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary
117severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt, (the usual attendants of
118prisons,) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to
119that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. By the
120aid of humanity, their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented;
121the links which should bind the whole family of mankind together,
122under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degrees
123and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested, as may,
124instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring
125our fellow-creatures to virtue and happiness. From a conviction of
126the truth and obligation of these principles, the subscribers have
127associated themselves under the title of “THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR
128ALLEVIATING THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS.”
129
130For effecting these purposes, they have adopted the following
131CONSTITUTION.
132
133
134ARTICLE I.--The officers of the Society shall consist of a President,
135two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, a Treasurer, two Counsellors, and
136an Acting Committee, all of whom, except the Acting Committee, shall be
137chosen annually, by ballot, on the second Second-day, called Monday, in
138the month called January.
139
140  (See 3d page of Cover.)
141
142[Illustration: FRONT VIEW.
143
144J. M^C ARTHUR JUN^R ARCH^T.]
145
146[Illustration: PLAN]
147
148
149
150
151APRIL, 1849.
152
153VOL IV.--NO. II.
154
155
156
157
158ART. I.--HOUSES OF REFUGE.
159
160    I. _Twenty-first Annual Report of the Managers of the Philadelphia
161    House of Refuge to the Legislature and to the Contributors
162    thereto._ 1849, pp. 32.
163
164    II. _Twenty-fourth Annual Report of the Managers of the Society for
165    the Reformation of Juvenile Delinquents to the Legislature of the
166    State and the Corporation of the City of New York._ 1849, pp. 50.
167
168
169We need, in some parts of the United States, a grade of penal
170institutions between what are called Houses of Refuge, or of
171Reformation for Juvenile Delinquents on the one hand, and the highest
172and best class of penitentiaries on the other.
173
174As they are at present, our institutions of this class are neither
175schools nor prisons. They employ the inmates at labor and instruct
176them, as far as practicable, in the elements of useful knowledge and
177thus far they resemble the Industrial Schools of Europe. But they
178are places of close confinement--they have regulations and a police,
179not unlike those of a prison, and their inmates are sent thither as
180_offenders_--though _juvenile_ offenders. The worst that can be said of
181some of them is, that they are incorrigible truants--of others, that
182they are past parental control, (and in this respect, perhaps, “more
183sinned against than sinning;”) but some are adroit thieves and bold
184burglars--some skilful forgers--some incendiaries, and some assaulters
185with intent to kill. Their ages, too, range from eight to sixteen or
186even eighteen, and their size and physical strength are equally various.
187
188This is a motley group to bring into the relation of schoolmates
189or fellow-apprentices, and their care-takers must possess rare
190endowments, so to administer discipline, as to prevent much harm from
191being done to some in connection with all the good they do to others.
192For, that they have done immeasurable good, no one who has investigated
193their operations and results, can for a moment doubt. They have fully
194justified the high anticipations which were entertained concerning
195them at an early period of their history. “No disciplinary institution
196in our country,” said the Rev. Dr. Alexander of New Jersey, “promises
197to effect more for society, than a House of Refuge for juvenile
198delinquents. If it were ever lawful to rejoice in an event produced by
199crime, it would be, that these unhappy youth are, by the commission of
200a crime, snatched from the sink of pollution in which they have been
201immersed, and put to regular business, and educated as well as most
202children in the land.”[1]
203
204Having fully sustained their claim to confidence, as a system of
205reformatory means, we naturally desire to see them rendered as
206effective as possible. And to this end we would have them adhere
207punctiliously to the original design for which they were instituted.
208This was not to inflict a penalty, but to interpose a shield--not to
209bring suffering upon the guilty, but to supply instruction, wholesome
210discipline and kind offices to the neglected and exposed. They may
211easily be perverted by opening their doors to youth (“young in years,
212but old in sinning”) who are thought to require some milder discipline
213than the penitentiary affords, but whose offences are really as rank
214and as indicative of deep-seated depravity as those of the oldest and
215the worst.
216
217In determining, in any given case, whether to admit or reject an
218applicant, the managers of a House of Refuge would be governed, we
219presume, chiefly by the _character_, though in some degree by the size
220and physical strength of the individual, as a subject of mild, parental
221discipline. The question, how far a residence in the institution will
222be likely to bring about his radical reformation and the establishment
223of good habits has the first place; and another, and scarcely less
224important question would be, what influence will his admission have
225on others? If he is perverse and stubborn, and at the same time
226overgrown in size, so as require a disproportionate measure of care
227and vigilance, (in which case other and more hopeful subjects must be,
228to an equal extent, neglected,) his admission would seem inexpedient.
229Provision exists, or should be made for such an one elsewhere. So,
230also, if one is presented, deformed in body, deficient in mind, or
231of sickly constitution, and not likely to succeed in acquiring the
232knowledge of a trade, or unfitted to bear the proper discipline, he has
233higher claims on some other form of public charity. A House of Refuge
234is not meant for him, nor is it likely to benefit him.
235
236An institution designed to keep boys and girls in due order and
237subordination, ought to be able to dispense with some of the more
238revolting appendages of a prison--such as unscaleable walls--narrow
239stone cells--and massive bars and bolts. We admit that all these are
240necessary the moment it receives a sturdy, hardened, hackneyed rogue
241of eighteen, sixteen or even fourteen; but it is a pity to force upon
242the whole establishment the gloomy appearance of a prison, rather
243than reject half a dozen youth of extra age and size, whom parents or
244friends naturally feel disposed to save from a felon’s doom.
245
246The inquiry of chief interest, however, relates to _character_. What
247has been his career up to this time? Who have been his associates? To
248what species of crime has he been chiefly addicted? Has he, in the fury
249of unbridled passion, attempted the life of another? of his parent, or
250associate, or enemy? Has he deliberately forged another’s name? Has he
251been familiar with scenes of outrage and tumult? Is he a frequenter
252of the haunts of infamy? Has he good fellowship with a large circle
253of like characters with himself? These questions, or any of them, if
254answered affirmatively, would go far to turn the scale against his
255admission. The acts we have supposed, indicate in the perpetrator
256of them, a confirmed habit or propensity, which may, perhaps, be
257corrected; but not by the ordinary discipline of a proper House of
258Refuge. Nor should the attempt be made to employ it on so unpromising a
259subject, at the risk of introducing more evil than we can possibly hope
260to prevent. Indeed, it is difficult to conceive any good reason why a
261burglar or incendiary at sixteen, should be called a “delinquent,” and
262put to school, while the same grade of criminals at twenty, are called
263convicts, and sent to the penitentiary. Age, by itself, is a very
264unsafe criterion by which to determine the turpitude of crime or the
265appropriateness of punishment.
266
267We do not say that no cases of this class can occur, in which the
268admission of the party to a House of Refuge, would be expedient;
269but, as a general thing, we should be disposed to confine its benign
270influence to those whose proclivity to a criminal career is but feebly
271though decidedly developed; whose delinquencies exist rather in an
272impatience or contempt of domestic restraints, than in deliberate
273violations of public law. The discipline, as well as the construction
274of Refuge-buildings and the usual means of safe custody, evidently
275contemplate a very young class of boys and girls, say from eight to
276twelve years of age, who may be incorrigible truants, disobedient to
277parents, insubordinate to masters, petty thieves, street-strollers,
278without a home or worse,--uneducated, unaccustomed to any kind of
279restraint. Such youth come under the discipline of an establishment,
280like our Houses of Refuge, with a prospect of great advantage.
281
282Even those who have acquired fixed habits of lying, stealing, deceit
283and violence, are, at this age, physically reducible to order
284and industry. They are incapable of using dangerous weapons with
285effect--they are not likely to combine for outbreaks, nor to plot
286escapes. With wholesome food, and an hour or two’s recreation every
287day, they can be made to conform to stringent regulations, without
288great or long continued severity of discipline. Active employment in
289some handicraft, daily schooling, and proper religious culture, soon
290work a wonderful transformation in such a class of children, and if
291they can only be continued long enough to make their new course of life
292_habitual_, so that to be idle shall be as irksome to them as it once
293was to work, and to speak the truth shall be as easy as it once was to
294lie, the benefit of such an institution could not be overrated.
295
296If the discrimination we have suggested, should be faithfully
297observed, we should find a very large class of youth who require penal
298discipline of a severer type, and for whom no provision is now made
299except in the penitentiary, which is quite as ill adapted to meet the
300exigency at this point, as the Refuge is at the other. We should,
301therefore, be disposed to take the most promising youthful inmates
302of the penitentiary, and the least suitable or most unpromising
303of the older inmates of some of the Houses of Refuge for juvenile
304delinquents, and provide an institution for them, that shall combine
305the severity of the former with the leniency of the latter. This idea
306is substantially embraced in the Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight,
307and is recognized to some extent in the new State Reform School at
308Westborough, Massachusetts.
309
310The origin and peculiarities of these institutions, involve the vast
311and interesting subject of juvenile delinquency; its causes, effects
312and preventives, upon an investigation of which we promise ourselves
313some future opportunity to enter. As it is, our limits require us to
314pass abruptly to a few general remarks upon the present condition of
315our principal institutions designed for its correction.
316
317From the twenty-first report of the Philadelphia House of Refuge, we
318learn, that during the year 1848, one hundred and sixty-eight inmates
319were received, (129 boys and 39 girls,) and 153 discharged, (116 boys,
320and 37 girls,) of whom, 89 were by indentures. Of the commitments, 86
321were by request of parents or near friends. The average age of both
322sexes was a fraction over 14 years; but so far as the prospect of
323reformation is concerned, a girl is as old at 14 as a boy is at 18.
324There was only one death in the House during the year. Of the 65 boys
325indentured, 30 went to farmers; and of the 24 girls all were indentured
326to housewifery. The occupations of the inmates are, cane-chair seating,
327(48,) umbrella furniture, (57,) and razor-strop making, (71.) The
328income from the labor of boys during the year, was $5,598,88, and the
329total expenditures of the establishment, were $13,987,39. The principal
330of this institution has, at our request, furnished some valuable
331suggestions respecting the methods of administration and discipline, in
332establishments of this class, of which we gladly avail ourselves in the
333present connection.
334
335He ranks classification, among the most obvious, important and
336difficult objects to be attained in such an institution. He admits that
337education, moral, intellectual, and religious, is all important; but he
338insists, that habits of industry and obedience, should be regarded as
339among the first and most desirable fruits of it. The power of habit, he
340thus forcibly describes:
341
342“A boy, who has been unaccustomed to obey his parents, or respect his
343superiors, and has been allowed to spend most of his time in idleness
344before he is brought to the Refuge, if kept regularly at work, and
345at the same time compelled to obey those who have the care of him,
346will, in time, become so accustomed to labor, that he will even, in
347some cases, prefer it to idleness, and obedience will also become
348habitual. But this must be a work of time. He should be kept until he
349is thoroughly weaned from his former indolent ways. I have known boys
350who have remained three or four years in our institution and who have
351run away from their masters soon after they were bound out, come back
352to the city and resort to their old haunts and habits; but finding few
353if any of their old associates, they have soon felt that their former
354habits were not so pleasant, and having lost all relish for a vagabond
355life, have voluntarily returned to the house and asked admission and
356employment as a boon!”
357
358He justly animadverts upon the unreasonableness of those who expect
359“a House of Refuge will accomplish, in a few months, what respectable
360and even religious parents find it difficult to do even in a series
361of years.” They have their children from the first hour of their
362existence, and through all that precious period of childhood, while
363they are comparatively strangers to evil habits and associations, and
364yet how often do they fail to secure their standing in good habits and
365sound principles? How preposterous then, must be the expectation that
366the House of Refuge will take them, when their moral and intellectual
367nature is so completely perverted and corrupted, and thoroughly reform
368them in a few months!
369
370Touching the employment of boys in the institution, and after they
371leave it, many difficulties are experienced. The modes of labor which
372are adopted, are, of course, fitted to the age and physical ability
373of such children, but are by no means calculated to prepare them
374for that sort of life, which most of them expect to lead. To remove
375them completely from the temptations and exposures of city life, is
376considered very desirable; and hence, to place them with farmers in
377the country, where the means of indulging vicious inclinations are
378supposed to be few and far between, is always preferred to placing them
379with mechanics, where they will be likely to find associates who will
380be the subjects or agents of corruption. But to bind a boy to a farmer
381till he is of age, is regarded by most parents as a very undesirable
382disposition to make of him, and when a boy is thus bound, he generally
383understands that his parents or friends will readily connive at his
384escape. The general wish is, that they should be bound to trades, if
385bound at all.
386
387It seems to be admitted that, as a general thing, city boys are not
388likely to make good farmers, unless put to it very young, and by
389degrees accustomed to hard work. “The routine of labor pursued in the
390Refuge, does not seem fitted to prepare boys for that kind of life,
391to which the greater part of them are destined. A boy here, works
392from five to seven hours a day at very light work, in a room that is
393warmed and made comfortable in winter, and sheltered from the wet and
394heat of summer. He has from one to two hours for play every day, and
395an abundance of playmates. After living in this way about one year,
396(sometimes a little less, and sometimes more than a year,) he is bound
397to a farmer, who makes him work, perhaps ten or twelve hours in a day,
398and at labor which is much harder than any thing he has been accustomed
399to before. He has, perhaps, repeatedly been told, while in the Refuge,
400to behave well, and he should soon have a good place, and it has been
401told in such a way, that to be with a farmer is, in his mind, to be
402in a kind of paradise. But when he finds hard work, no time for play,
403frequent exposure to heat and cold, few or no companions, it is not
404strange that some are disappointed and disposed to abscond.”
405
406In contrast with this mode of proceeding, our correspondent proposes
407the following outline. “If it were possible,” he says, “I would keep
408every boy at least three years, and I would have him understand, when
409he comes into the Refuge, that he must not expect to be discharged
410in less than three years, so that his mind should be at ease on that
411point. I would have them employed at trades, that would be useful
412to them after their discharge. In three years they would acquire so
413much knowledge of a common trade, that their services would become
414desirable to respectable mechanics. In three years, if properly
415disciplined, their habits of industry, obedience, &c., would acquire
416a degree of strength. They would become weaned from their old
417associates and habits. In three years the older ones, (if too old for
418apprentices,) would become sufficiently acquainted with their business
419to earn their living. Their parents would not feel that their time was
420lost. They would see, and the boys themselves would see, that they are
421acquiring that sort of knowledge that will be useful to them in after
422life. Many of our older boys think now, that their time is in a good
423degree lost. They know, indeed, that the intellectual education they
424acquire will be of service to them, but they feel, at the same time,
425that they are not learning any thing that will secure them a livelihood
426after their discharge.”
427
428Among the obvious evils of a short continuance in the Refuge, (besides
429the impracticability of forming new habits in the children,) are, (1.)
430The state of constant restlessness in the alternation of hope and
431disappointment, respecting a release. Parents are permitted to visit
432their children once in two months, and in these visits the principal
433subject of conversation is about their “getting out.” The children
434are constantly urging their parents to have them released, and the
435parents are equally constant in promising to do so. This excites much
436uneasiness in the former, and neutralizes what would otherwise be the
437useful discipline of the house; and, (2.) The institution is deprived
438of the fruits of its good discipline as fast, nearly, as they appear.
439“By constantly sending out the best, we lose their influence, which
440might be of much service with the more vicious. If, in any community,
441the best members were constantly leaving, and only bad members coming
442in to supply their places, the condition of that community, with regard
443to morals, would become very low, if not hopeless.”
444
445These opinions, formed from an intimate acquaintance with the
446practical working of the system, are entitled to weight. We do not
447adopt nor reject them. We do not say that any material modification
448of the present rules of admission, or of the form of discipline is
449practicable. But, if the views we have ever held respecting the design
450of a House of Refuge are just, viz., to rescue those whose childhood
451lies all _open to evil examples and influences, and to put them under
452treatment, which shall resemble, in its main features, that of a good
453home_, then are we clear, that a more rigid discrimination in the
454admission of inmates should be observed. The most hopeful subjects of
455such domestic discipline, are those who have not past into that stage
456of moral and intellectual stupor and impenetrability, on which ordinary
457sympathies fall as water-drops upon a marble slab. Notwithstanding the
458sad neglects and abuses they have suffered, there are still impulses
459in their young natures, which can be worked upon by kind words and
460approving smiles, and indeed, their present unhappy condition is owing,
461in no small measure, to the absence of such influences from the place
462which (for want of a better) they call their _home_. We have known
463cases, not a few, in which the manifestation of a real interest in the
464welfare of a child at a favorable moment, has been, in its effects,
465like the gushing forth of a living spring from the smitten rock. And it
466is in this view, that we most highly commend a recent measure in the
467institution, whose report is now under review, viz., the employment of
468an intelligent, judicious, capable female, to supervise with maternal
469care and tenderness the moral and physical condition of the boys.
470
471We all know with how many chords the human heart is strung, which
472vibrate only to the soft breath of sympathy. A gentle accent--a
473trifling act of kindness, or even a glance of pity, will awaken their
474harmonies, and fill the heart of the rudest child with what may well
475pass for rapture. There is a period, however, at which these better
476feelings become comparatively incapable of excitement. They have either
477lost their vitality by abuse or neglect, or they have been overborne
478and swallowed up by the ebbless tide of vicious associations and
479indulgencies. The voice of virtuous charmers is no longer heard, charm
480they never so wisely.
481
482But we cannot enlarge on this fruitful topic, suffice it to say that
483some of the defects of the present system are remediable, as we have
484already intimated, and others are inseparable from the very nature and
485design of the institution, and can only be set over against the greater
486good.
487
488The report furnishes a very gratifying account of the progress which
489has been made in the erection of a new Refuge for Colored Juvenile
490Delinquents. A front view and ground plan of the structure accompanying
491our present number and the following general description of the
492arrangement of the various departments, may be interesting to our
493readers.
494
495The site embraces eleven acres of ground, and is intended to afford
496ample room, (at some future time,) for a new Refuge for white children.
497The lot lies in the form of a parallelogram, 400 feet by 210, and is
498enclosed by a wall varying in height from 20½ to 30 feet.
499
500    “The arrangement of the buildings within the enclosure, which are
501    all of brick, with slate roofs, is made with reference to a total
502    separation of the boys and girls, and to the existence of three
503    separate classes of both male and female inmates: the first (or
504    best) and second classes each to have a play-ground and work-room,
505    and the members of one class not to be allowed to converse with
506    those of the other, on any occasion; the third class, consisting
507    of the most depraved inmates, to be kept, until in a condition to
508    warrant promotion to a higher class, in separate confinement, with
509    a suitable allowance of out of door exercise for the preservation
510    of health, said exercise to be taken in an enclosure specially
511    designed for this purpose, where no conversation between the
512    inmates shall be permitted.
513
514    “The numbers of these three classes which can be accommodated when
515    the buildings marked on the plan shall be erected, as ultimately
516    designed, are--
517
518                  Boys.    Girls.
519  1st Class        40        27
520  2d Class         56        45
521  3d Class         30        22
522                  ---        --
523        Total     126        94
524
525 “Dormitories for the first and second classes are at present provided
526 for--
527
528                  Boys.    Girls.
529  1st Class        30        14
530  2d Class         42        22
531                   --        --
532        Total      72        36
533
534    “The erection of all of the other buildings specified in the plan,
535    was authorized, with reference to the accommodation of 250 inmates.
536    They consist of--
537
538    “1. A main building, three stories in height, containing offices
539    and chambers for the officers, school-rooms and infirmaries for
540    the male and female inmates, a dining and sitting-room for the
541    girls, &c.
542
543    “2. Two buildings projecting from the rear of the main building;
544    the one in the male department, two stories in height, and
545    containing the chapel and the boys’ dining-room; the other in the
546    female department, three stories in height, and appropriated for
547    the kitchen, the wash-room, store-rooms, &c.
548
549    “3. Two wings, each three stories in height; the one, in the female
550    department, containing the dormitories and bathing-rooms for the
551    girls; the other, in the male department, containing the boys’
552    dormitories.
553
554    “4. A building, two stories in height, near the southern wall
555    of the male department, the first and second stories of which
556    are designed for work-rooms, and the basement for a washing and
557    bathing-room for the boys.
558
559    “A corridor, 12 feet in width, extends the whole length of the main
560    building and wings, a distance of 243 feet.
561
562    “Many important points, in addition to the classification of the
563    inmates, claimed the attention of the Board, in the preparation of
564    the plan--_e. g._ security against the escape of the inmates, and
565    their constant supervision by an officer at all times of the day;
566    the proper ventilation and warming of all the apartments; provision
567    for out of door exercise for the inmates in all states of the
568    weather, &c. These, it is believed, have all been kept in view and
569    provided for, in the plan adopted.
570
571    “The wall of enclosure, excepting the gate-way and a portion of the
572    pointing, is completed; the work-shop is finished; and of all the
573    other buildings the walls are up, the roofs on, and a small part of
574    the flooring laid.”
575
576
577Extracting flues, connecting with shafts leading to the external air,
578have been inserted in all the dormitories and other rooms, to ensure a
579good ventilation at all times; and suitable arrangements have also been
580made for heating the different apartments. We trust the Managers have
581succeeded in securing these two most important requisites to the health
582(physical and moral) of their new institution. A full supply of good
583water, fresh air and wholesome warmth, is what every institution of the
584kind wants; and yet in one or more of them almost all are deficient.
585
586The second document, at the head of the present article, shows a
587prosperous state of the institution of which it treats. The whole
588number of children and youth who have found refuge within its walls
589is 4,397. Of these, 568 were under its care, at different periods,
590during the year 1848. The number remaining January 1, 1849, was 355;
591and 213 were disposed of during the year. The chief branches of labor
592are, making and seating chair frames and manufacturing razor strops.
593Among the improvements of the year is the introduction of a small steam
594engine, to relieve the severity of some parts of the labor, which is
595not unfrequently prejudicial to the immature strength of the inmates.
596
597The disbursements of the year amounted to $22,896 10, and the receipts
598$24,122 32. Of the latter sum, $7,198 77 is from the labor of the
599inmates, $7,323 83 from the State, $4,600 from the city of New York,
600and $4,026 50 from theatre and circus licenses. The chief items of
601expense were food and provisions, $9,106 41; salaries, $4,875 89;
602clothing, $2,297 90.
603
604The importance of more perfect classification and separation,
605especially among the female inmates, is urged. “Contact with the
606older and more depraved of their sex, is, for obvious reasons, far
607more destructive to young and comparatively innocent females than to
608males.”[2]
609
610In confirmation of the views we have presented in a former part of this
611article, we cite the following passage from the report now before us.
612
613    “This is the proper place to allude to a practice of which we have
614    already complained more than once--that of sending to the Refuge,
615    from mistaken ideas of humanity, subjects so far advanced in years
616    and in crime as to give but faint hopes of their own reformation,
617    while by example and influence they are calculated to do infinite
618    harm to others. Those who have travelled long and far on the
619    downward road of vice, are most unfit companions for such as have
620    been arrested at the outset of their guilty career. It is to guide
621    and to reclaim the latter, that houses of refuge are established;
622    the reformation of the former must be attempted in other places
623    and by other means. To this practice of sending to the refuge
624    hardened offenders, whose proper place is a State prison, the
625    managers ascribe the frequency of attempts to escape. Many sent to
626    us as boys, are men in size and strength, impatient of restraint,
627    reckless of consequences, hardened, daring and ingenious in all
628    mischief. While such subjects are sent us, to corrupt, to organize,
629    and to lead the younger and more orderly, attempts at escape will
630    continue to be made, and in spite of all the vigilance of the
631    officers, will occasionally be successful.
632
633    “The rapid increase of crime in our city, and the constantly
634    augmenting numbers of vicious and vagrant youth, is a subject of
635    serious contemplation. It would be serious enough, if it only kept
636    pace with the astonishing increase of our population, but it even
637    outstrips it. There is no way of getting at complete statistics in
638    this matter, but all the details that can be obtained confirm this
639    view. Thus there were committed to prison in the city, including
640    those sent before trial, and after sentence, and excluding summary
641    convictions,
642
643  in 1835,    2387    persons,
644  in 1844,    9153    persons.
645
646    During this time the population increased from 270,089 to 312,710
647    (in 1845) or about 35.1 per cent., while the increase in crime
648    was 354.6 per cent. The average number of inmates in the Tombs
649    was, in 1846, 174; in 1848, 216, an increase of 21.2 per cent.
650    in two years, or over three times the growth of the city, which
651    of late was about 6.90 per cent. for two years. This startling
652    disproportion, is more or less true of all large cities. It is a
653    law of our social state, that growing prosperity shall find its
654    drawback in the parallel increase of misery; and that crowded
655    communities, as they offer the most liberal rewards to good conduct
656    and enterprise, so shall contain likewise the most seeds of evil,
657    the strongest temptations to vice, the largest amount of misery.
658    And besides our own neglected and depraved population, the tide of
659    emigration, now setting in stronger and stronger every year, while
660    it enriches our country, leaves much of its refuse in our city.
661    Pauper families, and even felons, are not unfrequently sent over
662    to us, as a cheap way of disposing of them, by the selfishness or
663    mistaken humanity of those whose duty it is to provide for them at
664    home, thus swelling the number of houseless, friendless and lawless
665    youth, drifting loose upon society, to become utterly ship-wrecked,
666    unless the active hand of benevolence is stretched out to save
667    them.”
668
669
670Of those children received in 1848, 209 were boys, (192 white and 17
671colored,) and 55 were girls, (45 white and 10 colored.) 140 of the
672whole number were from the Police and Sessions of the city, and of the
673white children only THIRTY-NINE were of American parentage. 127 were
674of Irish birth! Of 141 boys discharged, 53 were indentured to farmers,
67514 to shoemakers, and 19 sent to sea; and of 47 girls discharged,
67633 were indentured to housewifery. The average age of the inmates
677received during 1848, was thirteen and two and a half twelfths years.
678Seventy-seven were over fifteen when received.
679
680_New House of Refuge at Rochester._--Our readers are perhaps aware,
681that an institution similar to the present House of Refuge in New York,
682is about to be established in Rochester for the accommodation of the
683Western counties of the State. A friend has kindly furnished us with
684the following description of the buildings, &c. Mr. Wood, the present
685superintendent of the New York House of Refuge, is expected to take
686charge of the new establishment, and the discipline will probably be
687substantially the same. An appropriation is expected at the present
688session of the legislature, that will enable inmates to be received
689this spring. No provision is yet made for females.
690
691“At present,” says our correspondent, “they have only erected a main or
692centre building and one wing. The whole length of this building is 234
693feet. Main building 86 by 60 feet. Wing 148 by 32 feet, terminated by a
694building 37 feet square. The basement of stone, 10 feet in the clear,
695walls above of brick. The basement in the main building is intended for
696the culinary department; that in the wing for wash-rooms, bathing-room
697and workshops. The first and second floors of the main building are
698divided into four rooms, with suitable closets, and three halls, with
699staircases. The main hall in the centre is 15 feet wide; side halls to
700communicate with the wings 12 feet wide. The rooms on the first floor
701of the main building are intended for superintendent, matron, &c. The
702rooms on second story for hospitals and sleeping-rooms for the officers
703of the institution. The upper or third story of main building is
704intended for a chapel, 60 by 60 feet, the entrance to which is from the
705side hall.
706
707“The first story of the wing is divided into two rooms for school and
708dining rooms, each 70 by 30 feet. In second story of wing are the
709dormitories for the inmates, two tiers in height, and 86 in number,
710arranged next the outside wall. Hall 15 feet wide in the centre. Each
711dormitory is 7½ feet wide and 7½ feet high, and is furnished with a
712narrow window reaching from floor to ceiling. Dormitory doors are of
713cast-iron open work for summer ventilation, allowing the air to pass
714directly across the building; in addition, each dormitory is supplied
715with fresh air, descending from the cornice by iron pipes, and passing
716through the iron doors. This building is surrounded by a stone wall,
717to two feet at the top, 23 feet from the foundation, and 20 feet above
718ground. The wall is 500 feet long and 400 feet wide, embracing about
7194½ acres of land, and cost $12,000. The building, as above described,
720cost $26,000. The whole is a most perfect piece of workmanship in
721every respect, built in the very best manner, and is considered a most
722complete model for such a purpose.
723
724“Attached are 40 acres of land, which it is intended the inmates shall
725cultivate, thus affording them a healthy employment, and, at the same
726time, furnishing a supply of vegetables, &c., to the institution. The
727buildings are situated about a mile from the centre of business, in a
728fine dry sandy soil.”
729
730We had prepared a sketch of the proceedings at the opening of the State
731Reform School in Massachusetts, and of the discipline, &c., prescribed
732there, together with a view and ground plan of the buildings, but our
733limits are so contracted as to forbid its appearance in the present
734number.
735
736
737
738
739ART. II.--MORTALITY AND CRIME.
740
741
742It is not generally known, although the fact has been sufficiently
743demonstrated by different vital statisticians, that great annual
744mortality is accompanied by a proportionate increase of births, so
745that the population is kept at its usual average even if it does not
746increase. One effect of this mortality and increase of births is the
747disproportion between the numbers of the young, the improvident, and
748the thoughtless, and the older, more prudent and considerate. Mr.
749Slaney, in his report on Birmingham and other towns, made to the
750commissioners for inquiry into the state of large towns and populous
751districts, after referring to Mr. Chadwick’s exposure of the popular
752fallacy, that the sufferings caused by disease, especially among the
753poor, restrained the increase of population, says: “I have constantly
754observed, wherever the mortality was high in close, narrow, neglected
755courts and alleys, there the children swarmed, as if to fill up the
756places; and it has been demonstrated again and again, that a high
757mortality in an increasing country, only leads to a great increase of
758births.” After this preliminary notice, the reader will be able to
759understand the force of the following remarks on the connection between
760mortality, (including, of course, its physical and moral causes,) and
761crime.
762
763Mr. Slaney contrasts the two classes or kinds of inhabitants of the
764same city, in the one of which the annual mortality is but two, and in
765the other four per cent. “We shall find the rate of mortality one great
766criterion of comfort, therefore, of contentment, of good conduct, of
767moral habits, of intelligence, docility, usefulness and value.”
768
769    “In the one case we shall find a population having little to
770    complain of, ready to attend to advice, having had time to learn
771    and to think, having experience from lengthened life, and being
772    valuable subjects, docile and industrious, possessing their chief
773    safe-guard against tumults or disorders, ‘the hope of improving
774    their condition.’ In the other will be found a body, consisting
775    in a great measure of the young, who cannot repay their support;
776    a large proportion of the rest will be inexperienced, untaught,
777    untried, having had no time to learn or to think. All will be
778    more or less reckless, and hard in mind and conduct; they have
779    been formed by the cautious course of circumstances around them;
780    poison to the mind, to the body, has been the course of their only
781    education. Their maxim will be the heathen maxim of old, ‘Eat and
782    drink, to-morrow we die;’ forced by their necessities to labor,
783    experience and wisdom will be wanting; they will not husband their
784    wages, but seek for excitement in intemperance, or low sensual
785    indulgences; their consumption of spirits will be ten times that
786    of the happier class. The gratification of their animal passions
787    will be their chief object; illicit connections will be formed;
788    early ill assorted marriages will take place without any chance
789    of provision for offspring; there will arise multitudes of sickly
790    and neglected children, pressing into the place of those early
791    victims just departed, and to be cut off by the same melancholy
792    process; and thus the scene revolves. This class will eagerly join
793    in mobs or disturbances, partly for the sake of excitement, and
794    because they have _not_ that security for good conduct--the hope of
795    improving their condition.”
796
797Dr. Lyon Playfair, one of the commissioners, in his report on the large
798town in Lancashire, remarks: “The tendency to crime is increased by
799the comparatively few old and experienced men left to counteract the
800haste and inexperience of youth. In the recent mobs in Lancashire, the
801great majority of the rioters were found to consist of persons just
802emerging from boyhood; the absence of elderly persons among them was a
803matter of common remark. Mr. Combe has observed, that the comparative
804paucity of aged and cautious persons is the cause of the inconsiderate
805and turbulent movements in America. The obstacles in the spread of
806education are, also, connected with these causes.”
807
808Dr. Playfair said previously, “The facts exhibited in the preceding
809sections, will, I apprehend, convincingly show, that a crowded and
810unhealthy district, with all its inevitable accompaniments of low
811morals and low intelligence--where the condition of human beings is
812scarcely above that of animals--where appetite and instinct occupy
813the place of the higher feelings--where the lowest means of support
814encourage the most improvident and early marriages,--is not the place
815where we shall find a diminishing or even stationary population. For
816the early unions there, are followed by early offspring; and although
817more than half that offspring may be swept away by disease during
818early infancy, yet nearly a third of it will grow up, in spite of all
819the surrounding evils, to follow in the steps of their parents, and
820in their turn to continue a race ignorant, miserable and immoral as
821themselves.” In a note, Dr. Playfair makes the following estimate. “If
822we suppose a district of 50,000 inhabitants, with births as 1 in 22,
823and deaths as 1 in 33--a ratio not actually as unfavorable as that of
824Holme--a little calculation will show that, by the end of twelve years,
825the population will have swollen it to nearly 60,000!”
826
827_Sameness of the Causes of Crime and of Disease._--Dr. Lyon Playfair,
828in the report already referred to, says expressly: “All the experience
829acquired during this inquiry, points out that one immediate effect of
830the operation of morbific causes, even when not present in sufficient
831intensity to produce direct disease, is to create an appetite for
832vicious indulgences. It is too common a mistake to transpose the effect
833for the cause, and to ascribe the disease to the indulgence of those
834passions, which, in the first place, were created by the low sanatory
835state of the district.”
836
837To the same purport are the pointed conclusions of Mr. Slaney. He had
838just been describing the low class of dwellings of the poor and the
839wretched, and the self-interest of small capitalists to prefer the
840erection of these to ones of a better description. He goes on to say:
841
842    “I have endeavored to describe some of the evils arising from the
843    want of proper sanatory regulations in many of these crowded and
844    neglected places. They may be summed up as follows:
845
846    “1st. Shortening the duration of the lives of the community.
847
848    “2nd. Disease, suffering and inability to work on the part of many
849    who survive--the cause of great cost to the country.
850
851    “3d. Crimes, theft, and the loss of property, which the police
852    constantly point out as arising from these neglected classes.
853
854    “4th. Riots, disturbances and drunkenness, which may generally be
855    traced to the same class of persons, often to the same place.
856
857    “5th. Great injury to the education of the poor, which is
858    constantly neutralized in its good effects by the neglect and
859    evils they see around them. The same observation applies to the
860    inestimable advantages of religion and of attendance on religious
861    worship.
862
863    “6th. Great discontent in some, and sluggish apathy in others,
864    producing recklessness of conduct, indifference, and want of
865    attachment to the institutions of our country.
866
867    “7th. The loss in the humbler classes of the cheapest, best and
868    most enduring pleasures, viz., those arising from the kindly
869    influence of the domestic relations between husbands and wives,
870    parents and children, brothers and sisters--this pure source
871    of happiness derived from mutual kindness, attachment and good
872    offices--is, amid the hardening and disgusting scenes described,
873    almost destroyed.
874
875    “Amid such scenes, the children become hardened, careless of
876    cleanliness, unused to order, and all the benefits derived from the
877    best education which may be given, is destroyed by the constant
878    evil examples they see around their homes. This is especially the
879    case with the female sex, who, if early tainted by the disgusting
880    scenes existing in the places described, and by the want of all
881    decency and self-respect there exhibited, become at a future
882    day, the nursing mothers of vice and wretchedness, instead of
883    inculcating the household virtues.”
884
885The sameness of the causes of diseases and of crime, are clearly
886indicated by the Rev. Mr. Clay in his report in the borough of Preston,
887as where he says:--
888
889    “A map of the town has been made, shaded in those districts which
890    are ill ventilated, drained and cleaned; the increased depth of
891    tint indicating a proportionate degree of dirtiness, &c. The
892    number of deaths in the respective streets is also given, every
893    blue spot representing a death from fever or epidemic disease, and
894    the red spots showing the frequency of death from other disorders.
895    The residences of persons charged with offences during the last
896    year are also indicated, and the whole tends to show, that dirt,
897    disease and crime are concurrent.”
898
899_Overcrowding and Defective Ventilation._--Dr. Southwood Smith, in his
900evidence before the commissioners for “_Inquiring into the state of
901large towns and populous districts_,” adduces the following painful,
902but yet instructive observations. We reproduce them here, not merely
903as a warning against a remote, or even a threatened evil, but with
904the hope of stimulating our fellow-citizens to the adoption of such
905measures as shall eradicate similar nuisances too near their own doors.
906
907    “I wish particularly,” Dr. S. Smith states, “to draw attention
908    to the importance of having a certain number of rooms in the
909    dwelling-houses of the poor, though I am aware of the difficulty
910    of legislating on this matter, and of the still greater difficulty
911    of carrying out practically what the legislature may declare to
912    be its intention and will. Still it is right, that the attention
913    of the legislature and other public bodies should be called to
914    the physical deterioration and moral degradation, which results
915    from the want of proper room in the dwelling-houses of the poor.
916    Besides the evidence on this subject, which has been published in
917    the report on the sanitary condition of the laboring population,
918    a large mass of evidence to the same effect will be found in the
919    reports of the sub-commissioners under the Children’s Employment
920    Commission, and in the statements of a great number of witnesses
921    examined by them. Instances such as the following are given: ‘A
922    mother and her son, being an adult, sleep in the same bed. Grown-up
923    females and unmarried young men sleep in the same room. A man,
924    his wife, and his wife’s sister, the latter being an adult, sleep
925    together in the same bed.’ I have myself seen, a young man, twenty
926    years of age, sleeping in the same bed with his sister, a young
927    woman, sixteen or seventeen years old. That incestuous intercourse
928    takes place under these circumstances, there is too much reason to
929    believe; and that when unmarried young men and women sleep together
930    in the same room, the women become common to the men, is stated as
931    a positive fact; but I regard another inevitable effect of this
932    state of things as no less pernicious; it is one of the instances
933    which, for want of a better term, may be called _unhumanizing_,
934    because it tends to weaken and destroy the feelings and affections
935    which are distinctive of the human being, and which raise him above
936    the  level of the brute. I have sometimes checked myself in the
937    wish, that men of high station and authority, would visit these
938    abodes of the less fortunate fellow-creatures, and witness with
939    their own eyes the scenes presented there; for I have thought the
940    same end might be answered in a way less disagreeable to them. They
941    have only to visit the Zoological Gardens, and observe the state of
942    society in that large room, which is appropriated to a particular
943    class of animals, where every want is relieved, and every appetite
944    and passion gratified, in full view of the whole community. In the
945    filthy and crowded streets, in our large towns and cities, you see
946    human faces retrograding, sinking down to the level of those brute
947    tribes; and you find manners appropriate to the degradation. Can
948    any one wonder that there is among these classes of the people so
949    little intelligence--so slight an approach to humanity--so total an
950    absence of domestic affection, and of moral and religious feeling?
951    The experiment has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful
952    success, affording the demonstration, that if, from early infancy,
953    you allow human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them
954    down to their level, leaving to them scarcely more intellect, and
955    no feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts.”
956
957Dr. Lyon Playfair adduces instances of the crowding of persons in the
958same room, without even the plea of necessity. They are not, he informs
959us, the most extreme cases of the kind.[3]
960
961In Preston, out of 442 dwellings examined in unhealthy localities, and
962inhabited at the time of the inquiry by 2400 persons sleeping in 852
963beds, it appeared that
964
965  In 84 cases 4 persons slept in the same bed,
966  In 28   “   5        “        “        “
967  In 13   “   6        “        “        “
968  In  3   “   7        “        “        “
969  In  1   “   8        “        “        “
970
971“Amidst the dirt and disease of filthy back courts and alleys, vices
972and crimes are lurking,” says the Rev. Mr. Clay, “altogether unimagined
973by those who have never visited such abodes.” The inspectors of prisons
974in Scotland, from separate inquiries, have also come to the conclusion,
975that the physical causes of disease, indirectly become the causes of
976crime.
977
978_Public Lodging Houses_, are another prolific source of disease and
979vice. They are, in nearly all large cities, the nightly resorts not
980only of the migrating laborer, and travelling artisan, but, also, of
981the lower mendicants, thieves, and prostitutes. These resorts are well
982known to the criminal police. In 1831, Mr. James knew a house of this
983description in London, to contain 126 persons, many of them women
984and children, and perhaps not more than a dozen beds in the place.
985At the census of 1841, there were not more than 30 to 40 in any of
986these houses; “still these numbers crowd the houses most annoyingly.”
987It is no uncommon thing, as we learn from Dr. Duncan, (_Report on
988the Sanatory State of Liverpool_,) for the keepers of lodging houses
989to cover the floor with straw, and allow as many human beings as can
990manage to pack themselves together, to take up their quarters for the
991night, at the charge of a penny each. The havoc made by the cholera in
992the lodging houses at Manchester, in 1832, was terrible. In some of
993these houses, as many as 6 or 8 beds were contained in a single room,
994which are crowded promiscuously with men, women, and children. Dr.
995Howard, after showing the lamentable extent to which they become the
996hot-beds of _febrile_ diseases of the most violent and fatal character,
997owing mainly to their filthy and unventilated condition, thus describes
998the morals of their frequenters, and their malign influence in this
999way on the young and inexperienced. “They serve as open receptacles
1000of crime, vice, and profligacy, and as nurseries in which the young
1001and yet uninitiated, become familiar with every species of immorality.
1002They are the haunts of the most depraved and abandoned characters,
1003as well as the most miserable and suffering objects of the town,
1004(_Manchester_,) and constitute one of the most influential causes of
1005the physical and moral degradation of our laboring population.”
1006
1007Unless we are misinformed, the investigations now making by the Board
1008of Health of Philadelphia, will reveal a state of things, not much
1009behind, although on a smaller scale, those described in the foregoing
1010extracts; and as regards New York, Dr. Griscom’s report, made a few
1011years ago, exhibits a still darker picture. With the warnings on the
1012other side of the Atlantic to deter us, we ought to have kept clear of
1013these nuisances entirely. Let us, as we have imitated the people of
1014Great Britain for evil, imitate them also for good, by instituting the
1015same searching inquiries into the nature and extent of these physical
1016and moral corruptions, that are recorded in the proceedings of the
1017various Parliamentary committees and Royal Commissioners.
1018
1019In Glasgow, the lodging houses have been subjected to regular municipal
1020supervision and ordinance, and, as we are told, with excellent effects.
1021
1022
1023
1024
1025ART. III.--STATE PENITENTIARIES.
1026
1027    I. _The Twentieth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern
1028    State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, transmitted to the Senate and
1029    House of Representatives._ March 1849, pp. 36.
1030
1031    II. _Report of the Board of Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary
1032    of Pennsylvania, for the year 1848, with the accompanying
1033    documents._ Pittsburg, 1849, pp. 21.
1034
1035    III. _Report on the condition of the New Jersey State Prison,
1036    embracing the Reports of the Joint Committee, Inspectors, Keeper,
1037    Moral Instructor and Physician._ Trenton, January 1849, pp. 44.
1038
1039    IV. _Documents relating to the State Prison._ Senate of
1040    Massachusetts, Document No. 5, pp. 24.
1041
1042
1043I. The first document in the above list is worthy of a much more
1044extended notice than our limits allow us to give. We shall notice its
1045constituent parts in their order.
1046
1047(1.) In their report the inspectors refer with natural interest to the
1048opening of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is expected to be completed
1049as early as January 1851. For want of it, “instances have occurred in
1050which the sheriff has been the medium of a message from the judge who
1051pronounced the sentence, to the chief officer of the prison, informing
1052him that the prisoner was insane, but that no other mode of providing
1053for the case existed.”
1054
1055The subject of pardons occupies a prominent place in their report. It
1056appears that but a fraction over six per cent. of the pardoned have
1057been recommitted; and the percentage of pardons in relation to number,
1058sex and color, cannot be so well set forth in any other way as by
1059transferring the table to our pages.
1060
1061
1062_Table showing the whole number of pardons granted from the
1063establishment of the prison in 1829 to 9th July, 1848._
1064
1065  +-------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+
1066  |       |    _Whole number in confinement._       |      _No. of pardons._      |        |
1067  |       |                                         |                             |        |
1068  |       +-----------------+---------------+-------+--------------+--------------+ Annual |
1069  |       |     Whites.     |    Colored.   |       |    Whites.   |    Col’d.    |average |
1070  |       |                 |               |Total, |              |              |  per   |
1071  |       +-----------------+---------------+ both  +----+----+----+----+----+----+centage.|
1072  | YEAR. |  M. |Fem.|Total.|  M. |Fem.|Tot.|colors.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| M. |Fem.|Tot.|        |
1073  +-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+
1074  | 1831  |  75 |    |   75 |  25 |  4 | 29 |   104 |  1 |    |  1 |    |    |    |        |
1075  | 1832  |  90 |    |   90 |  27 |  4 | 31 |   121 |  4 |    |  4 |    |    |    |        |
1076  | 1833  | 129 |    |  129 |  41 |  4 | 45 |   174 |  2 |    |  2 |    |    |    |        |
1077  | 1834  | 189 |    |  189 |  81 |  2 | 83 |   272 |  8 |    |  8 |  1 |    |  1 |        |
1078  | 1835  | 261 |  8 |  269 | 155 | 11 |166 |   435 | 10 |    | 10 |  4 |    |  4 |  2.38  |
1079  |       |     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1080  | 1836  | 278 | 11 |  289 | 179 | 19 |198 |   487 |  2 |  1 |  3 |    |    |    |        |
1081  | 1837  | 320 |  8 |  328 | 199 | 19 |218 |   546 |  4 |  1 |  5 |    |    |    |        |
1082  | 1838  | 333 | 11 |  344 | 199 | 22 |221 |   565 | 10 |    | 10 |    |    |    |        |
1083  | 1839  | 241 |  6 |  247 | 150 | 16 |166 |   413 |  2 |    |  2 |    |    |    |  1.26  |
1084  |to Jan.|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1085  |  15th.|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1086  | 1839  | 335 |  9 |  344 | 214 | 30 |244 |   588 |  9 |    |  9 |  1 |    |  1 |        |
1087  | 1840  | 331 |  8 |  339 | 203 | 31 |234 |   573 | 19 |    | 19 |    |    |    |        |
1088  | 1841  | 293 |  6 |  299 | 171 | 32 |203 |   502 | 11 |  1 | 12 |  1 |    |  1 |        |
1089  | 1842  | 298 |  5 |  303 | 153 | 21 |174 |   477 | 20 |    | 20 |  2 |  1 |  3 |        |
1090  | 1843  | 319 |  6 |  325 | 146 | 16 |162 |   487 | 15 |    | 15 |    |    |    |        |
1091  | 1844  | 332 | 12 |  344 | 136 | 17 |153 |   497 | 39 |    | 39 |  4 |  3 |  7 |        |
1092  | 1845  | 230 | 10 |  240 |  97 | 11 |108 |   348 | 23 |  1 | 24 |  2 |    |  2 |  5.37  |
1093  |to Jan.|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1094  |    21.|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1095  | 1845  | 305 | 15 |  320 | 113 | 16 |129 |   449 |  5 |    |  5 |    |    |    |        |
1096  | 1846  | 321 | 14 |  335 | 110 | 16 |126 |   461 | 24 |  1 | 25 |    |    |    |        |
1097  | 1847  | 297 |  9 |  306 | 113 | 13 |126 |   432 | 20 |    | 20 |  5 |    |  5 |        |
1098  | 1848  | 245 |  8 |  253 |  97 | 12 |103 |   356 |  6 |  1 |  7 |    |    |    |  4.08  |
1099  |to July|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1100  |   9th.|     |    |      |     |    |    |       |    |    |    |    |    |    |        |
1101  +-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+
1102
1103During the year 1848, there were received 121 convicts, viz., 88 whites
1104(two females), and 33 colored (three females), and 128 were discharged.
1105Of these, 83 served out their time; 13 were pardoned; 11 discharged by
1106order of law; 15 died from disease, and one was a suicide. The whole
1107number of convicts in confinement during the year was 415, viz., 299
1108white and 116 colored. Of the 16 deaths, 10 were whites and 6 colored.
1109
1110(2.) The warden’s report shows that of the 121 convicts received, 32
1111were foreigners, and 56 were natives of Pennsylvania. Ninety-one were
1112under middle age; 96 were of intemperate habits; 76 could read and
1113write; 60 were unmarried. Only 14 were bound and served their time out;
111413 were bound and broke their indentures; and 96 were never bound.
1115
1116Some curious facts appear in the various summaries which these details
1117embrace. For example, of the 2,421 prisoners received into the
1118institution from its opening in October 1829, 619 could neither read
1119nor write; 2,020 were addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks; 460,
1120or more than one-sixth, were foreigners; and of these last, Ireland
1121supplied 199 and Germany 112. Seventeen hundred and twenty-nine were
1122first convictions; 1,451 were never married; and 18 had been married
1123and separated; 1,631 were whites (48 females) and 790 colored (86
1124females); 467 broke their indentures, and 1,569 were never bound. Of
1125the 2,421 crimes, 2,000 were against property.
1126
1127(3.) Next in order is the physician’s report, in which special
1128reference is made to the inordinate length of sentences, when the
1129nature of the discipline is duly considered. Dr. Given thinks the
1130coloured prisoners as a class, suffer a double burden, inasmuch as
1131their sentences are longer and the enervating influence of imprisonment
1132is more severely felt by them,--and he furnishes the following items on
1133this subject.
1134
1135  Whole number of white prisoners,                            1631
1136  Whole number of colored prisoners,                           790
1137  Average length of sentences of white prisoners,      2 y., 8 ms.,  2 days.
1138  Average length of sentences of colored prisoners,    3 y., 3 ms., 14 days.
1139  Whole number of pardons of white prisoners,                  253
1140  Whole number of pardons of colored prisoners,                 25
1141  Whole number of deaths of white prisoners,                    73
1142  Whole number of deaths of colored prisoners,                 141
1143
1144The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning
1145power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need
1146of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code
1147to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how
1148far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy
1149the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is
1150given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely
1151watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past.
1152It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that
1153the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for
1154the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a
1155doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of
1156the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws,
1157are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into
1158consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which
1159they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need
1160to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a
1161more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention
1162to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient
1163action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double
1164wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become
1165alike odious.
1166
1167Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief
1168from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a
1169thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as
1170criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the
1171importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those
1172who may become insane during their imprisonment.
1173
1174Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on
1175admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per
1176cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s
1177researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have
1178had insane relatives;--10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4
1179mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.
1180
1181Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average
1182age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an
1183insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of
1184dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.
1185
1186(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons
1187have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each
1188corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The
1189whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to
1190the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.
1191
1192II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly
1193gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions
1194which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express
1195their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its
1196administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the
1197same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which
1198long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.
1199
1200The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was
1201discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from
1202the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females;
1203and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in
1204confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were
1205natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32
1206were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers,
120715 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the
1208year, 38 were under middle age.
1209
1210The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement
1211during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were
1212thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family
1213and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of
1214intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented
1215by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment,
1216and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner,
1217released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears,
1218that, _with one exception_, they were all received and discharged
1219in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose
1220parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very
1221intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen
1222months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted,
1223and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good
1224health.
1225
1226As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution,
1227the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts
1228have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and
1229forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number _only four
1230have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task
1231of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to
1232have performed their regularly allotted task._” We are not surprised
1233that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so
1234remarkable a measure of health.
1235
1236From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very
1237sensible paragraph.
1238
1239    “It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been
1240    presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the
1241    prisoners themselves during the _daily visitation_ in their cells,
1242    and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their
1243    minds, when alone, that _heavenly truth_ which may ultimately bring
1244    them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the _separate
1245    system_, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner,
1246    by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better
1247    prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when
1248    surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation
1249    of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general
1250    rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, _when_
1251    and _where_ intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this
1252    situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”
1253
1254
1255III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts
1256during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31,
12571848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged
1258during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were
1259pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died.
1260Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in
12611848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142
1262for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners.
1263In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and
126453 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation.
1265The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were
1266upwards of six thousand dollars.
1267
1268The physician’s report states, that “but _one_ death occurred during
1269the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the
1270prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average
1271one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved
1272steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and
1273economical.”--p. 43.
1274
1275The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite
1276a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying
1277a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an
1278element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and
1279religious instruction.
1280
1281    “The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly
1282    sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of
1283    men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but,
1284    to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a _mild severity_. The less
1285    abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who
1286    may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his
1287    books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His
1288    keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the
1289    superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are _his
1290    friends_. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant
1291    look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested
1292    in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with
1293    the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s
1294    self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees
1295    that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless
1296    outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining
1297    his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like
1298    benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate
1299    plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind
1300    offices of a sympathizing friendship.”
1301
1302IV. The inspectors of the Massachusetts State prison at Charlestown,
1303make a very favorable report of the health of body and mind of the
1304convicts under their care. “The favorite system of congregate labor and
1305lenient discipline, established in our prison,” they say, “has fully
1306answered the high expectations of its most zealous advocates. Every
1307year brings with it new proofs of its practicability, and of its great
1308superiority over any and every other that differs from it.”
1309
1310None will dissent, we presume, from the remark of the inspectors, that
1311“it should be remembered by all those who are intrusted with the high
1312prerogative of administering punishment, that the convict in the prison
1313is sentenced by the law to expiate his crime by confinement and hard
1314labor, and that every degree of punishment beyond what is needful for
1315the due execution of this sentence, and the attainment of the best
1316ends to be answered by it, is excessive, is beyond the sentence and
1317intention of the law, and is without law or justice.”
1318
1319The number of convicts received during the year ending September 30,
13201848, was 122; number discharged during the year 129; remaining, 281.
1321Of those discharged, 94 were by expiration and 27 by remission of
1322sentence, 2 were removed to the lunatic asylum, 2 escaped, and 3 died.
1323Of the 281 in prison, 22 are negroes, and 8 mulattoes, 203 are below
1324middle age, and 228 are for crimes against property! Seventy-one are
1325foreigners, of whom 30 are from Ireland. Of the employments, 72 are
1326stone-cutters, 20 blacksmiths, 69 cabinet-makers and upholsterers, 21
1327brush makers, 9 “solitary prison-sweepers.”
1328
1329The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during
1330the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing
1331well--are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming
1332respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes
1333have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among
1334which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian
1335Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.
1336
1337The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died
1338was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!
1339
1340The prison suffered a serious loss by fire during the year, and from
1341this and other causes the revenue of the institution is less than the
1342expenses by $4,242 79.
1343
1344The physician’s report is a modest and sensible document, evidently
1345prepared with care. The sickness of the prison would be represented
1346by an average of four patients a day in the hospital. Four hundred
1347and twenty-five days of light labor were prescribed during the year,
1348and about the same number of changes of labor. The general average of
1349convicts during the year was 287; and Dr. Bemis thinks his report shows
1350“a fair average degree of health fully equal to that of the community
1351at large, and vastly superior to what would have been enjoyed by the
1352same class of men in pursuit of their usual modes of living when at
1353large.”--p. 21.
1354
1355The three deaths were of consumption.
1356
1357The following remarkable statement from the physician’s report, we
1358cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.
1359
1360    “The average period of imprisonment of all those sentenced for
1361    life to the State Prison, since 1818, (amounting to 125,) has not
1362    exceeded seven years. Nineteen of this number have died in the
1363    Prison after an average confinement of seven years.”
1364
1365The supply of a substantial suit of clothes and a sum of money, not
1366exceeding five dollars, to each discharged convict, occasioned an
1367expenditure last year of more than five hundred dollars. In consequence
1368of the frequent instances in which the money thus furnished is spent
1369indiscreetly, it has lately been proposed in the Legislature to entrust
1370the dispensation of this bounty to the “Boston Society for the relief
1371of discharged convicts,” and a bill was introduced for that purpose.
1372We have not learned its fate. From a cotemporary print we learn that,
1373in consequence of the great increase in the number of convicts at the
1374Charlestown prison, it has become necessary to use other accommodations
1375than those which belong to the prison proper.[4] The chief cause
1376assigned for this increase is intemperance.
1377
1378_State Prison of Michigan._--It is said that 128 convicts are confined
1379in the Michigan State Prison, and that the annual deficiency in the
1380receipts ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The Governor thinks that
1381this sum is not more than a reasonable profit upon convict-labor,
1382considering what is made in other State Penitentiaries within his
1383knowledge!
1384
1385
1386
1387
1388NOTICES.
1389
1390
1391No. 1.--_Institutions for the Insane._
1392
1393We have upon our table, the reports for the year 1848-9 of the
1394Pennsylvania Hospital for the Insane, (the eighth,) of the
1395Massachusetts State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixteenth,) of the New York
1396State Lunatic Asylum, (the sixth,) of the Physician and Superintendent
1397of the M’Lean Asylum for the Insane at Somerville, Massachusetts,
1398(the thirty-first,) and of the New Jersey State Lunatic Asylum, (the
1399second.) The first and fourth are on private, and the other three on a
1400public foundation.
1401
14021. We suppose the first in our list combines as many of the substantial
1403advantages for the treatment of patients of this class, as any
1404institution in the world, and we are happy to know, that the prominent
1405principles which have been recognized in its structure and economy,
1406have been adopted in asylums of the latest date. The hospital has been
1407quite full during the whole year, and yet the health of the patients
1408has been remarkably good. The present arrangements are fitted to
1409accommodate 200 patients, and provision will soon be made for receiving
141020 more. It is certainly desirable to extend the benefits of such an
1411institution to as large a number as can divide without diminishing
1412the aggregate of good, but we quite concur with Dr. Kirkbride in the
1413opinion, that a larger number than 220 could not be well received in
1414one building, nor receive due attention from one medical officer--“a
1415daily visit to all the wards, and a daily supervision of all the
1416departments by its official head, being exceedingly desirable in every
1417institution for the insane.” Seven of the seventeen deaths during the
1418year, “occurred within a fortnight after the patients’ admission,” and
1419only one had been more than a year in the asylum.
1420
1421Of 1391 patients admitted to this hospital, 725 were under middle age,
1422(35 years,) and 666 over. Of 773 male patients, the leading occupations
1423were as follows:--farmers, 115; merchants, 66; laborers, 62; clerks,
142450; carpenters, 30; shoemakers, 22; physicians, 19; seamen and
1425watermen, 19; teachers, 17; tailors, 15; students, 15; NO OCCUPATION,
1426108.
1427
1428Of 618 females, 66 were seamstresses or mantua-makers, and 64
1429domestics; store-keepers and attendants in stores, 12, and teachers, 9.
1430Of single females, not pursuing a regular employment, 29 were daughters
1431of farmers, and 29 daughters of merchants. Of the married, 57 were
1432wives of farmers; 39 of laborers; 35 of merchants; 23 of clerks. Of the
1433618, 244 were single, 286 married and 88 widows. And of the 1391, 773
1434were natives of Pennsylvania; 91 of New Jersey; 197 from other of the
1435United States; 340 from foreign parts, of whom 189 were from Ireland!
1436
1437The most productive cause of insanity, as shown by the returns, is
1438intemperance, 84; the next is mental anxiety, 69; grief for loss
1439of friends, &c., 69; then comes the loss of property, 67; religious
1440excitement, 56; domestic difficulties, 45, and _unascertained_, 563! In
1441907 of the cases, insanity appeared before middle age, leaving 384 only
1442developed after that period.
1443
1444The plan of detached cottages for a particular class of patients,
1445continues to be an approved feature of the arrangements; and among the
1446valuable improvements of the last year is the erection of a museum
1447and reading-room on an eligible site. The building is 46 feet by 24,
1448with a piazza, and the interior is furnished with interesting and
1449valuable cabinets in natural science, as well as with newspapers, maps,
1450periodicals, pamphlets, &c. On the interesting topics of society,
1451instruction, and moral treatment, and the arrangements for heating
1452and ventilation, much valuable information is furnished. The annual
1453receipts and expenses are balanced with the sum of _twenty-six cents_,
1454and the cost of each patient per week, including every thing, is $3 88.
1455The amount expended on _free patients_ during the year is $7,666 88.
1456This is unalloyed charity.
1457
14582. The State Hospital at Worcester, (Massachusetts,) under the care of
1459Dr. Chandler, was overflowing with patients, though fifteen new rooms
1460were added during the year. The average number for the year was 404,
1461and the number of dormitories 360 only. The number of foreigners in the
1462hospital at the close of 1842 was 34, at the close of 1847 it was 121,
1463and at the close of 1848 it was 150!
1464
1465Dr. Chandler is of opinion, that it would not be judicious to enlarge
1466the present hospital, but he would rather erect a new one, and separate
1467the sexes. He thinks three small hospitals, in different sections of
1468the State, would have some advantage over a large one.
1469
1470The whole number of patients admitted from January 1833, to November
147130, 1848, is 3084, of whom 1433 were discharged cured, 416 improved,
1472and 272 died. Of the patients admitted last year, 154 were under
1473middle age, and 255 above, showing a very different result from that
1474which we have stated above at the Pennsylvania hospital. Of the whole
1475number received at Worcester, the cause of insanity in 322 cases is
1476supposed to have been intemperance; in 266 domestic affliction; in
1477233 religious views, and in 161 self-abuse. Hereditary tendencies to
1478insanity were traced in 691 cases. Fifteen hundred and sixty-one were
1479single, one thousand two hundred and thirty-two married, one hundred
1480and ninety-nine widows, and eighty-six widowers. Dr. C. thinks it very
1481clear that the sympathies and motives to action, which the domestic
1482relations supply, are all but indispensable to keep the whole system of
1483mind and body in a healthful state. If we understand the report of the
1484trustees, the cost to the State of each patient is $2 33â…“.
1485
14863. The report of the New York State Lunatic Asylum established at
1487Utica, was made to the Legislature, February 1, 1849. During the
1488six years since it was opened, it has had an annual average of 335
1489patients. The whole number under care during 1848, was 877, of whom
1490495 were removed at the end of the year. Judges of county courts have
1491authority to send to the asylum any person who becomes insane and whose
1492estate is insufficient for the support of himself and family; and the
1493county is chargeable with the expenses of his restoration, if it is
1494effected within the space of two years. Six hundred and twenty-nine of
1495this class have been received into the institution since it was opened,
1496and have thus been partakers of the most seasonable and appropriate
1497charity which the public can bestow. These have been among the most
1498hopeful subjects of hospital treatment, and would have suffered most
1499for want of it.
1500
1501The hospital is lighted by 280 burners from gas manufactured on the
1502premises. The expense of work, fixtures, &c., was $5,346 48,--and this
1503mode of lighting, is regarded not only as safer and more secure and
1504pleasant, but as cheaper than the former mode. The price of board and
1505hospital care, to patients who are chargeable to towns or counties,
1506is $2 per week. Pay patients are charged from $2 50 to $4 per week,
1507according to the accommodations they receive. The receipts of the year
1508fully meet the current expenses.
1509
1510Of 382 discharges during the year, 189 were men and 193 were women;
1511174 were cured, (viz., 87 men and 87 women,) and 84 were improved.
1512There were 86 deaths. Some salutary cautions are given respecting the
1513removal of distant patients to the hospital, especially in sudden and
1514acute cases of insanity, and where they are in a weak or diseased
1515state, and exposed to much suffering and fatigue on the journey. The
1516opinion of a judicious physician should be taken before the attempt to
1517remove them is made. Other and equally important cautions are given
1518against delaying to send such as are clearly deranged, merely because
1519they are monomaniacs, or not violent, nor very excitable. “Those cases
1520of insanity that are most improperly and most frequently neglected
1521and kept at home until they are incurable, are unattended by much
1522excitement; those that come on very gradually, unperceived for a long
1523time, excepting by the most intimate acquaintances,” (p. 20.)
1524
1525Of the whole number, (2,014,) 1017 were men, and 997 women; 1213 became
1526insane before middle life, and 801 after that period. Of the 1017 men,
1527437 were farmers and 133 laborers, 57 merchants and 51 scholars; and
1528of the 997 women, 853 were employed at house-work, or were without any
1529special trade or employment; 45 were school girls; 30 tailoresses; 24
1530instructresses; 21 milliners; 16 mantua-makers; 7 factory-girls; and
15311 music-teacher. As to their civil condition, 957 were single; 937
1532married; 83 widows; and 39 widowers. 1417 were natives of New York, and
1533300 were from foreign lands.
1534
1535Among the causes of insanity, are religious anxiety 178, loss of
1536property 86, sickness and death of kindred 74, excessive study 51,
1537intemperance 67, Millerism 36, disappointed in love 53, abuse by
1538husband 28, blows on the head 24, fright 24, excessive labor 33,
1539anxiety about absent friends, 18. Among the amusements of the patients,
1540debates, tableaux, singing and dancing, and theatrical performances.
1541Of the whole number, (2014,) 251, (108 men and 143 women,) were
1542disposed to suicide. This variety of insanity is by no means the most
1543incurable. On the contrary, some of the most permanent and complete
1544recoveries, are from this form of disease. From a register kept by Dr.
1545Bingham for four years at this hospital, of all the suicides occurring
1546in the State of New York, and noticed in the public prints, it appears
1547that 74 cases occurred in 1845, 64 in 1846, 106 in 1847, and 88 in 1848.
1548
1549In relation to hereditary insanity, the report shows that of the 2014
1550patients received at the institution, 637 are known to have insane
1551relatives, and 273 are known to have had insane parents, or nearly 1 in
15527. Dr. Brigham expresses the opinion that _all other causes combined
1553have not so much influence in producing insanity, as the transmission
1554of the disease from parents to their offspring_, p. 36. In other words,
1555that the exciting causes would be inadequate to produce insanity, but
1556for the inherent constitutional tendency to it. Dr. B also declares
1557his belief, that there is more insanity in this country than in any
1558other, especially in the northern and eastern States, and _that it is
1559fearfully on the increase_, p. 38.
1560
1561Some valuable suggestions respecting the prevalent causes of insanity
1562and the means of obviating them, are thrown out, and are entitled to
1563the earnest and studious regard of parents and teachers, as well as of
1564professional circles.
1565
15664. In the _M’Lean Asylum_ there were received during the year 1848,
1567153 patients, (71 males and 72 females.) Dismissed, 155, (87 males, 68
1568females,) of whom 82 were restored, (55 males, and 37 females.) There
1569were 23 deaths during the year. The total number of patients received
1570from 1837, is 1696. The average of the first six years of this term was
1571115, and the average of the second six years, was 166. Of the whole
1572number, 884 were discharged as cured, and 184 died. The report enters
1573at much length into a history of the construction of the buildings, and
1574of the recent alterations, amounting almost to a reconstruction of the
1575largest and most modern building on the male side.
1576
1577In conjunction with these alterations, a new heating and ventilating
1578apparatus has been introduced, and as we know the very great solicitude
1579that is felt in respect to this point by those who are commissioned
1580to devise the plan and oversee the construction of such edifices, we
1581extract so much of the report as relates to it.
1582
1583    “Every room has a hot air and a foul air flue opening in it, the
1584    entrance being protected by an ornamental grate, and the galleries
1585    have five or six flues of each kind opening in them, in order that
1586    the diffusion may be general. The flues are twelve by twelve, and
1587    twelve by nine inches in size.
1588
1589    “The pure supplies of air are received into a large reservoir
1590    or space in the basement between the walls forming the sides of
1591    the galleries above, and in which both kinds of flues are built.
1592    This main air channel has an area of at least fifteen feet, and
1593    terminates externally in a low tower, fully exposed to the passing
1594    air.
1595
1596    “The heater is a vertical boiler on the tubular plan, about
1597    eight feet in height and thirty inches in diameter. The fuel
1598    (anthracite) is placed within the boiler, and that is so placed
1599    within the reservoir before named, that only a small part of it,
1600    required to receive the fuel, is left outside.
1601
1602    “On each side of the reservoir of air, is a construction consisting
1603    of six longitudinal chambers one above the other, the whole length
1604    of it. The lower three, separated from the upper three by a brick
1605    arch and from each other by partitions of wood, are the ventilating
1606    channels receiving at intervals the flues from above and finally
1607    terminating beneath the exhausting shaft, to be described.
1608
1609    “The upper range consists of the three channels for hot air.
1610    Both of these ranges are so arranged that a channel answers to a
1611    story above, and thus each story of the house has its heating and
1612    ventilation entirely independent of any other.
1613
1614    “Each hot air channel has a pair of four inch cast iron water pipes
1615    connected with spigot joints and iron cement; one end of each comes
1616    off the boiler near the top, and the other or return end, enters
1617    the boiler on the other side, near its bottom. The hot and cold
1618    ends of each pair of pipes are on opposite sides, in order that the
1619    average heat at any place where the air is delivered above may be
1620    the same. The three pair of pipes receive and return their water,
1621    through tubes reduced to two inches diameter, as recommended by
1622    Mr. Hood, the highest authority on this class of subjects, and at
1623    the same level. The degree of curvature essential in this form
1624    of connection, was expected to make a difference in the velocity
1625    of the circulating fluid, and consequent temperature at which
1626    the water would be found in the different ranges. Practically no
1627    material difference is remarked. The radiating pipes cross at the
1628    bottom of the cold air reservoir. The air flows in to impinge upon
1629    them through arched spaces left in the front of the channels,
1630    looking towards the reservoir. Every flue for hot or foul air is
1631    commanded by a slide readily approached below.
1632
1633    “The heated air is always admitted near the ceiling to obviate any
1634    contamination at its point of delivery. The foul air is drawn off
1635    near the wash-board, any impurities there deposited being drawn
1636    down, but not into the room. The diffusion of the air, where an
1637    adequate exhaustive power is provided, is also much favored by
1638    being thus turned in its course, and the lower stratum is not
1639    uncomfortably cool to the feet,--a common objection to the usual
1640    method of receiving and withdrawing the supplies.
1641
1642    “The foul air channels into which the flues from each story open,
1643    do not come together, until just as they pass under the foot of
1644    the ventilating shaft or chimney, which through the agency of a
1645    cast iron pipe, a foot in diameter in the middle of the shaft,
1646    running up fifty feet and receiving the smoke from the furnaces,
1647    constitutes the moving power. This shaft is built of brick in a
1648    useless angle where the two buildings approached each other, and
1649    has an internal diameter, it being a circle, of about six feet at
1650    its basis a few feet below the cellar floor, and terminates in one
1651    of the original chimney stacks at the corner of the foundation
1652    of the dome, height of about seventy-five feet, and with about
1653    one half its size at bottom. A deviation of a few feet from the
1654    perpendicular was inevitable at about two-thirds its length.
1655    It is carefully plastered or _pargetted_ within. As its upper
1656    opening was commanded by the spherical dome, endangering the
1657    regurgitation of wind at certain times, it was surmounted with a
1658    form of chimney-cap, figured in Mr. Tredgold’s works some forty
1659    years since, and being essentially that recently introduced into
1660    considerable use in this vicinity.
1661
1662    “As a cure for smoky chimneys, this cap has considerable
1663    efficiency, but is regarded as of very trifling moment as for as
1664    suction or exhaustion from below is required. For its power is too
1665    feeble at all times, for such an amount of ventilation as an insane
1666    hospital requires, and depends wholly on the fluctuation currents
1667    of external air. If the upper range of bricks had been laid with a
1668    bevel upwards, and a plain plate of metal placed on four  short
1669    legs a few inches above, it would have answered equally well and at
1670    a tenth of the cost. The rarefaction produced by the heat radiated
1671    from the central iron smoke pipe occasions a partial vacuum,
1672    instantly filled from the rooms behind.
1673
1674    “The whole length of cast iron hot water pipe is about 600 feet,
1675    and with the portion of the heater within the main air cell or
1676    reservoir, and the smaller wrought iron tubes connecting the
1677    extremes of each of the six pipes with the upper and lower ends
1678    of the boiler, constitutes a radiating surface of over 700 square
1679    feet. The effective fire surface of the boiler is probably about 30
1680    superficial feet, and about 60,000 cubic feet of space above in the
1681    three corridors, and the rooms opening upon them, are to be heated.
1682
1683    “The amount of anthracite consumed in the twenty-four hours of
1684    our coldest weather, is not far from 400 lbs.; the water in the
1685    extremities of the pipes receiving it from the heater, rarely
1686    exceeds 180° F. and falls off about 20° at its point of re-entering.
1687
1688    “All these expressions, however, are quite indefinite without
1689    taking into consideration the extent of change required in the
1690    air. It is obvious that by closing the damper which commands the
1691    ventilating shaft, the relations of temperature of the air, and
1692    of the pipes would at once sympathize. With the active power of
1693    the shaft, it is certain that any possible amount of ventilation
1694    may be attained. Indeed, it is probable that the present shaft is
1695    equal to the demands of the remainder of the male wing in addition.
1696    The escape of the steam pump is injected into the centre of the
1697    ventilating space, giving us, for some hours daily, the aid of this
1698    recently adopted and exceedingly efficient means of ventilation.
1699
1700    “While a sufficient time has not yet elapsed to stamp our apparatus
1701    with the seal of experience, the only test of such appliances in
1702    the mechanical arts, yet we are authorized to declare that, as
1703    far it has been tried, it promises all that could be desired in
1704    supplying a full, certain, and manageable amount of air, in its
1705    highest hygienic conditions.
1706
1707    “The cost of getting up a complete system of hot-water warming
1708    and exhaustive ventilation in a country where few examples or
1709    approximate specimens are to be found--in a climate which nullifies
1710    all European experience--where all parties, suggesters and
1711    mechanics, are obliged to acquire a certain experience as they go
1712    along, must be much greater than when this subject shall be well
1713    understood and generally adopted, as it eventually cannot fail to
1714    be. Independent of making the flues and ventilating chimney, items
1715    which in new undertakings would naturally come under the head of
1716    construction account, the expense of our undertaking will fall
1717    considerably below a thousand dollars, and we are satisfied that
1718    with the experience acquired in this single trial, it could be gone
1719    over again at a very considerable reduction of cost.”
1720
1721We have left ourselves but a finger’s breadth of room for a notice
1722of the report of the _N. Jersey State Lunatic Asylum_ at Trenton,
1723rendered December 1848. It is accompanied by a view and ground plan of
1724the buildings, which were opened for patients on the 15th of May last,
1725under the superintendence of Dr. H. A. Buttolph. They are designed for
1726the accommodation of 200 patients, and in their general structure and
1727arrangement accord with those of the Pennsylvania Hospital already
1728noticed. The asylum occupies a most eligible site, about two miles
1729north-west of the public buildings, surrounded by a choice farm of 111
1730acres, with an unfailing supply of fine soft water, and a beautiful
1731grove in the rear, thus affording abundant room for hospital purposes,
1732and embracing every variety of scenery and spacious pleasure grounds
1733for the use of the patients. The various fixtures for warming,
1734ventilating and lighting, as well as the arrangements for cooking,
1735washing, bathing, &c., are after the most improved models, and are
1736described with interesting and intelligible minuteness in the report,
1737an examination of which we would recommend to all who are seeking
1738information on the subject. The number received during the year was
173986, of whom 83 remained in the asylum at the date of the report. A
1740large proportion of the number received were chronic cases, which are
1741generally very numerous at the opening of such institutions. Of the
174286, 27 were under middle age; 52 were single and 30 married. Of their
1743occupations, 22 of the men were farmers, and 16 of the women were
1744house-keepers. An hereditary tendency to insanity was traced in 18 of
1745the 86 cases, or about as 1 to 5.
1746
1747
1748SUMMARY OF PRINCIPAL FACTS.
1749
1750  ======================================================================
1751                 | Admitted | Discharged | Remaining |        |
1752                 |  during  |  or died   |  at date  |        |
1753                 |   the    |   during   |    of     | Cured. | Deaths.
1754                 |  year.   | the year.  |  report.  |        |
1755  ---------------+----------+------------+-----------+--------+---------
1756  Pennsylvania,  |    215   |     203    |    200    |   120  |   17
1757  New Jersey,[5] |     86   |       3    |     83    |     3  |    0
1758  New York,      |    405   |     382    |    495    |   174  |   86[6]
1759  Massachusetts, |    261   |     246    |    409    |   136  |   30
1760  ======================================================================
1761
1762
1763VIRGINIA.--The Eastern Insane Asylum of Virginia is established at
1764Williamsburg, and the Western at Staunton. At the former were received
1765in 1848, 34 patients, 15 males and 19 females. The number under care,
1766October 1, 1848, was 165. Aggregate of inmates during the year 198;
1767discharged 6 males and 10 females; deaths 17, (8 males and 9 females.)
1768Spacious additions to the buildings are now in progress, a portion of
1769which will be appropriated to colored patients. The receipts of the
1770year were $41,350 64, and the expenditures $29,716 89.
1771
1772At the latter institution were received during the year ending October
17731, 1848, 70, (39 males and 31 females,) making an aggregate of 277
1774under care during the year. There were discharged in the same time 50
1775patients, of whom 40 were recovered, (21 males and 19 females,) and 7
1776more or less improved; 2 were unimproved, 1 eloped, and 22 died.
1777
1778Among the causes assigned for insanity, we notice hard study is given
1779in the case of 11 males and 1 female, intemperance 16 males, and
1780domestic affliction 6 males and 18 females. Seven thousand dollars have
1781been expended lately in new buildings.
1782
1783
1784No. 2.--_The precise present character of transportation explained,
1785with suggestions by Ignotus._
1786
1787We observe in our English papers a brief notice of a pamphlet of
1788fifty pages, published in London a short time since, advocating some
1789important modifications of the transportation system. As we regard
1790the system itself too near extinction to render any modifications of
1791it particularly valuable or interesting, we notice the publication
1792only for the sake of what the author says about _convict-separation_.
1793We take, by piece-meal, the whole extract of the English reviewer,
1794venturing a brief comment on some passages.
1795
1796    “This sort of confinement (separation) has, of late years, been
1797    extravagantly commended by some, and as loudly reprobated by
1798    others. The truth seems to lie between the two extreme opinions.
1799    (A position which truth has long been supposed to occupy.) We are
1800    led, by our own observations, to value it but little as an _active
1801    agency_ for reforming criminals, but to allow it a high place as
1802    auxiliary, in general, to that which is reformatory in the highest
1803    degree, _Christian instruction in the hands of Christian men_.”
1804
1805We are not aware of any system of prison discipline that possesses
1806or pretends to possess an “active agency for reforming criminals,”
1807independent of Christian instruction. We imprison men to punish them,
1808and we think the “_active agency_” of punishment is quickened by
1809separation. And hence we hold, that apart from reformatory influences,
1810separation during imprisonment is preferable to association, considered
1811merely as a punishment. When, however, we introduce the agency which is
1812“reformatory in the highest degree,” (to wit, “_Christian instruction
1813in the hands of Christian men_,”) the comparative fitness of the two
1814modes of imprisonment to receive and employ it, is at once revealed,
1815and, as “Ignotus” says, the separation of the convicts is then seen to
1816occupy a high place as an auxiliary to its influence.
1817
1818    “The separate system is free, certainly, from many things which
1819    impede the reformation of criminals; from the perpetual distrust
1820    and perpetual punishment which are necessary to enforce _silence_
1821    in _association_, and from the grosser vices of the older style of
1822    prisons, mutual contamination and hardening in villany. It allows
1823    a return to feelings of self-respect. It removes all possibility
1824    of combination for evil purposes, and prevents the exertion of
1825    that fascinating influence which the practised villain exerts so
1826    destructively over the novice in crime. It protects the penitent,
1827    in his first desires and efforts to return to God. It is something,
1828    also, as regards others less hopeful, even for a time, effectually
1829    to break the chain of their evil habits, and to compel the mind,
1830    however reluctant, to turn inwards and reflect, until the dormant
1831    powers of conscience be aroused. Beyond this it does not seem to go
1832    in producing amendment; and we are persuaded, that if the benign
1833    and saving influence of our divine religion were withdrawn from a
1834    prison on the separate plan, not a single inmate would ever leave
1835    its walls a whit more reformed than from any other.”
1836
1837We think the friends of separation could scarcely ask for a more
1838favorable exhibit of its advantages than _Ignotus_ gives. It certainly
1839places that system far in advance of any and all others as the basis
1840of reformation. And while we readily admit that it is but a basis,
1841and that higher and better influences must be relied on to make
1842it efficient as a means of reformation, we cannot agree with the
1843author, that convicts from a separate prison are not likely to leave
1844its walls a whit more reformed than convicts from Newgate or from
1845Blackwell’s Island. To keep bad men apart must always, under all
1846circumstances, be more conducive to their reform, than to suffer their
1847intercommunication. If “the benign and saving influence of our divine
1848religion,” were withdrawn from the city of London or New York, it would
1849become a pandemonium; but no one would say, that if each man, woman
1850and child, were separated from every other man, woman and child by an
1851impassable gulf, the degree of corruption would not be essentially
1852reduced. Close association breeds the plague of cities--comparative
1853separation keeps the country clean and wholesome. The analogies of the
1854moral and natural world are very obvious in this respect.
1855
1856    “If it be thought, from what has been written of late years on the
1857    subject, that a greater efficacy should be attributed to separate
1858    confinement, let it be borne in mind, that cotemporaneously with
1859    its adoption in any prison, there has been very much greater
1860    care taken than ever used to be in the selection of officers to
1861    superintend the discipline, and to convey moral and religious
1862    instruction to the prisoners. Wherever Christianity has been
1863    brought to bear upon criminals, in its real power and blessedness,
1864    good has been accomplished under the most untoward circumstances;
1865    sinners have been brought to Christ and salvation; and the mass,
1866    if not converted unto God, have been marvellously civilized. This
1867    was manifested by the success which followed the self-denying
1868    labors of Mrs. Fry, and other pious persons in Newgate; of that
1869    eminent man Dr. Browning, in so many convict ships; of Sir Edward
1870    Parry, who labored like a missionary amongst his _assigned_ convict
1871    servants, at Port Stephen’s; of Colonel Demaresq, also acting in
1872    the same spirit, under the same circumstances, at St. Helier’s and
1873    St. Aubyn’s; and of Sarah Martin, in the gaol of Yarmouth, of whose
1874    unwearied and blessed labors the Government Inspector, Captain
1875    Williams, makes such honorable mention in several reports. The
1876    superior mind of a person invested with authority, may exercise
1877    a most salutary influence upon any class of human beings, but
1878    Christian doctrine, and Christian character _consistent enough to
1879    stand the scrutiny of the bad_, accomplish greater things; and the
1880    lower any are sunken, the more commanding is this influence upon
1881    their minds.”
1882
1883
1884We presume the prevailing sentiments of this passage, will meet
1885a hearty response from all our readers. We are in no danger of
1886attributing too much efficacy to the power of the truth over the mind
1887when it has access to it. It may be questioned, however, whether its
1888influence is not greatly hindered, and sometimes completely obstructed,
1889by the debasing vices of convicts. We are not quite prepared to admit,
1890that the lower the human mind sinks, the more commanding is the
1891influence upon it of Christian doctrine and Christian character, though
1892we would regard no case as beyond the reach of such an influence.
1893
1894    “The _combination_ of pious Christian zeal with good judgment and a
1895    knowledge of human nature, in the head of any prison establishment,
1896    we are convinced is more likely to lead to the reformation of its
1897    inmates, than any _system_ of discipline _without it_. It has the
1898    blessing of God, “without whom nothing is strong, nothing is holy,
1899    nothing is perfect.” But, whatever may be thought of the influence
1900    of separate confinement, as _a means of reformation_, there should
1901    be no doubt about its utility as a punishment, if not carried to
1902    an extreme. It is a most severe one, certainly; but this is not
1903    without great advantages, even in an economical point of view; for
1904    in proportion as it is severe, the sentence may be abridged, and
1905    its heaviest pressure is upon those who deserve it most. Criminals,
1906    of all men, can least bear to be alone. A thoroughly bad man,
1907    by himself, is the greatest coward, and without his accustomed
1908    stimulants, the most wretched of beings; we have no hesitation,
1909    therefore, in stating, that such a man would prefer even the scanty
1910    food, the vermin and the sloth of such a place as Newgate, where
1911    he might gamble for his supper, learn new tricks or instruct the
1912    novice, sing, play, and quarrel by turns in the night-room, than
1913    the very best treatment and the most abundant diet of a prison
1914    on the new plan. The _reformatory character_ of such a gaol is,
1915    to such persons, an object of real terror. A visiting justice of
1916    the gaol of Reading, stated before Lord Brougham’s Committee (p.
1917    478-9,) that full 50 per cent of the vagrant class had actually
1918    fled out of Berkshire, lest they might be immured in so horrible
1919    a place. It is however, an expensive plan for the treatment of
1920    criminals; its _individuality_ and severe pressure creating a
1921    necessity for better occupation of the mind and body, a more
1922    liberal diet and a greater number of teachers than where prisoners
1923    are associated.”
1924
1925
1926We regard the features of separation which Ignotus delineates in the
1927foregoing passage, as most highly commendatory of it as a means of
1928discipline and reform. This better occupation of the mind and body, a
1929more liberal diet, and the greater number of teachers, which become so
1930needful, indicate just what the desire for wholesome food does in a
1931convalescent patient. His vices had made wholesome occupation of either
1932mind or body irksome; and the attempt to teach him good knowledge was
1933to annoy, if not to offend him. If separation from the haunts and
1934fellowship of the wicked makes him long for what he once loathed, the
1935public are “penny-wise and pound-foolish,” if they grudge the supply.
1936It is the token of returning health and should be hailed with joy and
1937gratitude.
1938
1939
1940No. 3.--_Statistics of Truantry and of Juvenile Vagrancy in the City of
1941Boston._
1942
1943By the kindness of Mr. Tukey, City Marshal at Boston, we are furnished
1944with an interesting report, which he prepared at the instance of the
1945late efficient Mayor, (Mr. Quincy,) respecting the number, character,
1946social circumstances, &c. of the street-children, in habits of
1947vagrancy, wandering about and contracting idle and vicious habits. We
1948draw largely from this interesting document, and earnestly wish the
1949like investigation might be made into the condition of other cities in
1950this respect.
1951
1952The whole number of the class of children designated between six and
1953sixteen years of age, is 1066; arranged as follows:
1954
1955  Male children,                                                      882
1956  Females,                                                            184
1957  Children of American parents,                                       103
1958  Children of Foreign parents,                                        963
1959  Children who belong to some school, but are truants,                106
1960  Boys regularly employed in Bowling saloons,                         139
1961  Children who do not attend any school nor have any lawful calling,  821
1962  Children who do not attend school for want of clothing, books, &c.  129
1963  Children of widows,                                                 238
1964  Children with fathers but no mothers,                                29
1965  Children, orphans,                                                   54
1966    Their ages are as follows:
1967        Six years of age,                                        39
1968        Seven    “   “                                           53
1969        Eight    “   “                                           79
1970        Nine     “   “                                           77
1971        Ten      “   “                                          121
1972        Eleven   “   “                                          111
1973        Twelve   “   “                                          176
1974        Thirteen     “                                          141
1975        Fourteen     “                                          143
1976        Fifteen “    “                                           80
1977        Sixteen “    “                                           56
1978
1979    “My opinion is, that of the whole number, from eight to nine
1980    hundred (from neglect and their bad habits) are not fit to enter
1981    any of our present schools.
1982
1983    “From the best information which I can obtain, I am satisfied that
1984    the whole number in the City at the present time, (including the
1985    above number,) is not less than fifteen hundred of the same class
1986    as those described.
1987
1988    “And I earnestly call your attention to them, and the necessity of
1989    providing some means to have these children properly brought up,
1990    either at public or private expense; for I am satisfied that it
1991    will cost the State and City more for Police, Courts and Prisons,
1992    if they are suffered to go at large, than it would, to take them
1993    now, maintain them and make them useful citizens.
1994
1995    “The State Reform School at Westborough, will be a great benefit.
1996    Out of fifty-eight boys that have been sent there, thirty-four
1997    have gone from this City. But I am of opinion that the law is
1998    defective that waits until the child ‘_shall be convicted of any
1999    offence known to the Laws of this Commonwealth and punishable by
2000    imprisonment_’ before he can be sent there.
2001
2002    “Very few parents are willing to complain of and testify to the bad
2003    conduct of their children, knowing that such testimony will deprive
2004    them of their services.
2005
2006    “I am satisfied that the system heretofore pursued by the City
2007    Government of licensing minors to sell papers, and other small
2008    articles, is an injury to them.
2009
2010    “During the year 1846, out of 112 minors arrested for larceny, and
2011    carried before the Courts, 46 were news-boys. During the year 1847,
2012    out of 112 minors, 58 were news-boys.
2013
2014    “During the year 1847, out of 30 licensed, six were brought in for
2015    larceny during one week.
2016
2017    “There is evidently a great increase of crime among minors. The
2018    Police books show that the number arrested and brought in, is more
2019    than one hundred each quarter.
2020
2021    “The following extract is from the City School Report for the year
2022    1847.
2023
2024    “‘Does the instruction provided by the City reach all those persons
2025    for whom it is intended? This question suggests itself to every one
2026    who observes the apparently great number of children, at large, in
2027    school hours, in almost every part of the City.
2028
2029    “‘It is not difficult to find out what are the occupations of
2030    many of these children. They are hawkers of papers, or sellers of
2031    matches,--most of the time occupied in quarreling and gambling.
2032    They are beggars, male and female, strolling from street to street,
2033    through lanes, by-ways and alleys, practicing the elementary
2034    lessons of pilfering, lying, deception and theft. They may be
2035    seen wherever wooden structures are in the process of building,
2036    repairing, or tearing down;--seeking for fragments of wood to which
2037    they evidently feel they have a very questionable right. They are
2038    the loafers on wharves and in all the modes of juvenile vice. Are
2039    these children in the way to become useful citizens or happy and
2040    respectable men? Are they not growing up to be the occupants of
2041    jails and almshouses? Are they not in a course of education for
2042    worthlessness and crime?
2043
2044    “‘Let us see what answer the records of the courts of justice make
2045    to these questions.
2046
2047    “‘There are, on an average, 74 inmates of the House of Reformation;
2048    nearly the same number in the school on Thompson’s Island; and, for
2049    the year ending in November last, 456, under age, had been inmates
2050    of the jails.
2051
2052    “‘In reference to providing instruction for this great mass of
2053    uneducated children, our _system_ is not defective. Sufficient
2054    provision is now made for the instruction of those children who
2055    have passed the age at which they are admissible into the primary
2056    schools, and who are not qualified for the grammar schools. The
2057    number of this class is rapidly increasing, and is likely to
2058    increase still more. Our system was contrived and adapted to a
2059    small city, peopled by persons born in New England, and always
2060    enjoying and disposed to avail themselves of the advantages of the
2061    free-school system of these States. But some (no?) provision has
2062    been made for the vast accessions to our population by immigration
2063    from foreign countries of persons of every age, and of every
2064    condition of ignorance. Our system of government supposes educated
2065    citizens; and will not be safe unless our citizens are more or
2066    less educated. Now there are great masses coming in upon us who
2067    are not educated, except to vice and crime; the creatures or the
2068    victims of the justice or the oppression, or the over-population
2069    of the old world. For the education of these, adult and juvenile,
2070    not only must provision be made, but means must be used to render
2071    the provision effective. It is not enough to say that provision
2072    is made for their education, if they will avail themselves of it
2073    at a proper time. Unless they are made inmates of our schools,
2074    many of them will become inmates of our prisons; and it is vastly
2075    more economical to educate them in the former than to support
2076    them in the latter. The annual cost of educating an individual at
2077    the public schools is from six to twenty dollars. The annual cost
2078    of the support of an individual in the House of Reformation, the
2079    cheapest of all such institutions, is forty-four dollars, and in
2080    the House of Correction probably not less than one hundred dollars;
2081    and in this estimate is not included the great expense of the
2082    administration of criminal law, much of which might be prevented by
2083    the proper education of these children.
2084
2085    “‘It is a defect in the organization of this (School) Board, that
2086    there is now no person connected with and acting under direction
2087    of the Board, to ascertain what children of the legal age are not
2088    in the schools, and to use measures to bring them there. This
2089    Board is the only one which has, officially, a knowledge of the
2090    numbers of children in the schools and of those who ought to be
2091    there. It is the one whose duty it is to provide means for the
2092    education of all the children. It would be well if it could have
2093    authority not only to use means to bring wandering children into
2094    the schools, but to provide for the instruction of those portions
2095    of the adult population who are without, and who desire elementary
2096    instruction,--that is, instruction in reading, writing and
2097    accounts.’
2098
2099    “I know of no one thing,” says the City Marshal, “that is so much
2100    needed as a proper home for idle and vagrant _female_ children, the
2101    ascertained number of which class is 184. There are, undoubtedly,
2102    300 of the same character now in the City, they may be seen at the
2103    entrance of every public building and every great thoroughfare,
2104    peddling small articles or begging, and insulting every person who
2105    refuses to buy, or give when asked. Many of them have been so long
2106    neglected, that they are familiar with crime in its worst forms,
2107    but against whom it is difficult to procure evidence, and when
2108    procured, the only place they can be sent to, is to the House of
2109    Correction or House of Industry for short terms, and then they are
2110    suffered to go at large without a proper home or friends to care
2111    for them.
2112
2113    “In regard to habitual truants from the schools, I am satisfied
2114    that the powers of the Courts, and the City authorities, are
2115    entirely _inadequate_ to meet the evil. The late Mayor directed
2116    me to detail some officer whose whole duty it should be to look
2117    after the truants that were reported to him, by the masters of the
2118    several schools.
2119
2120    “From the report of the officer detailed for this purpose, I make
2121    the following extract:
2122
2123    “‘During the year that I have had the charge of Truants, I have
2124    been called upon by the teachers of the Grammar and other Schools,
2125    to nearly 300 truant and idle children; and for want of some system
2126    by which to be governed, my practice has been as far as possible
2127    adapted to the circumstances of the case. I first call upon the
2128    parents, find out their condition and the character of the boy
2129    complained of, in order to know how to proceed with him; admonish
2130    him, and always in the first instance take him back to the school
2131    to which he belongs. In many cases this course has been sufficient.
2132    If called again to the same boy, by the consent of the parents, I
2133    have locked him up for a few hours, and given him to understand
2134    that a complaint against him would remain on file to be proceeded
2135    with if he again offends. This, sometimes, has been enough, but
2136    not often. After taking a boy to School two or three times, and
2137    he finds that nothing further is done, the Police-man’s badge and
2138    staff have no terrors for him. The reason, I think, is this. The
2139    law does not reach his case--the Courts say he is not a vagrant,
2140    because he has a home--and he is not a stubborn and disobedient
2141    child within the meaning of the statute. He is disobedient only so
2142    far as he is a truant; and there is no law against truancy. I have
2143    been into Court with a number of such cases and did not succeed in
2144    sustaining the complaint. The decision was almost fatal to the boy,
2145    and a great injury to the School to which he belonged. The only
2146    course left for us after this, was to watch the boy until we could
2147    arrest him for some trifling offence _known to the law_, and have
2148    him punished, which seemed to be necessary for the good of the boy,
2149    as well as the School.’
2150
2151    “The above statistics have been obtained in the following manner.
2152    During _school hours_ the officer has visited the wharves,
2153    public thoroughfares, and all other places where these children
2154    congregate, and by kind treatment and persuasion, learned their
2155    names and residence, then gone with them to their homes and
2156    ascertained their condition, and that of their parents, a record of
2157    which is now in this office, and to which additions are daily made.”
2158
2159This brief history of juvenile vagrancy in the city of Boston, whose
2160school system has been so long and justly regarded as her chief glory,
2161will not surprise those who are familiar with scenes at the wharves,
2162railway-stations and steamboat landings of New York, Philadelphia and
2163Baltimore. Innumerable specimens of the same class of young renegades
2164may be seen also at the doors or in the vestibules of public houses
2165in the large inland towns; and unless some mild compulsory process is
2166devised to form them to better habits, it is certain that a severe one
2167will be demanded to protect the community against their violence and
2168depredations.
2169
2170
2171    No. 4.--_The London Christian Observer’s notice of Rev. Mr. Field’s
2172    work on the advantages of the separate system of imprisonment._
2173
2174In our last number we inserted, entire, an article on Mr. Field’s work,
2175from the “London Medical and Chirurgical Review.” The February (1849)
2176number of the _London Christian Observer_ devotes ten or fifteen pages
2177to it, and inclines “to agree to a considerable extent in the author’s
2178opinion, that the separate system is superior, not only to every other
2179system that has hitherto been tried, but also to any that shall be,
2180or can be hereafter devised.” This is rather more than we should be
2181willing to say of any human device, but we are glad to see an English
2182periodical of so much influence and reputation committing itself so
2183heartily to the right side.
2184
2185The “Observer” has strangely fallen into the notion, that absolute
2186solitude without labor or instruction, was ever adopted _as a system
2187of discipline in the United States_. He speaks of “our good friends
2188in the United States,” as having run into the extreme of “entire
2189solitude for six or ten months together in prisons of the most wretched
2190description,” but when the effects were seen, “the system was abandoned
2191at once.” He expresses thankfulness, that this dreadful system was
2192never tried in England, but that they have been permitted to learn
2193better by the experience of their neighbors. There is no doubt, that
2194studious efforts have been made by the opponents of separation in our
2195country to confound it with solitude, and to give the impression, that
2196whatever evils are imagined or proved to result from the latter, are
2197necessarily incident to the former. But we should have looked for a
2198little more discrimination in the Observer, and for evidence of more
2199thorough knowledge on a subject of so much interest. Indeed, we might
2200almost suppose, that the needful supply of knowledge and discrimination
2201is at hand, when the inquiry affects the good repute of the “sea girt
2202isle,” and only fails when the institutions of “young America” are
2203presented for review.
2204
2205    “We come now,” says the Observer, “to the separate system as we
2206    have it _amongst ourselves_, and we must request our readers to
2207    bear in mind, that this system is essentially different from the
2208    _Solitary_, properly so called--different in its objects, in its
2209    working, in its effects. The separate cell is but the sick room, in
2210    which the morally diseased is put under treatment for such time as
2211    his case requires. The solitary cell is (or rather was, for it no
2212    longer exists among civilized nations) the grave; where the patient
2213    is left as being past treatment and without hope of recovery. Yet
2214    the two methods have been, and are confounded, and the failure of
2215    the one, with all its attendant circumstances of horror, is used
2216    blindly or unscrupulously as an argument against the other.”--p.
2217    129-30.
2218
2219It is this “blind or unscrupulous” confounding of solitude and its
2220effects, with separation and its fruits, that constitutes one of the
2221crying sins against humanity, for which we think the anti-separatists
2222will be called to account.
2223
2224    “We are sorry that we cannot follow Mr. Field through his
2225    description of the system of instruction, and its effects on the
2226    prisoners in general. His work abounds in examples of the ignorant
2227    instructed, the profligate reclaimed, the hardened convict
2228    subdued, the weak-minded set firm in good principles; and almost
2229    all thankful for the discipline they have undergone, and setting
2230    out afresh in this world of trials, with, at all events, new
2231    strength and better principles. Mrs. Fry, indeed, regarding man
2232    as adapted for a state of trial, argued against the system[7] as
2233    one that takes the convict away from trial altogether; but surely,
2234    there are stages and states in the moral life, when the discipline
2235    of solitude and reflexion is absolutely required; just as the body,
2236    though its intended sphere of action may be the air and the light,
2237    may absolutely require total seclusion from both, must be placed
2238    in bed, and take sharp medicines, instead of taking exercise and
2239    facing the weather. To say nothing of the fact, that a crowded
2240    prison-yard can scarcely be regarded as a _fair_ field of probation
2241    for any man.
2242
2243    “Altogether, we regard the present state of things with respect to
2244    this whole subject as affording a ground of great encouragement
2245    and thankfulness to God; and as opening prospects of large social
2246    improvement both at home and in the Colonies; for the wretched
2247    system of transportation, the plan of peopling new lands with the
2248    outcasts of the old, seems to have received its deathblow from the
2249    introduction of wholesome discipline at home. There are a few minor
2250    differences to be adjusted regarding the treatment of convicts, the
2251    length of their separate confinement, and the mode of disposing
2252    of them for the rest of their sentence; but the principle is now
2253    fairly admitted, that the prison is to be a place of severe moral
2254    and religious discipline. The office of a gaol chaplain, instead of
2255    being the most loathsome and repulsive that a clergyman could hold,
2256    is now a work full of interest and promise and hope, bringing often
2257    a speedy return for labor. Sarah Martin, the pious needlewoman of
2258    Yarmouth, who passed her life among the wretched inhabitants of the
2259    gaol, would indeed have rejoiced, if she could have accompanied as
2260    we have done, the zealous Chaplain of one of these new gaols along
2261    the clean, light, well-aired corridor, and entered with him into
2262    one cell after another, where the prisoner welcomed him cheerfully
2263    and respectfully, repeating his few verses of psalm or hymn--a
2264    voluntary task--and listened thankfully for the kind admonition
2265    or encouragement of perhaps the first friend he ever knew. It
2266    seems as if God had raised up men on purpose for the work. We are
2267    personally acquainted with some Gaol Chaplains, and have read the
2268    Reports of many, and believe, in most cases they are men of energy,
2269    discernment and piety. If we have a fault to find with them, it
2270    is, that from their experience of visible effects speedily and
2271    uniformly produced on those who are under their charge, they come
2272    to speak and write as if the reformation of a sinner were a matter
2273    of certainty, provided only a sufficient time is allowed. We are
2274    aware, that this is only an apparent error, for no man would be
2275    more ready than Mr. Field to acknowledge the absolute necessity of
2276    the power of the Holy Spirit in any work of genuine reformation.”
2277
2278
2279No. 5.--_Kentucky State Penitentiary._
2280
2281A friend has kindly forwarded to us a copy of the annual report of the
2282keeper, clerk, &c., of the Kentucky Penitentiary, for the year 1848. It
2283is located at Frankfort, and as the reports indicate, is administered
2284with much success. We have noted a few items of general interest.
2285
2286It was formerly the custom to _shave the head_ of every convict _once
2287a week_. This humiliating process was required by law, but, at the
2288suggestion of the present keeper, it was so modified, as to leave it
2289to the discretion of the keeper to shave or not to shave. The good
2290effects of the measure were at once manifest. We are not told to what
2291extent the practice now prevails, but are left to infer that it is
2292only adopted as a mode of punishment. There can be no doubt, we think,
2293that all methods of humbling or subduing a convict which savour of
2294vindictiveness, or occasion a needless violation of a natural and
2295proper self-respect, are to be deprecated. External badges of infamy
2296and degradation may be needful sometimes as a precaution against
2297escapes, or for the recapture of convicts, but it is a great advantage
2298to be able to dispense with them.
2299
2300The average number of convicts in confinement at the date of the
2301report, was 161, and the clear profits upon their earnings during the
2302year, were eight or nine thousand dollars. The bagging business has
2303been found dull, and very extensive preparations are now made for
2304coopering.
2305
2306The number of convicts received during the year ending December 1,
23071848, was _sixty-nine_, and the number discharged by pardon during
2308the same time was THIRTY-THREE, or nearly half as many pardons as
2309commitments. This number is exclusive of five who were pardoned the
2310day before the expiration of their sentence, to restore them to
2311citizenship. All the convicts are males, and only 16 of the 161, are
2312colored; and 128 were convictions of crime against property, and only
2313twenty-five of the sentences exceed seven years. Nine of the convicts
2314are from Ireland, and nine from other foreign countries, leaving
2315143 native Americans; 97 are under 30 years of age; 114 habitually
2316or occasionally intemperate; 47 utterly destitute of any degree of
2317education; and 80 were never married. From a review of the prison
2318history for a period of 13 years, it appears that the largest number
2319received in any one year, was 81, (1842,) and the smallest, 49,
2320(1837;) the number of convicts received during the 13 years from the
232188 counties of the State, was 877, of whom 383 were from the county
2322of Jefferson alone, of which Louisville is the shire-town. Of the 877
2323convictions, 551 were for crimes against property, or against the
2324person for property. Of the 877, only eleven were females. The number
2325of cases of disease occurring during the year, was 244, of which 128
2326were cured. Days lost by sickness during the year, 1664.
2327
2328
2329    No. 6.--_An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of
2330    Convicts, one from the other, to Produce Disease and Derangement._
2331    BY A CITIZEN OF PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia, E. C. & J. Biddle, 1849.
2332
2333The questions involved in this inquiry and the elaborate manner in
2334which they are handled in it, forbid a short or superficial notice of
2335its contents; and hence we must ask for farther time to enable us to
2336study, compare and collate, before we attempt to analyze the work for
2337the use of our readers. If, however, in the mean time, they should
2338choose to read and think for themselves in the premises, by a careful
2339perusal of this “Inquiry,” we are safe in saying that the time will be
2340well spent and the labor fully rewarded.
2341
2342
2343No. 7.--_New York Eye and Ear Infirmary._
2344
2345The report of this humane institution for 1848, (the 28th of its
2346existence,) states that there were received during the year, 1,945 new
2347patients being 565 more than were received in 1846. There remained
2348under treatment, January 1, 1849, 129; and of 2,074 prescribed for
2349during the year, 1,370 were cured, 147 were relieved, 33 declined
2350treatment, 11 were discharged as incurable, the result of 34 were not
2351ascertained, and 220 remained under treatment. Diseases of the ear, 130.
2352
2353Of the patients, there were born in the United States 827; in foreign
2354countries 1,118!
2355
2356A free institution for the blind, is about to be opened in
2357Jacksonville, Illinois. The State supports it by a special tax.
2358
2359
2360No. 8.--_Shelter for Colored Orphans._
2361
2362For thirteen years, a quiet and useful charity, known as the “Shelter,”
2363has been provided for a portion of the colored orphan children of
2364Philadelphia. At the date of the twelfth report there were 56 children
2365under care, and twelve were received during the year; while 9 were
2366apprenticed and 3 died. There were in the house, January 1849,
236753 children. Dr. Casper Wistar attended and administered to the
2368institution gratuitously, during a season of severe sickness from the
2369measles, in the progress of which thirty-six were under medical care!
2370
2371
2372No. 9.--_Paupers and Prisoners in Cincinnati._
2373
2374It is stated in the public prints, that the admissions to the
2375Cincinnati city hospital in the year 1848, were over 3000; and
2376two-thirds of them foreigners. In the number were 152 lunatics.
2377
2378    “Admissions to the Jail, during the year, 776, of whom 742 were
2379    intemperate, 17 under 18 years of age, and 66 females. Of these
2380    776, 35 were sent to the Penitentiary, and 741, ‘turned loose,
2381    without friends or employment, to prey upon society again--a
2382    portion of them serving awhile in the Chain-gang first.’”
2383
2384
2385_No. 10._--_Insane Asylum in North Carolina._
2386
2387We understand that the act establishing a hospital for the insane at
2388Raleigh, provides for a tax of one and three-fourths of a cent on every
2389hundred dollars valuation of land, and five and a quarter cents on the
2390poll, to be levied for the space of four years, to raise the money to
2391construct and furnish the building--the County Courts during the said
2392time to have power to make a proportionate reduction of the poor tax in
2393their respective counties.
2394
2395
2396No. 11.--_Corrupt Police._
2397
2398In a charge lately given by one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter
2399Sessions for the city and county of Philadelphia, some passages occur,
2400the implication of which is very far from being creditable to the
2401police-gentry, and is, moreover, rather startling to the lovers of
2402peace and security.
2403
2404    “So long as there is collision between police officers and
2405    criminals, crime will continue, and it will be difficult to
2406    suppress it. If police officers will suppress evidence against the
2407    perpetrators of offences; if they will associate and correspond
2408    with criminals, and participate in the fruits of robbery, crime
2409    will continue to increase, because the chances for escape are
2410    great. In some of the _Incorporated_ Districts it is believed, the
2411    police force is efficient and useful.”
2412
2413This makes the whole matter so vague as to aggravate, rather than
2414alleviate apprehensions.
2415
2416In the same charge, the magistrate is represented as saying, that
2417“if there were no pardons there would be but few convictions.” Is it
2418possible that the indulgence of executive clemency is so frequent as
2419to make juries careless or forward to convict from the impression that
2420their verdict will be reviewed under an application for pardon?
2421
2422We confess we had no idea that the exercise of the pardoning power had
2423been such, either in character or extent, as to warrant a statement
2424like the following from the same source:
2425
2426    “If any one will look at the records of conviction throughout the
2427    State for the last fifteen years, and then at the list of pardons,
2428    and the history and convictions of the convicts, it will be found,
2429    that rarely has a criminal served out the period of his sentence,
2430    if he were a person of _wealth_ or previous influence, or who had
2431    wealthy connections, or friends and relations of great political
2432    influence. While no one can doubt that every Executive has been
2433    honest and sincere in the exercise of this power, yet the unseen
2434    effect of money and political relations enables the convict to
2435    surround the governor with influences which he does not resist.”
2436
2437Can the yielding to such influences be regarded as consistent with
2438“honesty and sincerity” in the exercise of the Executive prerogative?
2439
2440    “The principles on which pardons are often obtained, are, in my
2441    opinion, incorrect. The Executive generally hears but one side of
2442    the case--the one presented by the criminal--while the Court and
2443    Jury hear both sides. The case of the prisoner is always strongly
2444    stated in his favor, and that backed by the influence of friends
2445    or _hired agents_, and the incautious signing by citizens of a
2446    petition for pardon, usually produces the result of a liberation
2447    from that sentence.
2448
2449    “Nothing tends more to the suppression of crime than the certainty
2450    of punishment, no matter how short. Let people once be convinced
2451    that criminals will be punished as the law provides, and we should
2452    find the number of crimes rapidly diminishing.
2453
2454We think much of the principle here asserted, but it is perhaps made to
2455carry too much weight for its bottom.
2456
2457ARTICLE II.--The President, and in his absence one of the
2458Vice-Presidents, shall preside in all meetings, and shall subscribe all
2459public acts of the Society. The President, or in his absence either of
2460the Vice-Presidents, shall moreover have the power of calling a special
2461meeting of the Society whenever he shall judge proper. A special
2462meeting shall likewise be called at any time when six members of the
2463Society shall concur in requesting it.
2464
2465ARTICLE III.--The Secretaries shall keep fair records of the
2466proceedings of the Society, and shall correspond with such persons and
2467societies as may be judged necessary to promote the views and objects
2468of the institution.
2469
2470ARTICLE IV.--The Treasurer shall keep all moneys and securities
2471belonging to the Society, and shall pay all orders of the
2472Society or Acting Committee, signed by the President or one of
2473the Vice-Presidents, which orders shall be his vouchers for his
2474expenditures. He shall, before he enters upon his office, give a bond
2475of not less than two hundred pounds for the faithful discharge of the
2476duties of it.
2477
2478ARTICLE V.--The Acting Committee shall consist of the President, two
2479Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, two Counsellors, Treasurer, and six
2480[now ten] other members, three of whom to go off at the meetings in
2481the months called January and July. They shall visit the prisons at
2482least once a month, inquire into the circumstances of the prisoners,
2483and report such abuses as they shall discover to the proper officers
2484appointed to remedy them. They shall examine the influence of
2485confinement or punishment upon the morals of the prisoners. They may
2486draw upon the Treasurer for such sums of money as may be necessary.
2487They shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, to be read at
2488every quarterly meeting of the Society. This committee shall have the
2489sole power of electing new members, but no member shall be admitted who
2490has not been proposed at a previous meeting of the Society, nor shall
2491an election for a member take place in less than one month after the
2492time of his being proposed.
2493
2494ARTICLE VI.--Every member who on his admission shall subscribe the
2495constitution, and pay ten dollars, shall be a member for life, and
2496every member who on his admission shall subscribe the constitution, and
2497annually pay the sum of seven shillings and sixpence, shall be a member
2498while he continues to contribute.[8]
2499
2500ARTICLE VII.--Corresponding members may be elected, not resident in the
2501city of Philadelphia, nor within ten miles thereof, who shall not be
2502required to make pecuniary contributions to the funds of the Society,
2503nor sign the constitution.
2504
2505ARTICLE VIII.--The Society shall meet on the second Second-day, called
2506Monday, in the months called January, April, July, and October, at such
2507place as shall be agreed to by a majority of the Society.
2508
2509ARTICLE IX.--No law or regulation shall contradict any part of the
2510Constitution of the Society, nor shall any law or alteration of the
2511Constitution be made without it be proposed at a previous meeting. All
2512questions shall be decided, where there is a division, by a majority
2513of votes; in those where the Society is equally divided, the presiding
2514officer shall have a casting vote.
2515
2516
2517OFFICERS FOR 1849.
2518
2519  PRESIDENT--James J. Barclay.
2520  VICE-PRESIDENTS--Townsend Sharpless, Charles B. Trego.
2521  TREASURER--Edward Yarnall.
2522  SECRETARIES AND COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE--
2523  William Parker Foulke,      Charles D. Cleveland.
2524  COUNSELLORS--Job R. Tyson, William A. Porter.
2525
2526
2527ACTING COMMITTEE.
2528
2529James J. Barclay, Townsend Sharpless, Charles B. Trego, Edward Yarnall,
2530William Parker Foulke, Charles Dexter Cleveland, Job R. Tyson, William
2531A. Porter, Frederick A. Packard, Jeremiah Hacker, William Shippen, John
2532M. Whitall, Marmaduke Cooper Cope, Rene Guillou, Charles Ellis, Edward
2533Townsend.
2534
2535👉 QUARTERLY MEETING of the Society on the ninth day of April, inst.
2536
2537
2538NOTICE.
2539
2540    👉 Communications and orders for this work may be addressed
2541    “_Editors of the Journal of Prison Discipline_,” care of the
2542    publishers, No. 6, South Fifth Street, Philadelphia.
2543
2544    👉 “Officers of State, Inspectors, or Wardens of Penitentiaries,
2545    Keepers of Common Gaols, Houses of Correction, &c., Superintendents
2546    or Physicians of Insane Asylums, (whether public or private, and
2547    whether for paupers or pay-patients,) officers of Houses of Refuge,
2548    Police Magistrates, and others who may be in possession of, or have
2549    access to reports or other documents bearing on prison discipline,
2550    insanity, juvenile delinquency, police regulations, pauperism,
2551    &c., &c., will confer a particular favour by forwarding to the
2552    above office copies of such publications for use or notice in this
2553    Journal. All such attentions will be gratefully acknowledged, and
2554    cheerfully reciprocated.
2555
2556
2557“JOURNAL OF PRISON DISCIPLINE AND PHILANTHROPY,”
2558
2559_Published by the “Philadelphia Society for alleviating the Miseries of
2560Public Prisons_.”
2561
2562
2563DESIGN AND PLAN OF THE WORK.
2564
2565    The members of this venerable Institution, which has been mainly
2566    instrumental, in introducing the great reform in Prison Discipline
2567    that has distinguished the last half century, have long felt the
2568    need of such a medium of communication with the public as is now
2569    proposed. Their attention has of late been more especially aroused
2570    to the importance of the measure, from the deep interest which has
2571    been awakened in such reform; and from the misapprehension which
2572    prevails, as to the true principles and results of what is termed
2573    the “Pennsylvanian,” or “Separate System.”
2574
2575    Of the intrinsic usefulness of a Journal of this nature, it is
2576    believed but one opinion can prevail among the intelligent and
2577    humane. One of the most active and well-informed of those engaged
2578    in the reform of Prisons, has justly remarked, that “judgment
2579    is but the result of comparison.” All reasonable men, before
2580    deciding on a measure, will acknowledge the importance of becoming
2581    acquainted with the history and results of similar efforts. Hence
2582    the necessity felt by all civilized nations, of publishing and
2583    preserving public documents, reports, discussions, criticisms, &c.
2584    In America there is no adequate provision for the preservation
2585    of these, so far as they relate to prison reform; they are
2586    scattered among an accumulation of pamphlets on other subjects, are
2587    frequently destroyed, and are always difficult of access; and the
2588    labour which ought to furnish instruction for our future progress,
2589    and for posterity, becomes too often merely temporary in its
2590    utility.
2591
2592    At the present time a greatly enhanced importance is attached to a
2593    publication of this kind, as a medium of communication with foreign
2594    countries. Several of the governments of Europe are endeavouring
2595    to ascertain the best system of Prison Discipline, with a view to
2596    its adoption; and although the Society have no doubt which of the
2597    methods now in existence is the best, some Philanthropists of the
2598    Old World are yet undecided.
2599
2600    It is from a knowledge of these facts and from a belief that it is
2601    due to themselves and the cause of humanity, that the Society have
2602    been induced to undertake this publication.
2603
2604    The Journal will be devoted to the exposition and promulgation of
2605    correct views on Prison Discipline, Police systems, Asylums for
2606    the insane poor, Societies for the aid of discharged prisoners,
2607    and other reforms immediately connected with these subjects.
2608    It will also be rendered more interesting and instructive
2609    by the introduction of biographical sketches of celebrated
2610    Philanthropists, accompanied with portraits; and by plans and
2611    descriptions of the best methods of Prison construction. Such being
2612    the object, the Society cannot doubt that it will meet with cordial
2613    support from the friends of humanity, throughout the Old and New
2614    World.
2615
2616
2617TERMS.
2618
2619    This periodical is published quarterly; each number to contain
2620    at least 48 pages octavo. It will be delivered without charge to
2621    members of the Society; but to those who are not members, the price
2622    is $1 per aum, always in advance, or 25 cents a number.
2623
2624
2625FOOTNOTES:
2626
2627[1] Rev. Dr. Alexander’s letter to the Howard Society of New Jersey,
2628July 1833.
2629
2630[2] This subject has lately engrossed the earnest consideration of
2631the Managers of the Philadelphia Refuge, and there is an evident
2632determination to effect important improvements in this respect.
2633
2634[3] “CASE I.--The family whose total earnings consist of £2 2_s_ per
2635week, consist of the father and mother, who sleep in one bed; a married
2636son and his wife who sleep in the second bed; a grown up daughter who,
2637with two boys of twelve and fourteen years of age, sleep together on a
2638bed on the floor; the whole family being in the same room.
2639
2640“CASE II.--H. H. earns two shillings a day as a laborer--was brought
2641up as a farmer, and had property to the amount of 2000 pounds, which
2642he has dissipated--has a wife and five children--the eldest of whom is
264313 years, the youngest 5 years; they have only one bed, upon which the
2644parents sleep; the children sleeping on the floor as they best may.
2645
2646“CASE III.--D. M., with his family, makes 30 shillings per week; his
2647daughter, with a bastard child about two years old, a son about 16,
2648another of 13, and a daughter of 10 years of age, making, with his
2649wife, seven in all, sleep in the same room, with two beds.
2650
2651“CASE IV.--J. G. has a father and mother who live with him; he and
2652his wife sleep in one bed; his father and mother in another; his two
2653grown up sisters in a third; his brother, a lad of 19, and a young man
2654lodger, ‘who is courting one of his sisters,’ in a fourth: all in the
2655same room. J. G. does not know, or will not tell, how much they all
2656make, but thinks it ‘a good bit,’ as his wife and sisters and brother
2657are at farming, himself on a fruit ground, and his father a laborer.”
2658
2659Dr. Holland furnished Dr. Playfair with the following, in the case of
2660one of his dispensary patients: “D. E. is a widower, with one sleeping
2661apartment, in which sleeps his adult son and daughter. The latter has a
2662bastard child which she affiliates on the father, he upon his son, and
2663the neighbors upon both.”
2664
2665[4] Boston Correspondence of the New York Recorder, January 1849.
2666
2667[5] Opened May 15, 1848.
2668
2669[6] 39 of dysentery in August and September.
2670
2671[7] Mrs. Fry’s views, when fairly presented and properly understood,
2672were altogether in favor of separation, and can never be justly cited
2673against it.
2674
2675[8] [Article VI. has been altered so as to make it require twenty
2676dollars for a life contribution, and two dollars for an annual
2677contribution.]
2678
2679
2680[Transcriber’s Note:
2681
2682Table on page 71, headers: Males., Females., and Totals., were shortened
2683to read M., Fem., and Tot.
2684
2685Obvious printer errors corrected silently.
2686
2687Inconsistent spelling and hyphenation are as in the original.]
2688
2689
2690
2691
2692
2693End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison
2694Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. , by Anonymous
2695
2696*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL--PRISON DISCIPLINE ***
2697
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