Pennsylvania Prison Society

“ When we remember that the average number in confinement during the year was not over 458, many of whom were very degraded and ignorant, and wholly unable to read when they entered, it becomes in our view, an interesting feature of our system of discipline, not only that the opportunity for mental exercise and enjoyment should be so freely presented, but that these poor creatures should feel the inclination to avail themselves of it so largely, whether it be for mere amusement or for instruction. ”

“ Something he can do by which he will be personally benefited—that all is not hopeless; and as an inducement to good behavior, self-control, and the foundation of habits to which, in many instances, he was before a stranger, will not be without its present and future benefit to him. I think the experiment well worthy of a trial. It promises, in my judgment, beneficial results, not only to the prisoner but to society, and if it should not answer the expectations of its friends, it can at any time be abandoned. ”

“ By the aid of humanity, their undue and illegal sufferings may be prevented; the links which should bind the whole family of mankind together under all circumstances, be preserved unbroken; and such degrees and modes of punishment may be discovered and suggested, as may, instead of continuing habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow creatures to virtue and happiness.”
The principles thus enunciated at the outset, have controlled the plans and efforts of the Society from its origin to the present time, and their truth and value have been abundantly confirmed by large experience. ”

“ The very fact that the prisoner, in daily, though silently, meeting in the workshop a large mass of fellow-convicts, is sensible that he is surrounded by, and on the same level with, the off-scouring of the community, degrades him in his own estimation, and silently, perhaps slowly, but almost inevitably, sooner or later, drags him down, till he becomes sorrowfully demoralized. ”

“ Little circumstances often change a man’s course in life, and sometimes cause a great improvement in conduct; and the simple appliance of enabling them thus to shorten their sentence—giving evidence of a disposition to temper justice with mercy, might produce the desired reformatory effect; and your Committee, in view of the experience gained in other institutions, can hardly doubt of its beneficial results in our own. For who shall say what slight incentive, or what word of kindness or encouragement, may not change the whole man and his future destiny. ”

“ Thus, by our system, instead of the society of the ignorant, the degraded and the criminal, whose efforts would be directed to dragging them down to still lower depths of vice and infamy, than they might yet have reached; we give them that of the virtuous, the intelligent and the good, who not only make it their business to see that they have the bodily comforts to which they are entitled ”

“ There is another point on which, we are aware, that many benevolent minds, who have merely viewed the “Pennsylvania System” theoretically, have felt much apprehension—which often amounts to a conviction—which is, that the mental condition of the prisoners, under its discipline, is liable to serious injury. This, we feel authorized to say, is a fatal mistake. We use the term fatal, because the adoption of this view tends to prevent the general introduction of the system, which we think is greatly to be regretted. ”

“ They, therefore, urged “the erection of a new Penitentiary for the Eastern District of the State, so constructed as to admit of the constant separation and healthful labor of the convicts.” This was promptly responded to, and in the following May the law was passed for building the Eastern Penitentiary at Philadelphia, which is now the model prison on the “Pennsylvania” or “separate system,” and as such, at this day maintains a prominent position among the penal institutions of the world, and stands as a noble monument of the liberality, humanity, and wise economy of its founders. ”

“ In performing these visits with the hope of doing good, it is deemed essential to approach the prisoner in a spirit of kindness, and thus convince him that, although the world may have cast him off, and notwithstanding the degraded condition to which his crimes and depredations on society have brought him, there is one at least who cares for his soul, and who feels that, although he has justly forfeited his liberty, he is still a fellow being, and a candidate for Divine Mercy, and therefore entitled to such a measure of the common comforts of life as the law allows him. ”

“ We all know that the hope of reward is a great incentive to human conduct, and that it will produce its natural effects even in the cell of a prison. The experience which has been obtained of such a method of reducing sentences in several of the States where it has been practically tested, seems to favor its adoption; and upon general principles it appears to offer a method of meliorating the severity of punishment, without affecting its desired results. ”

“ The regulations connected with our system, on the contrary, entirely exclude the lash, and, excepting in solitary and very extreme cases, admit of no more severe punishment than imprisonment in a dark cell, with reduction of food; and we are assured that a very few days only, of such discipline, are sufficient to curb and subdue the most refractory—and even this mild punishment has to be applied very rarely. ”

“ Here, where no human eye sees, and no human ear hears them, the overshadowings of Divine Love are sometimes witnessed to soften that heart which had been so long hardened, that even the criminal himself had believed that it would never again be susceptible of feeling; and the visitor acknowledges that, through the same influence which softened the heart of the prisoner, he has been enabled to hand forth counsel suited to the case before him. Some of these interviews, are mere kindly, social opportunities, in which no religious instruction is attempted. ”

“ Influences of the Systems Compared.—There is nothing, as we believe, in the working of our system, which can make the prisoners worse than when they enter; but on the contrary there is much, the direct tendency of which is to make them better. We are well aware that all are not reformed by it, though we thankfully trust that such is the result with regard to many. Under the discipline of the “Auburn System,” we can hardly see how reform amongst the prisoners can be promoted. ”

“ Pardons, it is believed, are nearly, if not quite, as frequently extended to undeserving, as to deserving cases; and beside this objection, the mere impression on the mind of the prisoner that, by effort and importunity, and the aid of the requisite agencies, he may succeed in obtaining a discharge before the expiration of his sentence, keeps him in a state of unsettlement, which entirely unfits him for the wholesome influence which the prison discipline is intended to exert. ”

“ On entering the prisons, the Committee saw in close association those of the various ages, from the comparatively far advanced in life, down to mere children; and from those long practised and utterly hardened in crime, down to such as had made their first serious misstep, which may have been more from want of thought than from actual depravity of heart, and they soon became convinced, that if the community desired the spread of vice and wickedness, they here had schools admirably adapted to their purpose. ”

“ Here, also, the rudiments of education can well be imparted, and as there is nothing to distract the attention, the lessons make an impression such as is never witnessed in the community at large, much less in the congregate system of imprisonment. Our visitors to the Penitentiary frequently witness examples of this, which are truly remarkable. Many who had grown up without any literary culture, not being able to write or even to read the simplest matter on entering the Prison, in the course of even a few months have become capable of writing quite a good hand, and of reading with facility. ”

“ Abuses in County Prisons.—In the autumn of 1846, one of the officers of the Society, who had personally visited and inspected several of the county jails, made a voluminous report of their condition. His leading representations were, “the entire neglect of wholesome discipline, the intermingling of prisoners of both sexes and all ages, and every grade of crime, from murder to misdemeanor, and the idle and vicious habits in which the prisoners were allowed to live, made it almost a matter of doubt, whether the public would not, in the end, gain by abandoning most of the jails. ”

“ Your Committee may here remark, that the range of thought with prisoners is often so limited, and their sources of enjoyment so few, that everything of a pleasant character is dwelt upon with much interest; so much so, that they can often tell the precise day they were last visited, and by whom, although weeks or months may have elapsed; but a morbid feeling at times prevails with others. They think that society has done its worst toward them ”

“ It is not society in itself, or intercourse with his fellow-men (excepting, so far as its privation might be salutary as a punishment,) that is denounced by the system, but it is association and companionship with criminals, with the depraved and wicked, which it is believed, the good, both of the criminal and of the community into which he is to return upon the termination of his sentence, requires, should be utterly prohibited. ”

“ Poor creatures are confined in them for weeks—for months together.” In another of the Paris Prisons he states “that there are eight dungeons which open into dark passages. In four of these, 10 feet 8 inches by 6 feet 8 inches, I saw sixteen prisoners, two in irons, and all lying upon straw.” In the course of his account of the condition of things at Liege, in Belgium, he says: “The dungeons in the new Prison are abodes of misery still more shocking; and confinement in them so overpowers human nature, as sometimes irrecoverably to take away their senses. ”

“ But the abiding consciousness that provision has been made by this same community, by means of which they may materially shorten their term of imprisonment, will, we think, serve to awaken a feeling of gratitude, and keep before them continually a door of hope; which, whether considered in a temporal or in a spiritual point of view, is so essential to the happiness of all human beings. ”

“ And it is believed that many individuals, who are now reputable members of the community, would have been at this time deeply steeped in criminality, and degraded outcasts of society, if it had not been for the protecting care and moral training of such an institution, extended to them in their youthful days, when first tempted to turn aside from the paths of virtue and rectitude. ”

“ If it be a fact, and I presume none will dispute it, that no person can continue to do right (whether forced or otherwise) , for any considerable length of time, without being to some extent permanently benefited—then whatever is the greatest incentive to good conduct, is in my opinion the best calculated to accomplish the greatest amount of good. ”

“ When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which are founded on the example and precepts of the Author of Christianity, are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow creatures; and when we reflect upon the miseries which, penury, hunger, cold, unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments, and guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it becomes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind who are the subjects of those miseries. ”

“ Such of us as may have been deprived of our ordinary inducements to exertion, even for a short period, can in some degree feel for those, so completely shut out from such impulses. It is these influences that usually stimulate and control most of our pursuits in life; without them, existence to many would be a burthen.
A long and dreary confinement is before the prisoner, and whether the sentence be for a greater or a less period, to his imagination it seems to be of almost interminable length ”

“ It will be seen that being but little known in the community, is not because it has been without vitality during its existence of nearly three-fourths of a century, but because it has steadily pursued its benevolent course, quietly and unostentatiously, not proclaiming its doings, or coming out before the public, excepting at such times as the accomplishment of some object of special importance required it. ”