Penitentiary

“ It is for the court to determine whether the imprisonment shall be in a jail or a penitentiary. If in a penitentiary, then a penitentiary must be found inside of the State suitable and available, in order that the sentence to be pronounced may be executed there. If there is none, resort may be had to those of another State. Imprisonment need not necessarily be ordered in a jail because the penitentiary of the State is unsuitable. ”

“ On the travellers expressing a strong desire to see their penitentiary, and examine its system of management; “We have many penitentiaries,” said Sir Peter, “and in each of them the system adopted differs in some respects from that of others; for we hold it to be a subject of constant experiment to ascertain what mode of discipline may be the best fitted to secure the ultimate object at which we aim, which is, as I have just said, not the infliction of vengeance on the guilty, but the prevention of crime. ”

“ A sentence of thirty years in the penitentiary is a big price for a young man to pay for being a fool, Miss Andrés. He was twenty-five when he went in--strong and vigorous, with a good mind; the prospects years of prison life--but that's not the story. I could not hope to make you understand what a thirty years sentence to the penitentiary means to a man of twenty-five. But, at least, you will not wonder that the man watched for an opportunity to escape. ”

“ The building of the penitentiary has been commenced, and is in such a degree of forwardness as to promise that it will be completed before the meeting of the next Congress. This consideration points to the expediency of maturing at the present session a system for the regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining a system for the regulation and government of the penitentiary, and of defining the class of offenses which shall be punishable by confinement in this edifice. ”

“ Taking your case as a whole, I am convinced that it is one which, for the sake of the example, deserves a severe punishment. Nevertheless, I do not feel disposed to give you the full extent of the law, which would be twenty years in the penitentiary, [1] but, considering the fact that you have a family, and have heretofore borne a good reputation in the community, I will impose upon you the light sentence of imprisonment for five years in the penitentiary at hard labor. ”

“ And be it further enacted, That the male and female convicts confined in the said penitentiary shall be kept, and shall labour, wholly separate and apart from each other. Every convict shall be confined singly in a separate cell at night, and at such times of the day as he or she may be unemployed in labour, except at such hours and places as may be specially assigned, by the rules of the penitentiary, for religious or other instruction, or for meals, or when transferred to the infirmary on account of sickness, upon the recommendation of the physician. ”

“ It is the authority given the sheriff to convey to the penitentiary the person named therein, and to deliver him to the warden. As soon as the warden receives the commitment he assumes control of the prisoner, and retains it until his term of service expires, or is liberated by pardon or some court decree. It is curious to note how differently prisoners act on coming to the penitentiary. Some of them quake with fear and tremble as the aspen leaf. Others weep like whipped children. While others do not seem to mind it much. ”

“ A sentence simply of 'imprisonment,' in the case of a person convicted of an offense against the United States,-where the statute prescribing the punishment does not require that the accused shall be confined in a penitentiary,-cannot be executed by confinement in a penitentiary, except in cases in which the sentence is 'for a period longer than one year.' In neither of the cases against the accused was he sentenced to imprisonment for a period longer than one year. ”

“ A ripple of sardonic laughter stirred in him. "I see you have me convicted and in the penitentiary already."
"Your actions convict you."
"So you think. Isn't it just possible you don't understand them?" There was the faintest hint of derision in his polite inquiry. ”

“ Ten years, more or less, spent in the penitentiary is not likely to straighten out the false conceptions of such men. The Carrs will probably leave the prison with criminal tendencies strengthened by the associations and repressions of penitentiary life. ”

“ So in the reports, the same distinction would be made between the convicts proper, who are undergoing the process of punishment, and those who from alienation of mind, antecedent or subsequent to their reception as prisoners, are not proper subjects of penal suffering, though they are proper subjects of personal restraint, and, as such, have a lodging within the prison walls. In a word, if our penitentiary must be used for the detention or custody of lunatics whatever their character or grade, let it have due credit as a hospital, and not suffer undeserved reproach as a penitentiary. ”

“ This will give him plenty of time to learn a trade, so that when he goes out of prison he can make a living for himself and for those depending upon him. For crimes that require lighter sentences of imprisonment let jails or reformatories be brought into requisition. In the eyes of the world a jail sentence is not so disgraceful as one in the penitentiary.
The plumage of a jail-bird is not so black as that of a penitentiary bird. The disgrace of being sent to the penitentiary for one year is as great as being sent for five or ten years. ”

“ The supervising architect invites attention to the fact that the building, when completed, will be suitable, not only for the ordinary purposes of a jail, but, also, for those of a penitentiary; and, as the grounds surrounding it are of ample capacity, he strongly recommends that the necessary authority be obtained from Congress for its use as a penitentiary as well as a jail. ”

“ Experience with the reformatory method shows that about eighty per cent of the cases turn out well. In the sifting process of the reformatory there are always a few incorrigibles who are turned over to the penitentiary, and most recidivists, or old offenders, are sentenced there directly. ”

“ And in case they find the defendants, or any of them, guilty of murder, they should fix the penalty either at death or at imprisonment for life in the penitentiary, or at imprisonment in the penitentiary for a term of any number of years not less than fourteen. ”

“ The penitentiary is arranged like a turbine wheel, or rather like a wagon wheel, with avenues from all parts of the ground converging to a central arena without roof, and where the prisoners may be all assembled under inspection if need be. There is here also a reformatory for boys with dungeons for refrac{274}tory ones and books and lessons for the ignorant ones. While it is called a penitentiary, there are no long term men there; they are all in the army, where they do all the drudgery work of the barracks. ”

“ Said warrant shall be directed to the warden of the state penitentiary of this state, commanding said warden to do execution of the sentence imposed as aforesaid, upon some day within the week of time designated in said warrant, and shall be delivered to the sheriff of the county wherein such conviction is had, who shall within twenty-four hours thereafter after proceed to the said penitentiary and deliver such convicted person, together with the warrant as aforesaid, to the said warden, who shall keep such convict in solitary confinement until infliction of the death penalty ”

“ We must talk to the man in the cell as a man, a friend and brother.... That lives redeemed await the work of those who enter the prison cell with the message of Christ is well proven. Many a one has said to me—I believe in sincerity, ‘The best thing that ever happened to me in my life was my sentence to the penitentiary. ”

“ One hundred and thirty convicts with terms ranging from 2 to 15 years, too busy with their day’s labor or their evening’s sports to think of evil, are building the new penitentiary or tilling the soil. Only nine hours a day, that time allotted for sleep, are the prisoners under lock and key. They go about their various duties under the direction of a guard or overseer, but the shotgun or rifle, usually accompanying such officer, is conspicuous by its absence.
The prison gives promise of being the ideal penal institution of the world.
The site is ideal for the work to be accomplished. ”

“ Under like circumstances, can any of us say, that our own lot might not have been like theirs; and indeed may not the happy and salutary influences by which we have been surrounded, have been the means of preserving us from a like unhappy condition? Many persons are impressed with the idea, that a man convicted of crime, and sent to a penitentiary, must necessarily be changed in his entire nature ”

“ There is nothing remarkable in the public buildings above mentioned; the state penitentiary interested me much more; it is well situated, appears to be well arranged, and contains one hundred and fifty-two convicts; the principal building is on a rising ground; in the rear are several II.147 yards where the workshops of the prisoners are situated, they are clothed in a dress part grey and part white, and sleep two together, in airy but narrow cells, on straw mattresses; during the day they are employed in the workshops, or in the work of the house. ”

“ One such, to me, is the picture I have in mind of my father undergoing his penitentiary sentence, wearing his prison clothes with an unconsciousness that makes me still feel a pride in the power of the human soul to rise superior to the deformities of circumstance. ”

“ Nor can we withhold our conviction of the proposition that when a prisoner sentenced by a court to death is confined in the penitentiary awaiting the execution of the sentence, one of the most horrible feelings to which he can be subjected during that time is the uncertainty during the whole of it, which may exist for the period of four weeks, as to the precise time when his execution shall take place. ”

“ An American prison is not often a picturesque object, and, till late years, it suggested to the mind of the philanthropist only painful reflections upon the abuses and thwarted ends of penitentiary discipline. ”

“ The judge cannot be blamed if his mind is, to a certain extent, affected by the representations of these gentlemen and he may easily give the defendant six months or a year in the penitentiary. The moral guilt of the prisoner is precisely the same and so will be the significance of his punishment so far as its serving as a deterrent to himself or to others is concerned. ”

“ I was approaching my twenty-first year, when, as you will see, I was to go to the penitentiary for the first time. This is a good place, perhaps, to describe my general manner of life, my daily menu, so to speak, during these three fat years: for after my first term in state's prison things went from bad to worse.
I lived in a furnished room; or at a hotel. If there was nothing doing in the line of graft, I'd lie abed late, and read the newspapers to see if any large gathering, where we might make some touches, was on hand. ”

“ Pride in success leads to undertakings of difficulty, and he who enters a jail a “sneaking thief,” may be stimulated by professional emulation to advance in crime till he attains the dignity of a penitentiary cell for some boldly executed robbery, or some brilliant act of extensive forgery. ”

“ The sixty-second article provides that the offender, when convicted, shall be punished at the discretion of the court, and the ninety-seventh article does no more than prohibit the court from sentencing him to imprisonment in a penitentiary in a case where, if he were tried for the same act in the civil courts, such imprisonment could not be inflicted. ”

“ When a young man has reached his twenty-first year, and commits a crime which calls for a prison sentence, I say let him have it, no matter whose son he may be, provided the penitentiary authorities observe the classification referred to above. ”

“ Whatever disposition he may show, or whatever efforts he may make, upon his release, to lead a proper life,—all will be neutralized, almost inevitably, by the knowledge of the fact that he has been a convict in the penitentiary; and some of those who have been his fellow-convicts, of a more hardened experience in crime, will be constantly on the watch to lead him astray, and with an influence of great power. ”

“ Indeed, it is difficult to conceive any good reason why a burglar or incendiary at sixteen, should be called a “delinquent,” and put to school, while the same grade of criminals 52 at twenty, are called convicts, and sent to the penitentiary. Age, by itself, is a very unsafe criterion by which to determine the turpitude of crime or the appropriateness of punishment. ”

“ They confirm us in the conviction long entertained, that we need a place of punishment for those who are too old in iniquity to be safe inmates of Refuge or Reformatory, and too young to endure the severity of rigid penitentiary discipline—a juvenile separate prison. ”