SKETCH 
OF THE 
PRINCIPAL TRANSACTIONS 
OF THE 
Society for ^Mating f^e ^ferries 
of ^aMit prisons," 
■ 
FROM ITS ORIGIN TO THE PRESENT TIME, 
PHILADELPHIA: 
MERRIHEW 4 THOMPSON, PRINTERS, 
1859. SKETCH. 
First Organization.-On the 2d day of February, 1776, a So- 
ciety was formed in this city under the name of " The Philadel- 
phia Society for Assisting Distressed Prisoners." The following 
named persons were at the same time elected managers till the 
ensuing September, viz : Joseph Allen, Christopher Marshall, 
Christopher Ludwick, Isaac Howell, Richard Wells, Benjamin 
Shoemaker, Joseph Paschall, Benjamin Marshall, Joseph Stans- 
bury, Benjamin Poultney, Richard Humphreys, and Samuel 
Sansom; and for Treasurer, Thomas Moore. Many persons became 
members by an annual contribution of ten shillings, and many 
prisoners received seasonable relief; but in September of the fol- 
lowing year, the British army entered the city and took posses- 
sion of the gaol, and, after an existence of nineteen months, the 
Society was dissolved. The abuses which prompted such an or- 
ganization at that time were probably of the same character with 
those which were stirring up the sympathies of Howard on the 
other side of the Atlantic ; for although the criminal laws of Eng- 
land, (under which an average of two thousand thieves were hung 
annually, and the bodies of twenty were to be seen suspended on 
one gibbet,) had been essentially modified, there were still revolt- 
ing cruelties practised, and enormous abuses of judicial power 
tolerated. 
Second Organization.-Peace being restored, public attention 
was re-called to the condition of prisoners, and on Tuesday, the 8th 
day of May, 1787, a number of the citizens* of Philadelphia 
assembled and agreed to form themselves into a Society, to be 
called " The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of 
Public Prisons." 
* The meeting was composed of the following persons, only one of 
whom, {Richard Wells,') was connected as Manager with the earlier ef- 
fort, viz : Benjamin Rush, John Swanwich, John Morrison, Thomas 
Harrison, Tench Coxe, Zachariah Poulson, Thomas Lloyd, Joseph 4 
Its Object.-The reasons for such an organization are simply 
but eloquently set forth in the preamble to the Constitution :- 
" When we consider that the obligations of benevolence, which 
are founded on the principles and example of the Author of Chris- 
tianity, are not cancelled by the follies or crimes of our fellow- 
creatures ; and when we reflect upon the miseries which penury, 
hunger, and unnecessary severity, unwholesome apartments and 
guilt (the usual attendants of prisons) involve with them, it be- 
comes us to extend our compassion to that part of mankind who 
are the subjects of these miseries. 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 cir- 
cumstances, be preserved, and such degrees and modes of punish- 
ment discovered and suggested, as may, instead of continuing 
habits of vice, become the means of restoring our fellow-creatures 
to virtue and happiness." 
The wisdom and humanity of these principles have received 
daily confirmation during the intervening period, and they con- 
trol the plans and efforts of the Society at the present time. 
Early Action.-The late venerable William White was elected 
the first President of the new Society, and held the office until 
his death ; and so promptly was its benevolent hand extended to 
the relief of unjust suffering, that at the very first meeting a 
member reported, that although an order had been issued three 
days before, from the Supreme Executive Council, that Barrach 
Martin, who had received a sentence of death but had been par- 
doned, should be released from his irons,-they still remained on 
him. The subject was referred to an appropriate committee, who 
took instant and successful measures to relieve the prisoner of 
his irons and to liberate him from confinement. 
A more favorable juncture for the beneficent labors of such a 
Moore, William Rogers, John Kaighn, James Whitall, Richard Wells, 
Thomas Wistar, Jacob Shoemaker, Isaac Parrish, William Zane, Tho- 
mas Rogers, Samuel P. Griffiths, Francis Bailey, Joseph James, Charles 
Marshall, John Olden, Caleb Lownes, Thomas Parkinson, and John 
Morris, but with these original members are to be reckoned : Dr. William 
White, Dr. Henry Helmuth, Dr. John Jones, Dr. William Shippen, Dr. 
Gerardus Clarkson, Jonathan Penrose, Lawrence Sickle, John Baker, 
James Reynolds, Dr. George Duffield, Benjamin Wynkoop, and George 
Krebs. 5 
Society could not have occurred, for it was just when the eyes of 
the civilized world were opened to the horrible abuses of prisons, 
and Legislatures were disposed to lend an ear to the suggestions 
of a wiser, because a more humane policy. 
Cause and Cure.-It is not probable that either (certainly not 
the first) of these organizations contemplated any general change 
in the principles of discipline then prevailing ; but in the inves- 
tigation of the obvious miseries of prisoners, it was clearly re- 
vealed that they were attributable in a great degree to remediable 
defects in the structure and discipline of the prisons. That 
crimes increased in number and boldness could not be denied, 
and no adequate cause could be assigned for it, except the asso- 
ciation of convicts. This being the evil, separation was the 
obvious remedy; and on this, therefore, as we shall soon see, they 
ultimately fixed, as the grand point to be aimed at. Thence- 
forth separation and employment were felt to be the cardinal 
features of convict discipline; and even at that day it was main- 
tained, that though the strictures which this principle demanded 
might be somewhat more expensive at the outset, they would, 
nevertheless, in the end pay for themselves with large interest. 
In saving in police force ; in the avoidance of conspiracies and in- 
surrections ; in the dispensing with violent and exciting modes of 
punishment; in the power to adapt the means of improvement 
and reformation to individual character and circumstances; in 
the exemption of the discharged prisoner from recognition by 
prison acquaintances, and in the moral and disciplinary virtue of 
seclusion in itself considered,-were to be found a generous com- 
pensation for any extraordinary outlay. 
Extraordinary Transformation.- Perhaps a more thorough 
transformation in the character of a penal code, by peaceful legisla- 
tion, is not recorded in the world's history than that which took 
place in Pennsylvania during the eighteen years immediately suc- 
ceeding the Declaration of Independence. When the Revolution 
commenced, nearly a score of crimes were capital.* In 1794 it 
* High treason, petit treason, murder, robbery, burglary, rape, sodomy, 
malicious maiming, manslaughter by stabbing, witchcraft, arson, and a 
second conviction of any crime except larceny, counterfeiting, or passing 
counterfeit money, or bills of credit, current gold or silver coin, were all 
punished with death. 6 
was ordained that no crime should be punishable with death ex- 
cept murder in the first degree. 
The old code was not more severe in its penalties than in its 
definition of offences. The malicious and voluntary burning of 
a building or place of public worship, or of an academy, or school- 
house, or library, belonging to any body politic or corporate, 
was punishable with death. If the birth of an illegitimate child 
was concealed by the mother, the presumption of law was de- 
clared to be that it was born alive and that she murdered it. 
In the administration of the old code, too, the exposure of the 
offender to the gaze and taunts of the rabble with every external 
mark of degradation,-the clog and chain upon the neck or leg, 
or both,-subjection to the cropping and branding iron, the pil- 
lory and the whipping-post, were conspicuous features. Ten 
short years pass, and it is decreed that these badges of barbarity 
shall be abolished, and punishments adopted better fitted to re- 
claim the transgressor, and not less effective in penal suffering. 
It was one of these odious provisions that attracted the atten- 
tion of the new Society. As early as August, 1787, a Commit- 
tee was appointed to " inquire into the effects produced upon con- 
victs, then at work in the streets, and also its influence on socie- 
ty, and to collect such observations as might assist in correcting 
any abuses suffered therein." 
Secluded Labor Suggested.-Their inquiries led to the adop- 
tion of a memorial to the Legislature in January following, pray- 
ing that for hard labor, publicly and disgracefully imposed, pri- 
vate and even secluded labor should be substituted. The ming- 
ling of the sexes and the use of intoxicating drink in the prisons 
were also suggested as evils requiring legislative remedy. 
Abuses indicated.-In the autumn of 1788 a minute of the 
Supreme Executive Council engaged the attention of the Society, 
and the following defects and abuses were indicated in the treat- 
ment of prisoners: 
1. Insufficient clothing for the untried. Complaint was made 
that the clothes which the Society had supplied to poor prisoners 
had been exchanged for rum. 
2. The daily allowance to persons committed for trial was only 
a half of a four-penny loaf, while those detained as witnesses 
had no allowance at all. 7 
A stranger accidentally present at the commission of a crime, 
without friends to enter security for his appearance, was commit- 
ted to gaol for the benefit of the community, and suffered more 
than the actual criminal; and what added greatly to this griev- 
ance, he was afterwards detained until he paid the gaol fees ! 
The Society earnestly protested against this practice, and 
against detaining any prisoners for any such cause after acquit- 
tal. This was one of the abuses which Howard ranked among 
" enormities." 
3. No provision was made for decent lodging,-the inmates of 
the gaol lying indiscriminately upon the floor, unless supplied 
with something better by their friends. It will scarcely be believed 
that, in the memory of persons now living, the male and female 
prisoners in the goals of this city were allowed a promiscuous 
association, and were even locked up together in the rooms at- 
night.* The new Society remonstrated loudly, and the men 
and women were soon after confined in separate apartments. Al- 
most equally incredible is the fact, that prisoners complained that 
they were not allowed to buy intoxicating drinks where they could 
get them cheapest, but were compelled to buy them in the gaol at 
a considerable advance. To obtain them they not only stripped 
themselves, but when new prisoners were brought in, they took 
their clothing from them by force and exchanged it for rum. 
4. The indiscriminate intermingling of criminals, untried pri- 
soners and debtors, was another monstrous abuse, and led, in many 
instances, to the conversion of debtors and innocent parties into 
criminals. 
5. Parents were allowed to have their children with them in 
gaol, and young offenders were exposed to all the corrupting in- 
fluences of association with confirmed and reckless villains. 
6. It was presented as a radical evil that a large proportion of 
the prisoners were unemployed; and farther, it was maintained 
that labor, even in the public streets, was preferable to sheer idle- 
ness within the walls. 
Two Essential Elements of Reform.-In view of these several 
considerations, and as the result of careful observation, the Society 
resolved that " labor in seclusion, and the interdiction of all intoxi- 
* It is affirmed that such a practice is not unknown in some of the 
County gaols in this State at this day. 8 
eating drinks," were the two principal elements of the desired 
reform. 
Publications.-At an early period the aid of the press was in- 
voked in behalf of the Society's objects. Memorials and addresses 
had been issued before, but in April, 1790, a pamphlet was pub- 
lished entitled, " Extracts and Remarks on the Subject of Pun- 
ishment and the Reformation of Criminals," and five hundred 
copies were distributed through the General Assembly, and among 
the chief functionaries of the government. 
Reform of Penal Code.-On the 5th day of April, 1790, an 
act was passed to reform the penal code of the State. By this act 
the principle of individual separation was recognized, though ap- 
plied strictly only to " more hardened and atrocious offenders, who 
are sentenced for a term of years," while the introduction of 
intoxicating drinks was prohibited under severe penalties. 
Early Fruits of Separation-Under the act of 1794, not only 
the more hardened and atrocious offenders were subjected to se- 
clusion, but all convicts. There being but thirty cells, however, 
and an average of one hundred convicts, the Inspectors were 
obliged to exercise their discretion. In some instances, the pri- 
soner, immediately on his admission, was conducted to his cell, and 
remained in it until his discharge; and we have on record the re- 
markable fact, that the cases thus treated were the only instances 
of reformation which continued throughout the lives of the indi- 
viduals, so far as they could be traced, or their condition ascer- 
tained by diligent inquiry.* 
G-aolors' Fees.-1Towards the close of the year 1796 another 
sore evil was taken in hand, and one so radical and stubborn that 
even to this day it has a reproachful name and place among us. 
It was the practice of exacting fees as a condition of liberation 
from imprisonment. A competent salary to the keeper was sug- 
gested as the best remedy, so that he should have no interest in 
any question affecting the liberty of his prisoner. It is to be re- 
gretted that this wholesome suggestion did not then receive all 
the consideration to which it was entitled. 
Poor Debtors.-Imprisonment for debt and its appendages 
came up for distinct investigation by the Society in January, 1798, 
and an act of the Legislature passed that year ameliorating some 
of the provisions of existing laws. 
* Robert Vaux's letter to Wm. Roscoe, Sept. 21, 1827, p. 7. 9 
Instruction.-Little, if any attention, had been given to the 
prisons of this country or of Europe to the instruction of igno- 
rant prisoners in useful knowledge. Butin the summer of 1798, 
our Society expressed a warm sympathy in such efforts, and 
agreed to allow compensation for services rendered in that behalf. 
Vagrants.-Two years later, the employment of vagrants 
and convicts, and the expense of their support, were made a sub- 
ject of inquiry, and it is a matter of some interest to know that 
the number of vagrants committed during the four years pre- 
ceding November, 1798, was 3,698, and of convicts in the same 
time, 490. The former were in prison on an average thirty-six 
days, and cost fifteen pence per day for their maintenance. The 
balance against the county at the end of the four years was 
^15,587, or less than $10,000 per annum. The appropriation to 
our County Prison last year was $61,000. 
Pardons.-At this early stage in the progress of reform, the 
Philadelphia Society adjudged it to be unwise to abate any part 
of a sentence passed on a prisoner, either by lessening the term 
of his sentence or seeking a pardon from the Executive. 
It seems passing strange that so protracted an experiment 
was needful to satisfy any intelligent community that this position 
is as wholesome for the prisoner as for the State, and yet up to 
this time the abuse of this high prerogative is among the most for- 
midable mischiefs with which we have to contend. The decided lan- 
guage used by the Executive of Massachusetts, (not the least offend- 
ing of our States in this point,) in his late message, leads us to hope 
that a more just view of the subject is about to prevail. He denies 
the right of the Executive to interfere with any stage of a judicial 
process, except facts are proved which, had they been known, 
would have prevented the law being so framed or so applied. He 
maintains that the efficiency of discipline is seriously impaired 
by the prevalence of the impression that a pardon is obtainable, 
and that weak persons have been induced to confess crimes for 
the protection of the guilty, under the assurance that it was only 
a form, and that a pardon would at once be secured for them. 
Prison Library.-The next prominent measure which is par- 
ticularly noticeable, is the establishment of a prison library. The 
Inspectors agreed to be at the expense of a case, and a Commit- 
tee of the Society was appointed to select proper books, and pre- 10 
scribe rules for their circulation. At the same time a list of 
books was reported, with the prices; among them were " Pil- 
grim's Progress," "Mason on Self-Knowledge," " Law's Serious 
Call," Young's Night Thoughts," "Blair's Sermons," and " Her- 
vey's Meditations,"-a selection which, however intrinsically 
good, might, in these palmy days of book-making, be con- 
siderably extended without finding an equal number of works so 
comparatively inappropriate to the object.* It was also agreed 
to supply convicts and other prisoners with Bibles and Testaments, 
and a Committee was appointed to report on their distribution 
and its results. 
Digest of Penal Laws.-In 1810, a movement was made to- 
wards a general improvement of prison discipline throughout the 
State, and a committee was appointed to prepare a memorial on 
the subject ; but not long after the Legislature commissioned Jared 
Ingersoll, then Attorney General of the State, to prepare a di- 
gest of its penal laws, and the suggestions of the Society were 
made to him. 
Sundry prison abuses revealed.-In January, 1814, the Grand 
Jury of Bucks County presented the scanty allowance to poor 
debtors as a subject deserving the attention of the public authori- 
ties. Fourteen cents a day only were allowed for provisions, 
clothing, bedding and fuel, and even this niggardly allowance 
was withheld from the debtor until the creditor received notice of 
his commitment. For some days, therefore, they might be ex- 
posed to extreme suffering, unless the gaoler or some kind friend 
afforded them relief. The rations of convicts were one pound of 
bread a day, and six cents worth of fuel, and one extra blanket 
in extreme weather. The subjection of persons committed for 
* There are, perhaps, few tasks more perplexing than that of selecting 
books for a prison library. To induce most prisoners to read at all,they 
must be supplied with something attractive to them, and to combine with 
such attraction what is needful and profitable for their mental and moral 
improvement, is a talent which few authors possess. The Library of the 
Eastern Penitentiary now contains several hundred volumes, and the fol- 
lowing are reported as most in demand :-Chambers' Information for the 
People, Daguerreotype and Foreign Miscellany, Arthur's Sketches of Life 
and Character, Cyclopedia of Useful Knowledge, Pictorial Geography, 
Lights and Shadows of Real Life, Museum of Foreign Literature, Land 
and Sea, Sea and Sailor, Deck and Port, Irish Tales, and Diary of a 
Physician, 3 vols. 11 
trial to the same fare with convicts, was also presented as a re- 
proach to the community. It was, moreover, urged that the 
manner and amount of the gaoler's compensation should be such 
as to remove from him all temptation to benefit himself at the 
expense of his prisoners. This position, which the Society as- 
sumed many years before, is one which the most obvious princi- 
ples of justice warrant. It extends to magistrates and arresting 
officers, as well as gaolers. To none of them should there be 
offered the slightest temptation to distress or annoy those in cus- 
tody, for the sake of profit to themselves. 
Measures to obviate them.-The Society was not indifferent to 
these suggestions. Measures were soon adopted to ascertain the 
condition of penal institutions in other States, and a committee 
was appointed to memorialize our own Legislature in behalf of 
desired improvements ; but various circumstances prevented defi- 
nite action on the subject until January, 1818, when a memorial 
was adopted, representing the crowded state of the Philadelphia 
Prison, and the impracticability of reaching the true end of all 
penal discipline therein, and urging the erection of penitentiaries 
in suitable parts of the Commonwealth, for the more effectual 
separation and employment of prisoners, and so proving the su- 
periority of that system. 
Western Penitentiary.-Notwithstanding the impediments to a 
full trial of separation, the good results were sufficiently manifest 
to justify the Society in calling public attention to the importance 
of extending ^throughout the State. This was now done, and 
in the same year the act was passed authorizing the erection of 
the Western State Penitentiary "on the principle of the solitary 
confinement of the convicts as the same is or hereafter may be 
established by law." 
At the same time a letter was received from Dr. Lushington, 
in behalf of the London Society for improving the discipline of 
prisons, which had been established in lbl7, requesting informa- 
tion as to the results of the melioration of our penal code. To 
this it was replied that the construction of the gaol in this city, 
(then used as a penitentiary for the whole State,) would not allow 
the fundamental principle of separation to be observed, except to 
a very limited extent, while the necessity of discharging prisoners 
received from remote parts of the State, to be at once exposed to 12 
the severe temptations of a thronged city, was felt to be a great 
hindrance to their restoration to honest ways. Reference was 
made to the new penitentiary then in progress at Pittsburg, and 
to the determination to build another in this city, and strong con- 
fidence expressed in the full success of the system when these 
structures were completed. 
Abuse of authority by Committing Magistrates.-The crying 
abuse of authority in committing persons to gaol for trivial of- 
fences, which so shamefully prevails at this day, is not of recent 
origin. It was among the outrages which arrested the attention 
of John Howard, and in 1820, our Society instituted a specific 
inquiry into the extent of the evil, and the practicability of re- 
medying it. 
Inquiries from New York.-In September of the same year, a 
committee of the citizens of New York addressed a series of inqui 
ries to us, touching the effects of our more lenient treatment of con- 
victs. The reply bears emphatic testimony to its efficacy, so far as 
facilities to employ it had been afforded. Were a penitentiary estab- 
lished, they say, sufficiently large and so constructed as to keep 
the prisoners separated from each other during work, meals, and 
sleep, (in other words, perpetual separation,) and if no pardons 
were granted except in extraordinary cases, its efficacy would 
soon be self-evident. 
The difficulty of procuring employment, the frequency of par- 
dons, and the forlorn condition of discharged prisoners, were 
then, as they are now, grave but not necessary evils. To adopt 
capital punishment to a greater extent than was already allowed, 
or to resort to transportation, (each of which changes had been sug- 
gested,) was regarded as clearly inexpedient. 
The chain was also repudiated, and a fair trial of labor in se- 
clusion from other convicts, with moderate diet, under suitable 
agents, was urged as the wisest, safest, most humane, most efficient, 
and, in the end, most economical mode of dealing with criminals. 
New Penitentiary in Eastern Pennsylvania.-Impressed with 
these views, a memorial was addressed to the Legislature, in Jan., 
1821, in which notice is first taken of the tendency of the de- 
grading and sanguinary punishments formerly inflicted, to excite 
the malignant passions of offenders, instead of bringing them to 
a better mind, and thus frustrating the great ends of law,-and 13 
then of the various modifications of the system designed to ob- 
viate existing evils. These modifications, it is alleged, had 
proved quite as valuable as was anticipated, and clearly demon- 
strated the superiority of the new system if it were fairly tried. 
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 ; and with- 
in four months afterwards the act was passed foi' building the 
Eastern Penitentiary-that noble monument of the liberal, hu- 
mane, and economical policy of the Commonwealth. 
Abuse of Power by Magistrates.-Again was the illegal exercise 
of power by magistrates, to the great oppression of the poor and 
helpless, a subject of inquiry, and in 1822 a committee was ap- 
pointed to confer with the Executive of the Commonwealth on 
the subject. It was afterwards (in July, 1822,) made the sub- 
ject of a memorial to the Legislature. 
Asylum for Discharged Convicts.-In November of the same 
year, the project of an asylum for such discharged convicts as 
may be unable to obtain employment, was referred to a commit- 
tee, but the impracticability of securing a suitable building for 
the purpose seems to have discouraged farther efforts in that di- 
rection. 
Juvenile Offenders.-At a meeting of the Society, Janury 28, 
1823, a committee was instructed to inquire into the condition of 
juvenile offenders, and what relief is needed in their case. These 
inquiries were prosecuted from time to time, but did not result 
in any definite measure till January 21, 1826; when the commit- 
tee reported warmly in favor of an institution, for their reception, but 
expressed doubts whether the Society had the needful means to es- 
tablish it, or the legal powers that would be required for its manage- 
ment. At the same time a resolution was passed, proposing a meet- 
ing of citizens on the 1st day of February then ensuing, and an ad- 
dress was agreed upon to be submitted, in which a brief history 
was given of the melioration of the penal institutions of the State, 
to be still further improved upon a completion of the two peni- 
tentiaries. But as our true policy, as well as our manifest duty, 
consists not less in preventing crime and checking the tendency 
to it, than in punishing and reclaiming the overt offender, the 
restraint and reformation of children and youth exposed to 14 
criminal habits becomes an imperative obligation. The new pro- 
ject was therefore earnestly commended to the citizens, and a 
committee appointed to make arrangements for the meeting. 
House of Refuge.-A House of Refuge for juvenile delinquents 
was forthwith commenced and opened foi' inmates on the 1st of 
December, 1828, and the benefits that institution has already con- 
ferred on this community abundantly prove its necessity and value. 
Suggestions for Improving Criminal Proceedings.-When the 
Eastern Penitentiary was approaching its completion, (July, 
1827,) the Society appointed a Committee to prepare a memorial 
to the Legislature, setting forth the importance of carrying into 
full effect the principle of separation, &c. July, 1829, another 
memorial was forwarded embracing the two following suggestions: 
1. That the criminal courts be so organized as that the prisons 
may be speedily delivered of all persons held to answer for of- 
fences, &c. 2. That provision be made for the complete separa- 
tion of all persons committed for trial or as^vagrants, as well as 
those under sentence. 
Laws in Public Schools.-In July, 1828,' a Committee was 
raised to report a digest of the most important criminal laws of 
the State for gratuitous circulation in the public schools. 
Publications.-Much interest now began to be exhibited on the 
subject of the mode of discipline in the new Penitentiary,* and 
a large edition of a pamphlet clearly vindicating what was known 
as the Pennsylvania system, showing its humane and reformatory 
tendencies, was published and circulated. 
Opening of the Penitentiary.-The penitentiary was opened 
Oct. 25, 1829, and the principles of discipline which the Society 
had steadily advocated for the preceding forty years were now 
to be tested. Whatever defects in the structure or mode of 
discipline were revealed by experience, (and that such defects 
existed no one denies,) were remedied, as far as practicable, and its 
subsequent annual reports afford most satisfactory evidence of the 
soundness of the principles recognized in its discipline. 
The abuse of the Magistrate's office by the illegal commit- 
ment and discharge of vagrants and others so often and loudly 
* Some of the conflicting views entertained on the subject at that time 
may be understood by referring to No. 1, vol. i. of the Pennsylvania 
Journal of Prison Discipline, p. 8. 15 
complained of, seems not to have been corrected; for in Oct. 1830, 
it was again presented to the Society as a flagrant wrong, and 
a Committee was appointed to devise a remedy. 
County Prison called for.-In 1831 a bill was reported to the 
Legislature for the erection of four hundred cells within the walls 
of the Eastern Penitentiary, and for the sale of the Walnut St. 
prison. The Society, apprehensive that the reception of so large 
a number of prisoners might interfere with the fundamental prin- 
ciple of separation, again memorialized the Legislature, express- 
ing those fears, and suggesting the expediency of creating another 
prison on the same principle, for the use of the County. 
Defects of County G-aols.-The receptions at the Eastern Peni- 
tentiary during two or three years brought constantly to view the 
miserable condition of the County prisons. Before the salutary 
discipline of seclusion was brought to bear upon the convict, his 
residence for weeks, and perhaps months, in a county goal had 
worked out of him what was most valuable as an element of re- 
form, and prepared him for any thing and every thing but a do- 
cile submission to the regulations of the penitentiary. To give 
consistency to the system or to secure its legitimate results, it 
was indispensable that county prisons shall adopt the principle 
of separation for all classes of commitments. 
County Prison ordered for Philadelphia.-In March, 1831, 
the act was passed authorizing the erection of a prison for the 
City and County of Philadelphia, capable of holding at least 
three hundred persons, on the principle of separate confinement; 
and in April, 1832, a Committee was appointed to investigate 
the condition of county prisons throughout the State. 
Matrons.-The propriety of appointing matrons to have charge 
of female prisoners was made a subject of conference between a 
Committee of the Society and the Inspectors of the prison in April, 
1833, and in the succeeding July the condition of the county gaol 
was again discussed, and a circular was addressed to various persons 
in the different counties soliciting information, especially in re- 
gard to plans of building, discipline, employment, means of sepa- 
ration, &c. 
Much interest was excited at this juncture by the publication 
* Chiefly those of Francis Leiber, Esq., and Dr. Julius of Prussia. 16 
of various documents* on the subject of penitentiary punishment 
and the connection of education with crime. 
Public Executions.-In April, 1834, an important act was 
passed requiring all sentences of death to be executed within the 
walls or yard of the gaol, limiting the number and character of 
witnesses allowed to be present, and forbidding the attendance of 
any person under age. It is to be regretted that so wise and hu- 
mane a law should be so often evaded or violated. 
Early in the year 1835, the system of discipline to be adopted 
in the new county prison, then nearly ready to be occupied, be- 
came a matter of deep interest to the Society ; for though indi- 
vidual separation was expressly recognized in the act, it was 
feared the character of the prisoners might lead to a relaxation of 
the principle. A committee was appointed to have the subject in 
charge. » 
Plans of County G-aols.-In 1836 the Acting Committee was 
instructed to have prepared the best plans for County Gaols on 
the separate system, and on their report made October 8, 1838, 
a memorial was forwarded praying the Legislature to appoint Com- 
missioners to investigate the condition of the County gaols. 
Annual Returns of Crime -In October, 1839, the Acting 
Committee was charged with the duty of calling the attention of 
the Executive to the condition of the county gaols, and in further- 
ance of this important measure they were also specially charged 
in January, 1840, with the duty of procuring the passage 
of a law requiring an annual return to the Secretary of 
State from the clerk of each county, of the cases presented 
to the grand jury, and how many were found true billss 
and how many were ignored; together with the number of convic- 
tions and acquittals; and from Sheriffs and Gaolers a return of all 
persons received into their custody, and the time and manner of 
their discharge, and the number in custody at the date of the return ; 
also, an account of the receipts and expenditures of the year; 
an abstract of which returns was to be presented to the Legisla- 
ture.* Such an account of the stewardship of these important 
functionaries of the government, is no more than a commercial 
*The effort to secure such returns was renewed by the Society in Feb- 
ruary, 1847. A. memorial to the Legislature was adopted, and the draft 
of a law submitted and enacted, Feb. 27, 1847, but its provisions are thus 
far inoperative. 17 
house or a manufacturing corporation would require of its agents; 
yet, strange to say, the nearest approximation to a compliance 
with the law, gave returns from less than half the counties, and 
these so meagre and imperfect, that the Secretary of State, in 
despair of any intelligible abstract of them, submitted them in 
their crude form to the disposal of the Legislature! Had the 
returns required been made, our State would this day possess an 
invaluable basis, not only for improvement in her own legislation, 
but as a contribution to the enlightenment and guidance of other 
States and nations. It is scarcely credible, that information of 
so much practical value and obtainable with so little pains or 
expense, should be still lacking. 
Moral and Religious Instruction.-From the first introduction 
of the separate mode of discipline, the necessity of religious in- 
fluences, as a constituent part of the process, has been uniformly 
recognized. The expediency of committing this branch of instruc- 
tion to a special officer was referred to a committee in 1841, and 
in 1843 the appointment of such an officer for the Philadelphia 
County Prison was reported,-his salary being paid by private sub- 
scription. A similar office was established in the Eastern Peni- 
tentiary in 1838. 
New Quarterly Journal.-Although the Society had expended 
considerable sums of money in printing and distributing occa- 
sional pamphlets, calculated to awaken and enlighten the public 
mind, it seemed desirable to embody in a more permanent form 
the results of observation, inquiry and experience; and in Octo- 
ber, 1844, the Acting Committee submitted to the Society the 
project of establishing a Quarterly Journal, to be devoted to this 
and kindred subjects. It was favorably received, and on the first 
day of January following, the first number of the " Pennsylva- 
nia Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy" was issued, 
and has been continued (with the exception of a year) until the 
present time, the 14th volume commencing with 1859. 
The New York Prison Association was founded near the close 
of 1844, and has done the State and the country very important 
service. 
Prison for Juvenile Convicts.-The general House of Refuge 
had now been in successful progress for about twenty years. Of- 18 
tentimes boys of a larger growth and precocious habits were sent 
thither, though proper subjects of a very different discipline. To 
meet such cases, the want of a prison on the separate plan, but 
modified in some of its features to adapt it to the peculiar circum- 
stances of youthful culprits, was urged upon the Society in No- 
vember, 1845, and discussed from time to time. Its establish- 
ment would require a considerable outlay, but nothing like what 
it costs to repair the mischief which one very young head can 
plot and one very young hand perpetrate. We cannot dismiss 
the hope, that this want may be made so obvious that our public 
authorities will take measures to supply it. 
Reformation of County Prisons.-In the autumn of 1846, a 
voluminous report wTas made to the Society by one of its officers, 
on the condition of several county gaols which he had personally 
visited and inspected. The entire neglect of wholesome disci- 
pline,-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 gaols. Cases were men- 
tioned in which men had escaped and found honest employment, 
who, if they had stayed their time out in gaol, would probably have 
sunk irreclaimably through the influence of such associations as 
they must have encountered there. Strange as it may seem, 
there are many county gaols in this State, of whose condition at 
the present time this is an unexaggerated report. 
Vindication of our System.-In 1847, a volume was published 
in Boston, under the title of "Prison Discipline in America." Its 
author was a gentleman of standing, and his opinions (so far as 
they were formed upon a knowledge of facts,) were entitled to 
much consideration. The work was reviewed with much favor 
in two of the principal quarterly periodicals published in that 
city, but both the author and his reviewers were in the posi- 
tion of a lawyer who takes his case as his client makes it out, in 
the absence of the opposite party and his witnesses. The plau- 
sible but erroneous views propagated in this way, have had no lit- 
tle influence in confirming prejudices which had been previously 
engendered on the same question against the system in vogue 
here. To remove them as far as possible, and to correct the popu- 19 
lar misapprehensions from which they sprang, a pamphlet was 
published in 1849 by our Society entitled, " An Inquiry into the 
Alleged Tendency of the Separation of Convicts one from the 
other to produce Disease and Derangement. By a citizen of Penn- 
sylvania : 160 pp. 8vo." It has had a wide circulation, and we 
trust has accomplished, in a good degree, its design. 
Colored Criminals.-In April, 1849, the attention of the So- 
ciety was called to what was alleged to be a marked difference 
between the length of sentences passed on colored convicts com- 
pared with those passed on whites, and also the comparative mor- 
tality of the two classes. The interesting results of the investi- 
gation which ensued, will be found in the first number of our 
Journal, Vol. V., January 1850. 
It is probable that this inquiry opened the way for a general 
examination of the hygienic arrangements of some of our prisons, 
and for the introduction of improvements in them, the value of 
which is satisfactorily proved by the reduced mortality of the 
last few years.* 
House of Correction.-It was not possible for the visiting com- 
mittee of the County Prison to shut their eyes to the fact that of 
the vast multitude sent thither for vagrancy, intoxication and 
disorderly conduct, numbers were sufficiently able of body to earn 
their own support, but as long as they could find food and lodging, 
either in the almshouse or gaol, so long they would continue in 
their idle and dissolute habits. To mitigate, if possible, this evil, 
and to relieve the community to some extent of the burden it im- 
poses, the Society adopted a resolution in 1851, to inquire as to 
the expediency of establishing a house of correction or probation, 
intermediate to the almshouse and prison, for the reception and 
employment of this large class of persons ; and such measures 
were adopted by the parties interested, as led to the passage of 
an act in 1854, establishing such an house. The appropriation for 
the object was sufficient for an ample experiment, though the de- 
tails of the bill might be open to some grave objections. It is to 
be regretted, that a measure so important to the well being of 
our community should be frustrated by a conflict of opinions or 
* Valuable suggestions on this subject will be found in the successive 
reports of the medical department of the Eastern State Penitentiary 
from 1844, when the physician became a resident officer. 20 
interests; though it is by no means the first time that a useful 
project has been delayed or defeated, either through a want of 
the proper adaptation of means to ends, or through a spasm of 
economy that comes over representative bodies when their con- 
stituents are to be served, but passes off when private or party 
ends are to be answered. 
A well constructed and well administered house of correction, 
combining strict restraint with coercive labor, for a length of time 
amply sufficient to eradicate idle, vagrant and intemperate habits, 
would pay for itself by instalments of at least $30,000 per annum, 
in the immediate or indirect reduction of the pauper and criminal 
tax on the community; but the details of such an institution can 
be conceived and carried out only by those who have surveyed 
the gigantic evils which it is intended to remedy, and who have 
faith in this method of cure. To entrust its administration to 
those whose political affinities constitute their chief recommenda- 
tion would only be to ensure its perversion or failure. 
Separate County Prisons.-Though not properly within the 
scope of the present sketch, it is not foreign to the purpose of it 
to mention, that since the Philadelphia County prison was 
erected, the following counties in our State have done themselves 
the credit, and the community the service, of erecting prisons on 
the separate principle, in accordance with the wholesome law 
which imposes the like duty on every county. They are placed 
in chronological order :-Dauphin, Chester, Berks, Lancaster, 
Montgomery, Schuylkill, Cumberland and York.* 
* The law is as imperative as words can make it: 
" Whereas it has long been the policy of this government to combine 
the separation of convicts one from another, with instruction and suit- 
able manual labor as the best means of discipline and reformation : 
" And whereas it is necessary, to the equality of penal justice, that the 
administration of the county prisons shall be uniform, as has been hereto- 
fore declared: therefore 
" Be it enacted, ^c. That every county prison which shall be hereafter 
erected within this commonwealth, shall be so constructed that every 
person committed thereto, whether upon conviction or otherwise, may be 
confined separate and apart from every other person committed thereto, 
due regard being had in the plan of construction to the health of the per- 
sons to be so confined ; and that before any county prison shall be erect- 
ed within this commonwealth, the plan of construction of such prison, 21 
Last Year s Work.-We are now brought so near to the pre- 
sent period, that memory will supply a record of the prominent 
transactions of the Society. The committee on the Eastern 
Penitentiary made not less than 4,000 visits to the convicts 
during the last twelve months. The number of commitments to 
the County Prison during the same period was 14,913. Of 
these, 1,270 were released on application,-most of them on the 
ground of insufficient cause of imprisonment; a representation by 
the prison agent to the committing magistrate or court being suf- 
ficient for this purpose. The aggregate of costs in these cases, 
was less than $130. If a true history were to be given of the 
uses to which the law has been put in this county during the last 
twelve months, through the ignorance or cupidity of those ap- 
pointed to execute it, the most credulous would be slow to believe 
it. Not less surprising would be an exhibit of the offences,- 
palpable and rank,-that have escaped detection, or if detected, 
have evaded retribution. Of 4,700 bills presented for the action 
of the Grand Jury during the year, 2,468 only were found true, 
leaving 2,333, or nearly half, unsustained ; and even of the num- 
ber returned as true, only 538, or less than one in five, were con- 
victed and sentenced ! 
If the release of so many persons causelessly imprisoned, is 
to the credit of humanity, the fact that they could be thus un- 
justly dealt with under the forms of law, is not less reproachful to 
the magistracy, or to those who invest them with such power. 
We have thus taken a cursory glance over the transactions of 
of the Society, during a period of seventy years, noting only 
such as are of prominent and permanent interest. Most of them, 
indeed, are incorporated into our present laws and institutions. 
Though it has not been prolific of annual reports, it has not been 
drawn sufficiently in detail for the clear comprehension thereof, shall be 
submitted by the commissioners of the county in which the same is to 
be built, to the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and shall be inspected 
and approved by him, and so certified by him upon the plan, a copy of 
which shall be furnished by the commissioners aforesaid at the time of 
their submitting the original as aforesaid, and shall be signed by the said 
Secretary, and be filed and remain in his office.-(Act of April 8, 1851, 
Pamphlet Laws, page 353.) 22 
barren of useful endeavours. If it has not accomplished all its 
purposes, it has failed in but few. 
Extent of Reform illustrated.-Could a stranger step from the 
court-yard of the old Walnut Street Prison, and from the midst 
of the congregated hundreds of desperate men that jostled each 
other in those dreary, sickening avenues, into the centre building 
of the Eastern Penitentiary, where all is quiet except the click 
of the weavers' shuttle, or some other token of industrial occu- 
pation;-if he could come out from a dense mass of scowling, re- 
vengeful thieves and vagabonds that there intermingled their cor- 
rupt and corrupting breath, or were assembled to hear the gospel at 
the mouth of a cannon, all charged and primed, to riddle their 
ranks at the first token of insubordination, and pass from cell to 
cell in the Eastern or Western Penitentiary during a religious ser- 
vice, witnessing the subdued and respectful attention given to 
the voice of instruction, or the cheerful and healthful labor of 
the inmates on other days of the week;-in a word, if he could 
compare the influences under which men came to that prison and 
went from it, with those which bear upon a convict in either of our 
penitentiaries, or of the county gaols above enumerated, whether 
they respect physical, intellectual, or moral condition, he would be 
prepared to form a safe judgment of what the lapse of fifty years 
has accomplished in behalf of prison reform. We have not the 
arrogance to ascribe these results to the efforts of our Society 
exclusively. The thoughts and energies and sympathies of 
some of the wisest and best men and women of the age, throughout 
Christendom have been given without stint, not only to the im- 
provement of penal laws, but to the construction of edifices for 
the merciful enforcement of their functions, and to the methods 
of discipline best fitted to make them efficacious. 
No Distrust of Principles.-At no period during this long in- 
terval, has there been the slightest distrust of, or divergence 
from the great principle which was at first espoused-individual 
SEPARATION AND EMPLOYMENT FOR ALL PRISONERS AND ALL 
grades of prisons. There have doubtless been honest oppo- 
nents of our system. Some have regarded it as prejudicial to the 
health of both body and mind; others, and by far the most nu- 
merous class, have objected to it on the score of expense. These 
opinions, groundless as they are, have served to influence the 23 
minds of legislators and commissioners, in many instances, and 
thus to retard the more general introduction of the system in 
other States. The recent exposition of the affairs of the New 
York prisons (conducted on the opposite principle), will probably 
aid in removing these prejudices. Their returns of mortality 
and insanity far exceed those of our penitentiaries; and when 
we are officially informed that the expenses of the three New 
York State prisons in the last ten years, have exceeded their 
receipts by the enormous sum of more than a million and a half, 
we are prepared to present separation as clearly entitled to pre- 
ference on the score of cheapness, and we cannot but indulge the 
hope that the legislature of our sister State will avail itself of 
the present call for reform in the discipline and management of 
its prisons, to adopt that principle as its only reliable basis. 
(xeneral Results.-In the brief survey we have taken, it will 
be noticed how naturally and almost necessarily one effort for 
the correction of social evils has paved the way for another. To 
give the convict a chance to recover himself, or at least, to 
escape further degradation and guilt, we secluded him from con- 
vict society; instructed him in good learning, and when possible, 
in a good trade, and encouraged and aided his purposes of amend- 
ment. To expose the untried and (as the law presumes) in- 
nocent party to contamination, while we protected the convict 
from it, was too glaring an inconsistency, and hence we advocated 
the application of the separate principle to all prisons and all 
prisoners. This individualizing process disclosed more minutely 
the incipient stages of crime, and showed to how large an extent 
parental neglect and the vicious associations of childhood were 
responsible for it. Then came those most timely and benevolent 
institutions-Houses of Refuge, Reform Schools, &c., which have 
won their way to universal favor, and which, in their legitimate 
use, are among the wisest and most economical institutions of the 
age. To bring them into disrepute and distrust, it is only need- 
ful to use them as juvenile prisons. 
Early Processes of Reform.-But why not embrace a still 
earlier opportunity to rescue children and youth from the expo- 
sures and temptations of neglect and abject poverty? To this 
inquiry, an enlightened philanthropy replied by the opening of 
Homes, Asylums, and Aid Societies for friendless and forlorn little 24 
ones; while the spirit of Christian love and self-denial simulta- 
neously prompted the establishment of Ragged or Mission schools, 
News-boys and Shoe-black societies, and various other organiza- 
tions, combining religious and moral influences and sometimes 
bodily sustenance, with the inculcation of correct personal and 
social habits; and teaching them that their life, not less than ours, 
may have a bright prospect, and must have a momentous end. 
Leading features of Reform.-Our survery, brief as it is, will 
suffice to show the leading features of the prison reform of the 
last half-century. They are found in the construction of prison 
edifices, in their sanitary regulations, including ventilation, tem- 
perature, clothing, diet, exercise, &c., and provision for the in- 
struction of the ignorant to work and read, and the vicious and 
wayward to see and pursue a better path; but chiefly, in the effort to 
circumscribe and counteract the influence of evil association. This 
effort has been attended with various success in the higher and more 
important grade of penitentiaries. In all prisons, however, except 
such as adopt the principle of individual separation, it is not only 
imperfectly accomplished, but is attended with serious disadvan- 
tages. The introduction into many prisons of a better class of men 
as inspectors and resident officers, the specific attention to the 
moral and religious interests of prisoners, the larger share of sym- 
pathy which is manifested in their welfare during their confinement 
and upon their discharge, and the greater sensitiveness of the 
public mind to any alleged abuse, are all changes for the better. 
Among the the topics which deserve early and earnest atten- 
tion in the future, may be mentioned- 
1. A careful revision of our criminal laws, and a more 
perfect adaptation of them to the existing state of society. 
Few crimes have a stereotype character. Some of them are 
incident to a particular period in the growth of a country, 
or to a particular locality or condition of society, and after 
a time become obsolete. Others, to times of great public pros- 
perity and advanced civilization, when they suddenly assume a 
startling prominence and seem to defy any check. No legislation 
can be perfectly adapted to this shifting phase of crime. Partial 
provision is made for it in the maximum and minimum of sen- 
tences, but in the pressure and distraction of business in some of 
our courts of criminal jurisdiction, and the almost unavoidable 25 
state of mind which is engendered by familiarity with the 
scenes and characters which are prominent there, there is little 
opportunity, even for intelligent and considerate magistrates to 
adapt the sanctions of the law to the nature and aggravation of 
each offence. Indeed, it may be said that it is, in most cases, an 
arbitrary rule which determines the extremes of punishment for 
various offences, and it would be difficult, in many of them, to as- 
sign a reason for what, to the condemned, is a terrific difference 
in their severity. It is to be hoped, the commission recently 
appointed to revise the penal laws of our State, will be able, not only 
to correct many defects and inequalities in their provisions, but 
greatly to improve the administration of this important branch 
of the government. 
2. Jurors.-The office and duties of a juror require grave at- 
tention, or the errors and abuses which have insensibly grown 
up in that province of our Courts, will become too formidable for 
correction. For many purposes the utility of the jury is unques- 
tionable. But almost from its origin it has demanded unceasing 
watchfulness to prevent its becoming an engine of monstrous 
injustice and oppression. The ancient, not less than the modern, 
difficulty has been to find intelligent and incorruptible men to 
serve. The great English dramatist tells us that 
"The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, 
May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two 
Guiltier than him they try." 
The manner of selecting jurors, the methods of adjusting dif- 
ferences of opinion by lot or compromise, the power of an indivi- 
dual juror to control a verdict, and the disposition to overstep the 
limits of their authority, are present subjects of animadversion. 
So strangely do they sometimes mistake the province which is 
assigned to them, that to protect an offender from what one or 
more of them may regard as too severe a penalty, they render a 
false verdict-trampling under their feet, not only the law and 
the evidence, but their own solemn oaths. In the late message 
of the Executive of Ohio to the legislature of that State, it is 
mentioned as indicative of a serious defect in the administration 
of justice, that so many offenders escape merited punishment from 
this reprehensible practice of juries. It is never to be forgotten 
that in all our attempts to effect amendments in a convict's char- 26 
acter and life, we have a great advantage if his trial, conviction 
and sentence are in strict accordance with law. 
3. Uncertainty of Punishment.-The uncertainty of conviction 
and punishment neutralizes in a great degree the wholesome terror 
of the law-and often operates as an incentive to crime. Some 
men pursue a lawless career for years without detection, and 
almost without suspicion. This impunity generally emboldens 
them at last to attempt some flagrant act with an incautiousness 
that betrays them. To make the issue of a criminal act doubt- 
ful, is to provoke its commission-and hence every failure to 
detect crime and every evasion of merited punishment, must be 
regarded as a sore social evil. 
4. Officers to be above Suspicion.-1The vast disproportion be- 
tween arrests and convictions, in our cities and principal towns, must 
have impressed the most superficial observer. The first and most 
important step towards the radical cure of this evil, is to divest 
all officers concerned in the apprehension, trial and custody of 
offenders, of the remotest pecuniary interest in their official acts. 
If magistrates and police officers gain but a dollar or two by every 
exercise of their authority, they lay themselves open to the sus- 
picion of mercenary motives, even when they are above any such 
temptation. If personal liberty is the privilege of an honest 
citizen, government should be slow to interfere with it on any 
doubtful pretence; otherwise the privation of it will lose all its 
virtue as an element in the punishment of the guilty. If the 
sword of justice is brandished in vain threats, or used in random 
thrusts, those who bear it will cease to be a terror to evil doers, 
or a praise to them that do well. 
5. County Gaols.-The frequent efforts of our Society to 
put our county gaols on a better footing, have been already noticed; 
but we regret to say, that the condition of many, nay, most of 
them, is a deep reproach to the Commonwealth. With the world- 
wide renown of our benevolent and humane institutions, and espe- 
cially our lauded improvements in prison discipline, it is to our 
burning shame that any one of these first receptacles of accused, 
as well as of convicted offenders, should be justly charged with 
gross neglects and abuses. Remember, says that enlightened 
statesman, the late Edward Livingston,* that in Philadelphia, as 
* Letter to Roberts Vaux, Oct. 25, 1858. 27 
well as in New York, "not one-fourth of those committed are found 
guilty; so that of every 8000 committed, 6000 (presumed to be 
innocent) are introduced into a school where every vice and every 
crime is taught by the ablest masters ; and yet we shut our eyes to 
this enormous evil, and inconsistently go on preaching the neces- 
sity of seclusion and labor after conviction, as if Penitentaries 
were the only places where the evils of contamination were to be 
dreaded." Measures are now in train, which, if they do not lead 
to the amelioration of the miseries of these prisons, will, we hope, 
result in such an exposure of abuses as shall excite the attention 
of our public authorities, and thus bring about their radical im- 
provement. 
To confirm the views we have expressed of the indispensable- 
ness of separation in our county gaols, we have the very recent 
testimony of the Ordinary of New Gate, where this principle has 
been introduced. The period of detention in that prison is but 
sixteen days on an average ; and the Ordinary declares that 
the moral effect of the change will much more than compensate 
for the additional expense. He gives the grounds of this opinion 
at large, and they sustain it impregnably. 
6. Mal-Administration of Criminal Laws.-In the future of 
our Society there lies a work of no ordinary interest. No one 
can read our newspapers, or frequent our courts, without a deep 
conviction that there are weaknesses and failures in the adminis- 
tration of criminal law, which, if they do not encourage and pro- 
tect crime, suffer it to grow and spread with fearful rapidity. 
We need only advert to the loose and contradictory decisions 
of courts respecting the responsibility of accused parties, who, at 
the time of the act done, are alleged to have been in a state of 
voluntary or involuntary alienation of mind, and to the facility with 
which new trials are obtained because of the merest technical in- 
formalities. In a recent case of murder in New York, four trials 
of the guilty party were had, and two or three convictions. On 
one of these trials, not less than 1000 jurors were summoned, in 
order to secure twelve triers. 
Were we required to set in order the topics to which primary 
attention is at this moment due, they would be in substance 
these : 
1. Offences distinguished.-To distinguish more broadly between 28 
offences involving violence or fraud, and those which involve 
neither. Vagrants, street beggars, and disorderly persons are all 
violators of wholesome laws and should be punished. But as 
there is a wide difference between these offences and cheating, 
larceny, burglary, robbery, &c., and between the guilt of the 
persons who commit them, so there should be a corresponding 
difference in the methods of dealing with them. Though a va- 
grant is sentenced for thirty days only, and a thief for three hun- 
dred, this difference of time (both being in the same place') does 
not express the difference in the character of their offences. Va- 
grants, beggars and drunkards need a totally different manage- 
ment from forgers, counterfeiters and incendiaries,-whether 
the end be to punish or reform them. The hostility of the latter 
to the vital interests of the community, justifies the restraint, pri- 
vation and suffering of imprisonment, and all its consequences to 
their social position and prospects. The miserable condition of 
the former justifies all the restraint which is needful to cut off the 
indulgence of a diseased appetite for strong drink, or inveterate 
habits of idleness. To this end, a year or two in a well managed 
work-house or house of correction is their appropriate destina- 
tion. There they could have a taste of the sweets of industry 
and regular habits, with the stimulus which a small share in the 
avails of their labor would supply. To put them in gaol for safe 
custody is no object, for they are not given to absconding. It 
entirely fails as a punishment, and serves rather as an accommo- 
dation, especially at seasons of the year when the rewards of va- 
grancy are meagre. This discrimination would lead 
2. To the establishment of suitable institutions for the confine- 
ment to constant and useful labor, of persons able of body to earn 
their own support, wholly or partially, but who, through aversion 
to labor, are a burden to their families and the community. The 
double saving which such establishments, efficiently managed, 
would produce in diminishing the burden of idleness and increasing 
the avails of industry, (to say nothing of moral considerations,) 
should commend them to large public favor. 
3. Official Visitors to Penitentiaries.-Though the condition of 
our penitentiaries is, on the whole, satisfactory and creditable to 
the Commonwealth, they are susceptible of improvement, both in 
structure and discipline. The hygienic arrangements introduced 29 
of late years, and the increased attention to the moral and in- 
tellectual instruction of prisoners, are sensibly felt. The full 
value of the system will not be seen, however, till a much larger 
measure of seasonable aud discreet sympathy is expressed by the 
personal intercourse of judicious official visitors. The integrity of 
the separate principle can be preserved only by constant vigilance. 
Upon the officers and inspectors it must, in a great measure, de- 
pend whether the rules on this subject are inviolably maintained 
or insensibly relaxed. 
4. Officers of Penitentiaries.-It should be a subject of cease- 
less concern with us to seek the improvement of the resident 
officers of our public prisons. Like other men, they are liable to 
become inured to a round of duties, and to forget that those they 
have to do with are men of like passions with themselves, and 
though guilty and degraded, are not without claims to sympathy 
and tenderness. A single sharp word, inconsiderately uttered, 
may rouse resentments in a prisoner's mind which his very help- 
lesness and degradation will aggravate and keep alive,-no one 
knows how long,-and thus defeat some of the most important 
ends of his imprisonment; while, on the contrary, a gentle and hu- 
mane, yet exact treatment, such as individual separation allows 
and invites, though it may seem to be wasted on some, finds its 
way in an auspicious moment to a desolate and depraved, but 
not utterly callous heart, and begins a hopeful process of reforma- 
tion. The moral instructer, the distributer of books, the teacher 
of a trade, and the official visitor, have each a sphere of most 
important influence, and on that very account requiring of those 
who occupy it, good judgment and a large knowledge of the cha- 
racter of the class of men with whom they have to do. 
5. Discharged Convicts.-The mode of caring for discharged 
convicts, with safety to the interests of the public and due regard 
to the moral and social welfare of the prisoner, is a problem yet 
to be solved. It has ever been among the chief concerns of our 
Society, and will continue to receive their earnest consideration. 
6. Witnesses.- Suitable provision for the safe custody of 
witnesses, without any degradation or annoyance, except such as 
is inseparable from necessary personal restraint, should be made, 
apart from the receptacle for convicts or accused persons. 
By virtue of the New York Police Law of 1857, a house of 30 
detention has been opened in that city, under the control of the 
Police Commissioners. Two five-story brick houses have been 
thrown into one; one portion being assigned to male and the 
o ther to female inmates. The windows are securely fastened, but 
the free range of the premises is allowed, together with good 
substantial food, warm rooms and beds, with all needful medical 
attendance. There is a resident warden, and also a surgeon. We 
do not know that each inmate has a separate apartment, and in 
the absence of this, we can conceive that the evils against which 
such an institution is designed to provide, are but partially obvi- 
ated. The house was opened February 10th, 1858, and two hun- 
dred and ninety-one persons were received during the year.* 
7. Causes of Crime.-Ninety-nine hundredths of the crimes 
committed in our community are the fruit of one or more of the 
following six causes, ranged in the order of their productiveness : 
1, intemperance; 2, idleness, (including want of a trade); 3, igno- 
rance ; 4, vicious associations, (including improvident marriages); 
5, irreligion; and 6, poverty. Every facility and temptation to 
the indulgence of an appetite for strong drinks is, in effect, a pro- 
vocative to crime. Every boy and girl not brought up to some 
steady, appropriate employment is a fair candidate for the prison 
or poor-house. Children suffered to neglect school, whether 
through the cupidity or indifference of parents, or by theii' own folly 
and perverseness, afford the most common instances of juvenile 
delinquency. Hasty, improvident and of course unhappy mar- 
riages, and acquaintances formed in the street, or at places of 
questionable amusement, are, directly or indirectly, prolific of 
crime. To the contempt of religion and its offices, exhibited in 
the profane oath, the blasphemous jest, or the open desecration 
of the first day of the week, may be traced a large share of 
the more daring offences; while poverty, in its extreme pressure, 
sometimes prompts to dishonest acts, which, growing bolder by 
impunity, ripen into crimes of graver guilt. 
Mission of our Society.-Hence our Society is fulfilling its 
* A Bill has been recently reported to the Legislature of New York, 
prohibiting the imprisonment of witnesses, and authorizing their examina- 
tion to be taken in writing, with notice to the opposite party, and oppor- 
tunity for cross-examination ; the witness to be discharged on his or 
her own recognizance. 31 
mission by giving countenance and encouragement to the sup- 
pression of street begging; by promoting discrimination in the 
bestowment of charity through systematic and responsible chan- 
nels ; by insisting on the training of all children in good learning 
and industrial pursuits; by all judicious efforts to abridge, and, 
if possible, suppress the use of intoxicating drinks as a beverage; 
and by promoting the intellectual, moral and religious culture of 
all classes of the community, but especially of the least and the 
lowest. In this, we include the improvement of their social 
habits, their dwellings, and their household economy. 
Conclusion.-Thus we come to the conclusion which was reached 
many years ago, by one of the most enlightened jurists and phil- 
anthropists of our country, to -whom we have already referred ; 
that no patchwork legislation will reach our wants. It is better 
to force education upon the people than to force them into 
prisons to expiate crimes, which through ignorance or neglect 
they are left to commit. Hence, whatever obstacle bigotry or 
sect jealousy may present, deep and broad foundations of moral and 
religious as well as of intellectual character, must be laid in our 
elementary schools, and the children of the people must be there, 
to be so trained. Temptations and excitements to crime must be 
removed. If pawnbrokers and receivers of stolen goods (now 
almost as numerous as thieves), if all gambling houses and lottery 
offices,* all dealers in obscene prints, all seducers and violators 
of marriage promises, were dealt with according to their intrinsic 
deserts, their punishment would be severer than that to which 
their dupes are doomed. Is the manslayer, whose brain has 
been set on fire in a drinking house f and who makes a fatal lunge 
alike towards friend or foe, the only guilty or guiltiest party 'I 
Is it right that the miserable woman who, stifling the emotions of 
* Avery recent Grand Jury (Feb. 1st) presented " gambling and policy 
vending" as " sadly on the increase" in the city. They represent, very 
justly we believe, "that its rapid spread, its ensnaring allurements, and 
contaminating influence, are being felt at many a fireside, where, but for 
its blasting power, peace plenty and happiness would grace those homes, 
now made desolate by the wiles of the gambler and the tricks and rob- 
bery of policy venders." 
fAn official report to the Mayor of Cincinnati, made a few days since, 
shows the number of drinking saloons in that city to be sixteen hundred 
AND SEVENTY FIVE. 32 
nature, casts from her into the cesspool or the river the evidence 
of her shame, should bear her sin alone ? Shall he who spreads the 
snare for the adventurer at a faro table or in a lottery scheme go 
"unwhiptof justice," while his unwary victim is overwhelmed 
with infamy and despair ? However moralists and legislators 
may adjust the proportions of guilt in these and like cases, there 
is a judgment and a voice in humanity, that will sooner or 
later be heard and heeded. 
Needful Improvement in Criminal Processes.-The processes 
for the detection and punishment of crime must be plain and 
easily accessible. One or more officers of the government, raised 
by character and compensation above the suspicion of sinister 
motives, should have exclusive charge of this branch of public law. 
Private prosecutions, or public prosecutions at private instigation 
or expense, should be discountenanced; and in cases where parties 
are held to answer, for trifling or insufficient cause, the magis- 
trates or officers concerned in the arrest and binding over should 
lose their costs. " Charges involving the loss of personal liberty 
and reputation are too momentous for adjudication by those who 
have not been fitted therefor by legal training." 
At all events, the guilt or innocence of accused parties should 
be determined as promptly as possible, especially if they are im- 
prisoned during the interval. In case of conviction, the punish- 
ment should be equal, certain and inevitable, and in case of ac- 
quittal the accused should be restored to his rights with as 
complete an indemnification as possible for his wrongs. 
A Great Work.-Finally, the vast influx of the most reckless 
and desperate subjects of the old governments of Europe, paupers 
and criminals, is likely to test the adequacy of our mild and 
lenient modes of dealing with these classes. A popular journal* 
says, " we are bound by the laws of ethical, physical and geo- 
graphical necessity to become the educators and reformers of a 
world of vice and crime." If such a responsibility is indeed laid 
upon us, we need a measure of public virtue, intelligence and 
energy from which it is to be feared, we are at present far re- 
moved, and which we are not likely to attain while those who 
make and administer the laws are among the first and foremost to 
violate them, or wink at their violation by others. 
*The Cincinnati Times, Jan. 18,1859.