Part 2

_Tobacco._--The subject of the use of Tobacco in the Penitentiary has again claimed our attention and care during the year now coming to a close, as it did during the one which immediately preceded it. It will no doubt be acknowledged by most, that the practice of using it is of no real value to those who indulge in it, unless it be in the character of medicine, in a very few cases, and consequently, if there was no moral or physical evil resulting from it, its use should be discouraged on the score of economy, and with a view to lessening the number of the wants of individuals, and therefore, making it more easy to satisfy them. But when, in addition to this, its use is very often attended by serious physical and moral evils, such as impairing the bodily health, and exciting a craving for the use of intoxicating drink, it seems especially desirable that those who are clear on entering the Penitentiary, shall not there be permitted to contract the habit, and that an effort should be used to break the habit with those who have brought it with them, and in fact, that it should be made a part of the Prison Discipline, in teaching them habits of economy for their own future good, during the period in which the law makes them subject to the control of the prison authorities. Our care of the subject, which has heretofore been in the way of moral suasion, with the prisoners, and those who had the control of them, and which has been exercised verbally, as suitable opportunities offered, has finally resulted in the adoption of a Resolution, respectfully asking the Inspectors wholly to prohibit its use in the Penitentiary, (as the Inspectors of our County Prison have done there, with highly satisfactory results,) unless it be in cases strictly medicinal. The quantity at present used in the Penitentiary is much reduced, but this is done, as we understand, as a matter of economy in conducting the Institution, as the cost of the article has latterly been much enhanced.

_Pardons._--The very important subject of Pardons, and the manner in which the power is exercised, (not only in our own Commonwealth, but in most places where it exists,) has at different times occupied our attention, though not specially within the past year, with desires that some result might be reached by which the acknowledged evils of the pardoning system might be at least in part remedied. It is a power which should exist somewhere, and be exercised sometimes; but the good of society, and even of the parties on whom it is to operate, requires that it should only be applied to exceptional and rare cases, and with great caution. We have not yet succeeded in maturing any plan which it is believed would be likely to remedy, or materially lessen, the existing difficulties.

_Abuses by Committing Magistrates._--We have again had under the care of a Committee, the abuse of power by the Aldermen or Committing Magistrates. This is an evil of great magnitude, and has claimed the attention of the Society almost from its origin, but without yet making much advance towards its suppression; nor do we hope to effect it, till their mode of compensation is changed from fees to a stated salary from the Public Treasury. As we shall have occasion to refer to this matter again as we advance in our Report, this short notice may suffice here.

_Better Accommodations needed by the Society._--The books and papers of our Prison Society are accumulating to such an extent, as to make it difficult, with the accommodations we possess, to take proper care of them. Many of them are so valuable as to make their preservation almost an object of public interest. An ample and secure fireproof would be very desirable, and also much more extensive book cases than we now have. Our funds, however, are so limited at present, as to be barely sufficient to meet our current annual outlay, such as the appropriation towards the support of the “Prison Agency,” that to the Prison “Association of Women Friends,” and for the aid of discharged prisoners, and the amount required to meet our Room Rent, the publication of our Journal, and various necessary incidental expenses. We therefore have nothing to spare towards procuring a suitable building or room of our own, which we think would be very desirable. We would therefore commend the Society and its various interests to the kindly notice of our many benevolent citizens who are blessed with ample means, as being deserving of their consideration and attention, both when making their current distribution from time to time of surplus income, and when through the medium of a will, they are making a final appropriation of their estates.

_The Prison Agent._--William J. Mullen, the Prison Agent, acting under appointment and authority of the Inspectors of the County Prison, and also on behalf of our Prison Society, has continued his services in investigating cases of alleged oppressive and illegal commitments to the County Prison, with unabated zeal and singleness of purpose. He has, with the co-operation of the proper authorities, succeeded in liberating during the year 1,223 of these from prison. Amongst them were many very interesting cases, where the common rights of individuals would have been successfully outraged, if they had not been inquired into and relieved by the action of the agent. And it should be remembered that the wrong and suffering in these cases is by no means limited to the individuals who are incarcerated, but that it often extends most cruelly to others connected with the prisoners. What must be the situation of the poor wife and helpless children, when the husband, the father, and provider for their urgent necessities, is thus wrongfully torn from them? Some are arrested and committed under mistake, but much of the wrong-doing in relation to such commitments, arises from the cupidity of the Police-aldermen, or committing magistrates, who many times, on the most frivolous charges, and sometimes without sufficient evidence against them, commit individuals to the prison from motives of gain. In some instances they are content with the fees established by law, but there is ground to believe that extortion is not unfrequently attempted to be practised, and sometimes with success. The mode of compensating the aldermen, by fees to be derived from the individual cases in which they act, gives them an interest in thus oppressing the helpless, and has long been a crying evil. Under this system, and in actual practice, there is good reason to fear, that much of the income of many of them is not merely “the gain of oppression,” but that of extortion also. There are no doubt upright and honorable men among them, but until all fees for such cases are taken away, and a fixed salary substituted, we need not expect to find them as a class to be governed, in their official acts, by high-minded and disinterested motives.

We propose here giving a synopsis of a few of the cases contained in the monthly reports received from the agent during the year, of individuals liberated through his investigations and attentions.

One was that of a venerable old gentleman, for many years President of the Board of Commissioners of the Northern Liberties of Philadelphia, who had retired from business, being worth a handsome independence. He was in the habit of spending much of his time at the office of a relative of his, a merchant on the wharf. The clerk of the merchant on returning from bank, where he had been to make a deposit, found three five dollar United States notes, which he handed to the merchant, who advertised for the owner to come forward and identify the money, and it would be given up. The merchant authorized his relative, the prisoner, to act for him during his absence, and if anybody properly identified the money, to take it from his desk and return it. Among the claimants was an ignorant woman, who said that she and her husband had lost $50 between Frankford and South Street, and they did not come up any further in the city than Second Street; that the money they lost was in one, two, and three dollar notes. The prisoner informed her that neither the money she had lost, nor the place where she had lost it, agreed with that which had been found, and therefore she could not have it. She immediately went to an alderman and swore that the prisoner said he had her lost money, but would not give it to her. Upon this statement, accompanied by an affidavit from her husband (who had not heard the prisoner say anything on the subject), a warrant was issued, and he was arrested. On the hearing, the prisoner denied ever having said what had been testified against him, and informed the alderman that he had never seen the lost money, nor even either of the five dollar notes which had been found. Upon a commitment being made out, he asked the constable to go with him to get bail, which he refused to do. He also informed the alderman that he was abundantly able to go his own bail, which, however, he refused to take. The agent, seeing him in the prison, procured bail to be entered, and soon had him released.

A second was that of a woman who was committed for larceny, being charged with having stolen a box of jewelry of but little value. Upon investigation of her case, the agent ascertained that her prosecutor had previously robbed her of some bed ticking, and had brought this charge against her to defeat the ends of justice. She was arrested and imprisoned at the very time when she was required to be at Court to testify in reference to her stolen property. Careful examination enabled the agent to prove in Court that instead of the prisoner having committed a larceny, the prosecutor had entered her house during her absence, ripped open a pillow, and after placing the jewelry in it, sewed it up with a peculiar kind of thread, such as the agent found in the prosecutor’s house. In confirmation of this, when the officer, in company with the prosecutor, was searching the prisoner’s house for the jewelry, and could not find it, the prosecutor pointed out the very pillow which contained it, and asked to have that searched.

A third case was that of an innocent woman who had been convicted and sentenced to three months on a charge of “false pretence.” The charge consisted in her having applied to a member of the St. Andrew’s Society, of which her husband had been a contributing member, for money to pay the funeral expenses of her deceased child, which had been buried the day before. A police officer, who was near at the time, arrested, and caused her to be committed, saying that she was an impostor, and he did not believe her story about the child. When her case came up for trial, the agent supplied her with competent counsel who explained the case and defended her. She was, however, convicted on the testimony of this officer, although she herself addressed the Court, and protested against the testimony, explaining her case in a simple, earnest, and truthful manner. Judge Ludlow, seeing her great distress, humanely sympathized with her, and directed an officer of the Court to accompany her to her home to ascertain the facts, see the sexton of the ground where she said the child was buried, &c., promising to release her yet, although convicted, if her story proved true, but if false, to increase her sentence. The officer, after going a short distance with her, took her back to the Court, and reported that she was unable to direct him to a single person who had known her to have buried a child.

The judge then sentenced her for three months to the County Prison.

After this, the agent investigated the case, and found that every word she had said to the Court was literally true, as to the death, and the time and place of burial, &c. The physician was seen, who at the time of its death had given the certificate; the sexton who had buried it was also seen, and the clergyman who had authorized the burial, and paid the charges of the undertaker, with the understanding that she was to pay him again, he having perfect confidence in her promise to do so. When the agent had given to the Court satisfactory proof of these facts, Judge Ludlow reconsidered her sentence and discharged her from prison. Thus, through the services of the agent, this poor but respectable woman was saved not only from the pains and privations of a three months’ imprisonment, but also from the odium of being an impostor and a convict, which would probably have been attached to her character during the remainder of her life.

We shall introduce one other case, for the purpose of illustrating the value of this agency, beyond the mere liberating of persons from prison, which is that of a “peacemaker” between the prosecutor and the person whom he had procured to be committed, which is a frequent result of the settlement of cases.

This was that of a German soldier who borrowed money from two different persons for the purpose of getting a commission as captain in the army, and promised to pay them as soon as his commission was obtained. He failed, however, to procure one, and having expended the money, he was unable to repay them. They therefore had him committed to prison on the charge of “false pretence.” The man had a wife and seven children in New York depending upon him for support. He had an abundance of recommendations of good character. The agent saw his prosecutors, and succeeded in getting them to go to the prison and talk with him. They soon became very much interested in him, gave him some money, went to the District Attorney and asked for his discharge, and paid all the Court charges and expenses, becoming satisfied, upon reflection, that nothing wrong was intended by the prisoner. They invited him to their houses, and proffered him their friendship for the future.

Many other cases are almost equally entitled to a place in this Report, as strikingly illustrating the value of the agency to the cause of humanity, and also to the community, in the large annual saving of expense to the County, resulting from the discharges effected by it, before the cases reach the Court. The cost of maintenance and of prosecution, thus saved in the year 1861, amounted to upwards of $11,000. Its value is fully appreciated by the public authorities, as the following paragraph from the Presentment of the Grand Jury for the June Term, 1862, will testify. In speaking of their visit to the County Prison, they say: “During a part of their visit through the prison they had the company of the prison agent, William J. Mullen, and were glad to find that he still continues in the discharge of his arduous duties, thereby saving great expense to the County, as well as affording protection to the rights of the poorer classes of society.”

_Lunatics._--We last year referred to the practice which prevailed of committing lunatics to the County Prison, to the great disadvantage of that institution, and stated that this Society was co-operating in an application then about being made to the Legislature, which, it was hoped, would result in relieving the prison of this class of its inmates. The contemplated application was made, and a Committee attended at Harrisburg to make such explanations as might secure the favorable notice and action of the Legislature, but without success. Subsequently, however, the prison agent, after considerable effort, succeeded in inducing the Board of Guardians of the Poor to rescind instructions which had been issued to the officers of the almshouse, prohibiting the admission of persons sent from the County Prison, so far as to give their President power to admit (under certain restrictions) such persons as he might deem proper, on application of the Inspectors of the County Prison, to that effect.

Under this arrangement, thirty-one insane persons, some of whom had been imprisoned for years, have been sent from the prison to the Insane Department of the Almshouse within the past year.

_House of Correction._--The establishment of a House of Correction, (an institution intermediate to the almshouse, and prison,) was referred to last year, as an object of much interest to the community, and a hope was expressed that this highly important advance in the reformatory movements of our Commonwealth, might, under the Act of March, 1860, be soon carried into effect. It is cause for regret, however, that no substantial advance has yet been made. The delay in purchasing the ground, and erecting the necessary buildings, is understood to be occasioned by the City Councils having failed to make an appropriation of the requisite funds. The measure is so important, that we earnestly hope that the different parties having the control of it, may, by hearty and united action, be enabled to bring this long desired establishment into early and successful operation.

_Prison Society’s Visitors and Visiting._--We propose now to refer to the subject of visiting the prisons and the prisoners, the duties of which we feel to be of constant obligation, and if faithfully discharged, under right qualification, we believe to be of importance, second to nothing else, which devolves upon the Society. As heretofore, the Acting Committee, (consisting of the officers of the Society, _ex officio_, and forty-four other members), has been divided into two sub-committees: one of them being allotted as visitors to the Eastern Penitentiary, and the other to the County Prison. These Committees have been regularly organized, and each of them has held Stated Monthly Meetings, at which Reports have been received from the individual members, as to the character of their services during the month, and these Reports, or a summary of them, have been transmitted to the Monthly Meetings of the Acting Committee. From the accounts thus received, there is reason to believe that the interest in this service has in no degree abated, and that the duties of the visitors are discharged with increased efficiency. Owing to the long continued indisposition of one or two of the members of the Penitentiary Committee, and the protracted absence from the city of others, the aggregate number of visits paid there is not quite equal to that reported last year. There have been, however, 175 written Reports received from members of this Committee, by which we are informed that 656 visits were paid by them to that institution during the course of the year, in which 7,031 interviews were had with the prisoners, 4,728 of which took place within the cells, and 2,303 at the cell doors. We have no doubt but that many other visits were paid, but omitted to be reported.

The manner of meeting the prisoners is in a kindly spirit, approaching them not as convicts, but as men, the consequence of which is, that the entrance of a member of the Committee into a cell proves, with rare exceptions, a source of real satisfaction to the inmates; confidence being by this means established, an avenue is opened to their better feelings, and on being inquired of, they freely give a history of their past lives, and state what were the immediate influences under which the crime was committed, which resulted in their being confined in a felon’s cell. The information thus obtained, has fully convinced us, that a very large proportion of the vice existing, and of the crimes committed, if traced to their root, will be found to spring from Intemperance.

It must be remembered that this baneful influence is not limited to those individuals who commit crimes while under the immediate effect of the intoxicating draught, nor even to such, and those who by their ruinous habits, have brought themselves into such a state of destitution and degradation, that their necessities present strong temptations, and at the same time their sense of the obligations of integrity and the rights of their fellowmen, is so weakened, that the fatal step is easily taken. But to these two classes must be added the children of such, who, growing up under the influence of the evil example of the parent, feeling the degradation which he has brought upon his family, and suffering from the destitution which he has entailed upon them, and at the same time, being without the benefit of any sound moral and religious instruction, and permitted to roam the streets in idleness, without the knowledge of any business, are easy victims to the attacks of the tempter. When will the proper authorities of the land, by the enactment of suitable and effective laws, lay the axe to the root of this giant evil?

In these interviews with the prisoners, such counsel is given, as seems suited to their condition, so far as the visitors feel themselves qualified, not unfrequently, as we trust, seeking for Divine aid in the performance of the service. We believe that _many_, during their confinement, are improved in their _moral_ perceptions, and reach the conviction that “honesty is the best policy,” and are thus brought to resolve to endeavor to lead a correct life from the time of their discharge, and we hope that not a few of these, with the Divine blessing on their efforts, have not again relapsed into their former course of vice and crime, and that some, even amongst those who may not have yet attained to the true ground of reformation, an abhorrence of themselves in the sight of God, may, through Divine mercy, before the close of life, experience that change of heart which will render them acceptable in His sight. And we feel assured, that we have witnessed some instances of _true conversion_, which have resulted through the co-operation of Divine grace, with the instrumentalities connected with our prison system, and we cannot doubt but that the labors of our Prison Society have had some agency in effecting this happy change.