Part 3

“I wish particularly,” Dr. S. Smith states, “to draw attention to the importance of having a certain number of rooms in the dwelling-houses of the poor, though I am aware of the difficulty of legislating on this matter, and of the still greater difficulty of carrying out practically what the legislature may declare to be its intention and will. Still it is right, that the attention of the legislature and other public bodies should be called to the physical deterioration and moral degradation, which results from the want of proper room in the dwelling-houses of the poor. Besides the evidence on this subject, which has been published in the report on the sanitary condition of the laboring population, a large mass of evidence to the same effect will be found in the reports of the sub-commissioners under the Children’s Employment Commission, and in the statements of a great number of witnesses examined by them. Instances such as the following are given: ‘A mother and her son, being an adult, sleep in the same bed. Grown-up females and unmarried young men sleep in the same room. A man, his wife, and his wife’s sister, the latter being an adult, sleep together in the same bed.’ I have myself seen, a young man, twenty years of age, sleeping in the same bed with his sister, a young woman, sixteen or seventeen years old. That incestuous intercourse takes place under these circumstances, there is too much reason to believe; and that when unmarried young men and women sleep together in the same room, the women become common to the men, is stated as a positive fact; but I regard another inevitable effect of this state of things as no less pernicious; it is one of the instances which, for want of a better term, may be called _unhumanizing_, because it tends to weaken and destroy the feelings and affections which are distinctive of the human being, and which raise him above the level of the brute. I have sometimes checked myself in the wish, that men of high station and authority, would visit these abodes of the less fortunate fellow-creatures, and witness with their own eyes the scenes presented there; for I have thought the same end might be answered in a way less disagreeable to them. They have only to visit the Zoological Gardens, and observe the state of society in that large room, which is appropriated to a particular class of animals, where every want is relieved, and every appetite and passion gratified, in full view of the whole community. In the filthy and crowded streets, in our large towns and cities, you see human faces retrograding, sinking down to the level of those brute tribes; and you find manners appropriate to the degradation. Can any one wonder that there is among these classes of the people so little intelligence--so slight an approach to humanity--so total an absence of domestic affection, and of moral and religious feeling? The experiment has been long tried on a large scale with a dreadful success, affording the demonstration, that if, from early infancy, you allow human beings to live like brutes, you can degrade them down to their level, leaving to them scarcely more intellect, and no feelings and affections proper to human minds and hearts.”

Dr. Lyon Playfair adduces instances of the crowding of persons in the same room, without even the plea of necessity. They are not, he informs us, the most extreme cases of the kind.[3]

In Preston, out of 442 dwellings examined in unhealthy localities, and inhabited at the time of the inquiry by 2400 persons sleeping in 852 beds, it appeared that

In 84 cases 4 persons slept in the same bed, In 28 “ 5 “ “ “ In 13 “ 6 “ “ “ In 3 “ 7 “ “ “ In 1 “ 8 “ “ “

“Amidst the dirt and disease of filthy back courts and alleys, vices and crimes are lurking,” says the Rev. Mr. Clay, “altogether unimagined by those who have never visited such abodes.” The inspectors of prisons in Scotland, from separate inquiries, have also come to the conclusion, that the physical causes of disease, indirectly become the causes of crime.

_Public Lodging Houses_, are another prolific source of disease and vice. They are, in nearly all large cities, the nightly resorts not only of the migrating laborer, and travelling artisan, but, also, of the lower mendicants, thieves, and prostitutes. These resorts are well known to the criminal police. In 1831, Mr. James knew a house of this description in London, to contain 126 persons, many of them women and children, and perhaps not more than a dozen beds in the place. At the census of 1841, there were not more than 30 to 40 in any of these houses; “still these numbers crowd the houses most annoyingly.” It is no uncommon thing, as we learn from Dr. Duncan, (_Report on the Sanatory State of Liverpool_,) for the keepers of lodging houses to cover the floor with straw, and allow as many human beings as can manage to pack themselves together, to take up their quarters for the night, at the charge of a penny each. The havoc made by the cholera in the lodging houses at Manchester, in 1832, was terrible. In some of these houses, as many as 6 or 8 beds were contained in a single room, which are crowded promiscuously with men, women, and children. Dr. Howard, after showing the lamentable extent to which they become the hot-beds of _febrile_ diseases of the most violent and fatal character, owing mainly to their filthy and unventilated condition, thus describes the morals of their frequenters, and their malign influence in this way on the young and inexperienced. “They serve as open receptacles of crime, vice, and profligacy, and as nurseries in which the young and yet uninitiated, become familiar with every species of immorality. They are the haunts of the most depraved and abandoned characters, as well as the most miserable and suffering objects of the town, (_Manchester_,) and constitute one of the most influential causes of the physical and moral degradation of our laboring population.”

Unless we are misinformed, the investigations now making by the Board of Health of Philadelphia, will reveal a state of things, not much behind, although on a smaller scale, those described in the foregoing extracts; and as regards New York, Dr. Griscom’s report, made a few years ago, exhibits a still darker picture. With the warnings on the other side of the Atlantic to deter us, we ought to have kept clear of these nuisances entirely. Let us, as we have imitated the people of Great Britain for evil, imitate them also for good, by instituting the same searching inquiries into the nature and extent of these physical and moral corruptions, that are recorded in the proceedings of the various Parliamentary committees and Royal Commissioners.

In Glasgow, the lodging houses have been subjected to regular municipal supervision and ordinance, and, as we are told, with excellent effects.

ART. III.--STATE PENITENTIARIES.

I. _The Twentieth Annual Report of the Inspectors of the Eastern State Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, transmitted to the Senate and House of Representatives._ March 1849, pp. 36.

II. _Report of the Board of Inspectors of the Western Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, for the year 1848, with the accompanying documents._ Pittsburg, 1849, pp. 21.

III. _Report on the condition of the New Jersey State Prison, embracing the Reports of the Joint Committee, Inspectors, Keeper, Moral Instructor and Physician._ Trenton, January 1849, pp. 44.

IV. _Documents relating to the State Prison._ Senate of Massachusetts, Document No. 5, pp. 24.

I. The first document in the above list is worthy of a much more extended notice than our limits allow us to give. We shall notice its constituent parts in their order.

(1.) In their report the inspectors refer with natural interest to the opening of the State Lunatic Asylum, which is expected to be completed as early as January 1851. For want of it, “instances have occurred in which the sheriff has been the medium of a message from the judge who pronounced the sentence, to the chief officer of the prison, informing him that the prisoner was insane, but that no other mode of providing for the case existed.”

The subject of pardons occupies a prominent place in their report. It appears that but a fraction over six per cent. of the pardoned have been recommitted; and the percentage of pardons in relation to number, sex and color, cannot be so well set forth in any other way as by transferring the table to our pages.

_Table showing the whole number of pardons granted from the establishment of the prison in 1829 to 9th July, 1848._

+-------+-----------------------------------------+-----------------------------+--------+ | | _Whole number in confinement._ | _No. of pardons._ | | | | | | | | +-----------------+---------------+-------+--------------+--------------+ Annual | | | Whites. | Colored. | | Whites. | Col’d. |average | | | | |Total, | | | per | | +-----------------+---------------+ both +----+----+----+----+----+----+centage.| | YEAR. | M. |Fem.|Total.| M. |Fem.|Tot.|colors.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| M. |Fem.|Tot.| | +-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+ | 1831 | 75 | | 75 | 25 | 4 | 29 | 104 | 1 | | 1 | | | | | | 1832 | 90 | | 90 | 27 | 4 | 31 | 121 | 4 | | 4 | | | | | | 1833 | 129 | | 129 | 41 | 4 | 45 | 174 | 2 | | 2 | | | | | | 1834 | 189 | | 189 | 81 | 2 | 83 | 272 | 8 | | 8 | 1 | | 1 | | | 1835 | 261 | 8 | 269 | 155 | 11 |166 | 435 | 10 | | 10 | 4 | | 4 | 2.38 | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1836 | 278 | 11 | 289 | 179 | 19 |198 | 487 | 2 | 1 | 3 | | | | | | 1837 | 320 | 8 | 328 | 199 | 19 |218 | 546 | 4 | 1 | 5 | | | | | | 1838 | 333 | 11 | 344 | 199 | 22 |221 | 565 | 10 | | 10 | | | | | | 1839 | 241 | 6 | 247 | 150 | 16 |166 | 413 | 2 | | 2 | | | | 1.26 | |to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 15th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1839 | 335 | 9 | 344 | 214 | 30 |244 | 588 | 9 | | 9 | 1 | | 1 | | | 1840 | 331 | 8 | 339 | 203 | 31 |234 | 573 | 19 | | 19 | | | | | | 1841 | 293 | 6 | 299 | 171 | 32 |203 | 502 | 11 | 1 | 12 | 1 | | 1 | | | 1842 | 298 | 5 | 303 | 153 | 21 |174 | 477 | 20 | | 20 | 2 | 1 | 3 | | | 1843 | 319 | 6 | 325 | 146 | 16 |162 | 487 | 15 | | 15 | | | | | | 1844 | 332 | 12 | 344 | 136 | 17 |153 | 497 | 39 | | 39 | 4 | 3 | 7 | | | 1845 | 230 | 10 | 240 | 97 | 11 |108 | 348 | 23 | 1 | 24 | 2 | | 2 | 5.37 | |to Jan.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 21.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 1845 | 305 | 15 | 320 | 113 | 16 |129 | 449 | 5 | | 5 | | | | | | 1846 | 321 | 14 | 335 | 110 | 16 |126 | 461 | 24 | 1 | 25 | | | | | | 1847 | 297 | 9 | 306 | 113 | 13 |126 | 432 | 20 | | 20 | 5 | | 5 | | | 1848 | 245 | 8 | 253 | 97 | 12 |103 | 356 | 6 | 1 | 7 | | | | 4.08 | |to July| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | 9th.| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | +-------+-----+----+------+-----+----+----+-------+----+----+----+----+----+----+--------+

During the year 1848, there were received 121 convicts, viz., 88 whites (two females), and 33 colored (three females), and 128 were discharged. Of these, 83 served out their time; 13 were pardoned; 11 discharged by order of law; 15 died from disease, and one was a suicide. The whole number of convicts in confinement during the year was 415, viz., 299 white and 116 colored. Of the 16 deaths, 10 were whites and 6 colored.

(2.) The warden’s report shows that of the 121 convicts received, 32 were foreigners, and 56 were natives of Pennsylvania. Ninety-one were under middle age; 96 were of intemperate habits; 76 could read and write; 60 were unmarried. Only 14 were bound and served their time out; 13 were bound and broke their indentures; and 96 were never bound.

Some curious facts appear in the various summaries which these details embrace. For example, of the 2,421 prisoners received into the institution from its opening in October 1829, 619 could neither read nor write; 2,020 were addicted to the use of intoxicating drinks; 460, or more than one-sixth, were foreigners; and of these last, Ireland supplied 199 and Germany 112. Seventeen hundred and twenty-nine were first convictions; 1,451 were never married; and 18 had been married and separated; 1,631 were whites (48 females) and 790 colored (86 females); 467 broke their indentures, and 1,569 were never bound. Of the 2,421 crimes, 2,000 were against property.

(3.) Next in order is the physician’s report, in which special reference is made to the inordinate length of sentences, when the nature of the discipline is duly considered. Dr. Given thinks the coloured prisoners as a class, suffer a double burden, inasmuch as their sentences are longer and the enervating influence of imprisonment is more severely felt by them,--and he furnishes the following items on this subject.

Whole number of white prisoners, 1631 Whole number of colored prisoners, 790 Average length of sentences of white prisoners, 2 y., 8 ms., 2 days. Average length of sentences of colored prisoners, 3 y., 3 ms., 14 days. Whole number of pardons of white prisoners, 253 Whole number of pardons of colored prisoners, 25 Whole number of deaths of white prisoners, 73 Whole number of deaths of colored prisoners, 141

The Doctor is disposed to vindicate the exercise of the pardoning power, even to a still greater extent than heretofore, unless the need of its exercise is taken away by a proper adjustment of the penal code to the penal discipline of the State. We are not prepared to say how far it would be safe to entrust the executive with power to remedy the errors or supply the defects of the Legislature, but if it is given, its extent should be clearly defined, and its exercise closely watched. We do not make this remark with any reference to the past. It is suggested by the idea, advanced in the report before us, that the pardoning power must needs be freely exercised, to compensate for the undue severity of the sentences. It is easy to see where such a doctrine would lead if followed out. We do not doubt the correctness of the statement, that the sentences at present prescribed by our laws, are quite too long and too indiscriminately inflicted, if we take into consideration the nature and efficacy of the discipline under which they are to be worked out; but in our haste to remedy the evil, we need to be cautious, lest we incur another and even a greater, because a more general and radical one. We hope this distinct call of attention to the subject, will awaken our legislators to early and efficient action. Where crying injustice is now done under color of law, a double wrong is inflicted on society. The agent and the instrument, become alike odious.

Dr. Given seconds the movement of the inspectors towards some relief from the commitment of insane convicts. He speaks of it not as a thing happening now and then, but as “A PRACTICE to send thither as criminals, persons notoriously insane or idiotic.” He also suggests the importance of some more suitable provision than now exists, for those who may become insane during their imprisonment.

Of the 15 deaths by disease, eleven were more or less diseased on admission. The mortality for 1847 and 1848, gives a mean of 4 per cent., which is the usual average. In respect to insanity, Dr. Given’s researches show, that of the 121 commitments during the year, 30 have had insane relatives;--10 cousins, 10 uncles or aunts, 5 parents, 4 mothers or sisters, and 1 grandparents.

Ten cases of insanity are reported, 5 whites and 5 blacks, average age, 25. Four were in imperfect health when admitted; one has an insane uncle, and two have an insane brother; 5 are stated as cases of dementia, and 5 as cases of monomania.

(4.) The moral instructor’s report informs us, that 288 sermons have been preached in the prison, which is an average of 48 to each corridor, and nearly one service for every Sabbath of the year. The whole number of visits recorded as having been paid by this officer to the convicts, in the course of the year, is 3,385.

II. The condition of the Western Penitentiary, is exceedingly gratifying. The inspectors allude briefly to the animadversions which have been made upon the Pennsylvania system; but they express their confidence, that the happy results which have attended its administration in that institution, will excite in the public mind the same confidence in the advantages of that system over all others, which long experience and personal observation has excited in theirs.

The number of convicts received during the year 1848, (all males,) was discharged in the same time, 52. Of 1,286 prisoners received from the opening of the prison, July 1826, only 22 have been white females; and only 215 colored convicts, of whom 37 were females. Of the 115 in confinement January 1, 1849, 88 were addicted to intemperance; 44 were natives of Pennsylvania, and of the 55 received during the year, 32 were unmarried. In respect to occupation, 42 of the 115 were laborers, 15 boatmen, 6 blacksmiths, 5 tailors. Of the 55 received during the year, 38 were under middle age.

The physician’s report shows, that among 167 prisoners in confinement during the year, only 4 deaths have occurred. Two of the four were thoroughly diseased when admitted, a third was of a consumptive family and died of consumption, and the fourth was sixty-one years old, of intemperate habits and died of apoplexy. A complete table is presented by the physician, showing the color, sex, duration of imprisonment, and state of health on reception and discharge of each prisoner, released by expiration of sentence or by pardon, from which it appears, that, _with one exception_, they were all received and discharged in good health. Among these there were eleven, one or both of whose parents died of consumption, two who were intemperate, and one very intemperate, and their average term of imprisonment was eighteen months. Six were in better health when discharged than when admitted, and one, who was partially insane when admitted, was discharged in good health.

As a striking illustration of the healthfulness of the institution, the physician states that between sixty and seventy different convicts have been employed during the year in the shoe department, and forty-eight or fifty on a daily average; “of this number _only four have failed in consequence of indisposition, to perform their full task of work. Throughout the year every other than the four referred to have performed their regularly allotted task._” We are not surprised that the medical officer thinks it proper to italicise a record of so remarkable a measure of health.

From the moral instructor’s report, we extract a single, but very sensible paragraph.

“It is not unfrequently the case that subjects which have been presented in the ministrations of the Sabbath, are called up by the prisoners themselves during the _daily visitation_ in their cells, and thus the opportunity is furnished of impressing upon their minds, when alone, that _heavenly truth_ which may ultimately bring them to repentance and to God. In this feature of the _separate system_, one of its principal excellencies consists. The prisoner, by himself, separated from all vicious influences, is far better prepared to receive and retain wholesome instruction than when surrounded by men of a moral cast like his own. If the reformation of convicts be accomplished at all, it must be done, as a general rule, by those moral influences which are made to reach him, _when_ and _where_ intercourse with the vicious is cut off. In this situation he will listen, reflect and reform.”

III. The New Jersey Penitentiary, at Trenton, received 108 convicts during the year just past; and had 176 in confinement December 31, 1848, which is 23 more than at the close of 1847. Of the 85 discharged during the year, 71 had completed their sentences, twelve were pardoned, (two on the day before their sentence expired,) and two died. Of 176 in confinement at the date of the report, 99 were received in 1848, and 38 in 1847. Eighty-six were for crimes against property, 142 for a first offence, 127 were under middle age and 42 were foreigners. In respect to color, 123 were whites, (114 males and 9 females,) and 53 were colored, (one a female.) Sixty-six had no trade or occupation. The available means of the prison, at the close of the year, were upwards of six thousand dollars.

The physician’s report states, that “but _one_ death occurred during the year and that a suicide. From diseases contracted within the prison, (where there are under discipline 260 persons,) do not average one a year.” The physician says, that “all experience has proved steam to be the best carrier of heat, and by far the most certain and economical.”--p. 43.

The report of the Rev. Mr. Starr, (the moral instructor,) is quite a valuable and intelligent document. We cannot refrain from copying a single paragraph, touching the advantages of separation as an element of prison discipline, especially in its relations to moral and religious instruction.

“The chances of amendment under the separate system, duly sustained, must be incalculably greater than where companies of men are congregated in their workshops. The plan is severe; but, to use a paradoxical phrase, it is a _mild severity_. The less abandoned are shut out from association with the hardened, who may have spent years in familiarity with crime. Each man has his books and his thoughts and his conscience for companions. His keepers, his physician when in sickness, his moral instructor, the superintendent of his daily labor, he soon learns all are _his friends_. A great deal is in their power, through the pleasant look, the friendly salutation, and the kind interest manifested in those little alleviations which in no degree interfere with the strictest and most wholesome discipline. The prisoner’s self-respect will thus be encouraged and cultivated, as he sees that he is not by all the world regarded in the light of a hopeless outcast. He may be inspired with the noble ambition of regaining his character, and leading in future a reputable life. Such like benefits can be extended with four-fold advantage in the separate plan of imprisonment, while its solitude is relieved by the kind offices of a sympathizing friendship.”