Part 6

“In regard to habitual truants from the schools, I am satisfied that the powers of the Courts, and the City authorities, are entirely _inadequate_ to meet the evil. The late Mayor directed me to detail some officer whose whole duty it should be to look after the truants that were reported to him, by the masters of the several schools.

“From the report of the officer detailed for this purpose, I make the following extract:

“‘During the year that I have had the charge of Truants, I have been called upon by the teachers of the Grammar and other Schools, to nearly 300 truant and idle children; and for want of some system by which to be governed, my practice has been as far as possible adapted to the circumstances of the case. I first call upon the parents, find out their condition and the character of the boy complained of, in order to know how to proceed with him; admonish him, and always in the first instance take him back to the school to which he belongs. In many cases this course has been sufficient. If called again to the same boy, by the consent of the parents, I have locked him up for a few hours, and given him to understand that a complaint against him would remain on file to be proceeded with if he again offends. This, sometimes, has been enough, but not often. After taking a boy to School two or three times, and he finds that nothing further is done, the Police-man’s badge and staff have no terrors for him. The reason, I think, is this. The law does not reach his case--the Courts say he is not a vagrant, because he has a home--and he is not a stubborn and disobedient child within the meaning of the statute. He is disobedient only so far as he is a truant; and there is no law against truancy. I have been into Court with a number of such cases and did not succeed in sustaining the complaint. The decision was almost fatal to the boy, and a great injury to the School to which he belonged. The only course left for us after this, was to watch the boy until we could arrest him for some trifling offence _known to the law_, and have him punished, which seemed to be necessary for the good of the boy, as well as the School.’

“The above statistics have been obtained in the following manner. During _school hours_ the officer has visited the wharves, public thoroughfares, and all other places where these children congregate, and by kind treatment and persuasion, learned their names and residence, then gone with them to their homes and ascertained their condition, and that of their parents, a record of which is now in this office, and to which additions are daily made.”

This brief history of juvenile vagrancy in the city of Boston, whose school system has been so long and justly regarded as her chief glory, will not surprise those who are familiar with scenes at the wharves, railway-stations and steamboat landings of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore. Innumerable specimens of the same class of young renegades may be seen also at the doors or in the vestibules of public houses in the large inland towns; and unless some mild compulsory process is devised to form them to better habits, it is certain that a severe one will be demanded to protect the community against their violence and depredations.

No. 4.--_The London Christian Observer’s notice of Rev. Mr. Field’s work on the advantages of the separate system of imprisonment._

In our last number we inserted, entire, an article on Mr. Field’s work, from the “London Medical and Chirurgical Review.” The February (1849) number of the _London Christian Observer_ devotes ten or fifteen pages to it, and inclines “to agree to a considerable extent in the author’s opinion, that the separate system is superior, not only to every other system that has hitherto been tried, but also to any that shall be, or can be hereafter devised.” This is rather more than we should be willing to say of any human device, but we are glad to see an English periodical of so much influence and reputation committing itself so heartily to the right side.

The “Observer” has strangely fallen into the notion, that absolute solitude without labor or instruction, was ever adopted _as a system of discipline in the United States_. He speaks of “our good friends in the United States,” as having run into the extreme of “entire solitude for six or ten months together in prisons of the most wretched description,” but when the effects were seen, “the system was abandoned at once.” He expresses thankfulness, that this dreadful system was never tried in England, but that they have been permitted to learn better by the experience of their neighbors. There is no doubt, that studious efforts have been made by the opponents of separation in our country to confound it with solitude, and to give the impression, that whatever evils are imagined or proved to result from the latter, are necessarily incident to the former. But we should have looked for a little more discrimination in the Observer, and for evidence of more thorough knowledge on a subject of so much interest. Indeed, we might almost suppose, that the needful supply of knowledge and discrimination is at hand, when the inquiry affects the good repute of the “sea girt isle,” and only fails when the institutions of “young America” are presented for review.

“We come now,” says the Observer, “to the separate system as we have it _amongst ourselves_, and we must request our readers to bear in mind, that this system is essentially different from the _Solitary_, properly so called--different in its objects, in its working, in its effects. The separate cell is but the sick room, in which the morally diseased is put under treatment for such time as his case requires. The solitary cell is (or rather was, for it no longer exists among civilized nations) the grave; where the patient is left as being past treatment and without hope of recovery. Yet the two methods have been, and are confounded, and the failure of the one, with all its attendant circumstances of horror, is used blindly or unscrupulously as an argument against the other.”--p. 129-30.

It is this “blind or unscrupulous” confounding of solitude and its effects, with separation and its fruits, that constitutes one of the crying sins against humanity, for which we think the anti-separatists will be called to account.

“We are sorry that we cannot follow Mr. Field through his description of the system of instruction, and its effects on the prisoners in general. His work abounds in examples of the ignorant instructed, the profligate reclaimed, the hardened convict subdued, the weak-minded set firm in good principles; and almost all thankful for the discipline they have undergone, and setting out afresh in this world of trials, with, at all events, new strength and better principles. Mrs. Fry, indeed, regarding man as adapted for a state of trial, argued against the system[7] as one that takes the convict away from trial altogether; but surely, there are stages and states in the moral life, when the discipline of solitude and reflexion is absolutely required; just as the body, though its intended sphere of action may be the air and the light, may absolutely require total seclusion from both, must be placed in bed, and take sharp medicines, instead of taking exercise and facing the weather. To say nothing of the fact, that a crowded prison-yard can scarcely be regarded as a _fair_ field of probation for any man.

“Altogether, we regard the present state of things with respect to this whole subject as affording a ground of great encouragement and thankfulness to God; and as opening prospects of large social improvement both at home and in the Colonies; for the wretched system of transportation, the plan of peopling new lands with the outcasts of the old, seems to have received its deathblow from the introduction of wholesome discipline at home. There are a few minor differences to be adjusted regarding the treatment of convicts, the length of their separate confinement, and the mode of disposing of them for the rest of their sentence; but the principle is now fairly admitted, that the prison is to be a place of severe moral and religious discipline. The office of a gaol chaplain, instead of being the most loathsome and repulsive that a clergyman could hold, is now a work full of interest and promise and hope, bringing often a speedy return for labor. Sarah Martin, the pious needlewoman of Yarmouth, who passed her life among the wretched inhabitants of the gaol, would indeed have rejoiced, if she could have accompanied as we have done, the zealous Chaplain of one of these new gaols along the clean, light, well-aired corridor, and entered with him into one cell after another, where the prisoner welcomed him cheerfully and respectfully, repeating his few verses of psalm or hymn--a voluntary task--and listened thankfully for the kind admonition or encouragement of perhaps the first friend he ever knew. It seems as if God had raised up men on purpose for the work. We are personally acquainted with some Gaol Chaplains, and have read the Reports of many, and believe, in most cases they are men of energy, discernment and piety. If we have a fault to find with them, it is, that from their experience of visible effects speedily and uniformly produced on those who are under their charge, they come to speak and write as if the reformation of a sinner were a matter of certainty, provided only a sufficient time is allowed. We are aware, that this is only an apparent error, for no man would be more ready than Mr. Field to acknowledge the absolute necessity of the power of the Holy Spirit in any work of genuine reformation.”

No. 5.--_Kentucky State Penitentiary._

A friend has kindly forwarded to us a copy of the annual report of the keeper, clerk, &c., of the Kentucky Penitentiary, for the year 1848. It is located at Frankfort, and as the reports indicate, is administered with much success. We have noted a few items of general interest.

It was formerly the custom to _shave the head_ of every convict _once a week_. This humiliating process was required by law, but, at the suggestion of the present keeper, it was so modified, as to leave it to the discretion of the keeper to shave or not to shave. The good effects of the measure were at once manifest. We are not told to what extent the practice now prevails, but are left to infer that it is only adopted as a mode of punishment. There can be no doubt, we think, that all methods of humbling or subduing a convict which savour of vindictiveness, or occasion a needless violation of a natural and proper self-respect, are to be deprecated. External badges of infamy and degradation may be needful sometimes as a precaution against escapes, or for the recapture of convicts, but it is a great advantage to be able to dispense with them.

The average number of convicts in confinement at the date of the report, was 161, and the clear profits upon their earnings during the year, were eight or nine thousand dollars. The bagging business has been found dull, and very extensive preparations are now made for coopering.

The number of convicts received during the year ending December 1, 1848, was _sixty-nine_, and the number discharged by pardon during the same time was THIRTY-THREE, or nearly half as many pardons as commitments. This number is exclusive of five who were pardoned the day before the expiration of their sentence, to restore them to citizenship. All the convicts are males, and only 16 of the 161, are colored; and 128 were convictions of crime against property, and only twenty-five of the sentences exceed seven years. Nine of the convicts are from Ireland, and nine from other foreign countries, leaving 143 native Americans; 97 are under 30 years of age; 114 habitually or occasionally intemperate; 47 utterly destitute of any degree of education; and 80 were never married. From a review of the prison history for a period of 13 years, it appears that the largest number received in any one year, was 81, (1842,) and the smallest, 49, (1837;) the number of convicts received during the 13 years from the 88 counties of the State, was 877, of whom 383 were from the county of Jefferson alone, of which Louisville is the shire-town. Of the 877 convictions, 551 were for crimes against property, or against the person for property. Of the 877, only eleven were females. The number of cases of disease occurring during the year, was 244, of which 128 were cured. Days lost by sickness during the year, 1664.

No. 6.--_An Inquiry into the Alleged Tendency of the Separation of Convicts, one from the other, to Produce Disease and Derangement._ BY A CITIZEN OF PENNSYLVANIA. Philadelphia, E. C. & J. Biddle, 1849.

The questions involved in this inquiry and the elaborate manner in which they are handled in it, forbid a short or superficial notice of its contents; and hence we must ask for farther time to enable us to study, compare and collate, before we attempt to analyze the work for the use of our readers. If, however, in the mean time, they should choose to read and think for themselves in the premises, by a careful perusal of this “Inquiry,” we are safe in saying that the time will be well spent and the labor fully rewarded.

No. 7.--_New York Eye and Ear Infirmary._

The report of this humane institution for 1848, (the 28th of its existence,) states that there were received during the year, 1,945 new patients being 565 more than were received in 1846. There remained under treatment, January 1, 1849, 129; and of 2,074 prescribed for during the year, 1,370 were cured, 147 were relieved, 33 declined treatment, 11 were discharged as incurable, the result of 34 were not ascertained, and 220 remained under treatment. Diseases of the ear, 130.

Of the patients, there were born in the United States 827; in foreign countries 1,118!

A free institution for the blind, is about to be opened in Jacksonville, Illinois. The State supports it by a special tax.

No. 8.--_Shelter for Colored Orphans._

For thirteen years, a quiet and useful charity, known as the “Shelter,” has been provided for a portion of the colored orphan children of Philadelphia. At the date of the twelfth report there were 56 children under care, and twelve were received during the year; while 9 were apprenticed and 3 died. There were in the house, January 1849, 53 children. Dr. Casper Wistar attended and administered to the institution gratuitously, during a season of severe sickness from the measles, in the progress of which thirty-six were under medical care!

No. 9.--_Paupers and Prisoners in Cincinnati._

It is stated in the public prints, that the admissions to the Cincinnati city hospital in the year 1848, were over 3000; and two-thirds of them foreigners. In the number were 152 lunatics.

“Admissions to the Jail, during the year, 776, of whom 742 were intemperate, 17 under 18 years of age, and 66 females. Of these 776, 35 were sent to the Penitentiary, and 741, ‘turned loose, without friends or employment, to prey upon society again--a portion of them serving awhile in the Chain-gang first.’”

_No. 10._--_Insane Asylum in North Carolina._

We understand that the act establishing a hospital for the insane at Raleigh, provides for a tax of one and three-fourths of a cent on every hundred dollars valuation of land, and five and a quarter cents on the poll, to be levied for the space of four years, to raise the money to construct and furnish the building--the County Courts during the said time to have power to make a proportionate reduction of the poor tax in their respective counties.

No. 11.--_Corrupt Police._

In a charge lately given by one of the Judges of the Court of Quarter Sessions for the city and county of Philadelphia, some passages occur, the implication of which is very far from being creditable to the police-gentry, and is, moreover, rather startling to the lovers of peace and security.

“So long as there is collision between police officers and criminals, crime will continue, and it will be difficult to suppress it. If police officers will suppress evidence against the perpetrators of offences; if they will associate and correspond with criminals, and participate in the fruits of robbery, crime will continue to increase, because the chances for escape are great. In some of the _Incorporated_ Districts it is believed, the police force is efficient and useful.”

This makes the whole matter so vague as to aggravate, rather than alleviate apprehensions.

In the same charge, the magistrate is represented as saying, that “if there were no pardons there would be but few convictions.” Is it possible that the indulgence of executive clemency is so frequent as to make juries careless or forward to convict from the impression that their verdict will be reviewed under an application for pardon?

We confess we had no idea that the exercise of the pardoning power had been such, either in character or extent, as to warrant a statement like the following from the same source:

“If any one will look at the records of conviction throughout the State for the last fifteen years, and then at the list of pardons, and the history and convictions of the convicts, it will be found, that rarely has a criminal served out the period of his sentence, if he were a person of _wealth_ or previous influence, or who had wealthy connections, or friends and relations of great political influence. While no one can doubt that every Executive has been honest and sincere in the exercise of this power, yet the unseen effect of money and political relations enables the convict to surround the governor with influences which he does not resist.”

Can the yielding to such influences be regarded as consistent with “honesty and sincerity” in the exercise of the Executive prerogative?

“The principles on which pardons are often obtained, are, in my opinion, incorrect. The Executive generally hears but one side of the case--the one presented by the criminal--while the Court and Jury hear both sides. The case of the prisoner is always strongly stated in his favor, and that backed by the influence of friends or _hired agents_, and the incautious signing by citizens of a petition for pardon, usually produces the result of a liberation from that sentence.

“Nothing tends more to the suppression of crime than the certainty of punishment, no matter how short. Let people once be convinced that criminals will be punished as the law provides, and we should find the number of crimes rapidly diminishing.

We think much of the principle here asserted, but it is perhaps made to carry too much weight for its bottom.

ARTICLE II.--The President, and in his absence one of the Vice-Presidents, shall preside in all meetings, and shall subscribe all public acts of the Society. The President, or in his absence either of the Vice-Presidents, shall moreover have the power of calling a special meeting of the Society whenever he shall judge proper. A special meeting shall likewise be called at any time when six members of the Society shall concur in requesting it.

ARTICLE III.--The Secretaries shall keep fair records of the proceedings of the Society, and shall correspond with such persons and societies as may be judged necessary to promote the views and objects of the institution.

ARTICLE IV.--The Treasurer shall keep all moneys and securities belonging to the Society, and shall pay all orders of the Society or Acting Committee, signed by the President or one of the Vice-Presidents, which orders shall be his vouchers for his expenditures. He shall, before he enters upon his office, give a bond of not less than two hundred pounds for the faithful discharge of the duties of it.

ARTICLE V.--The Acting Committee shall consist of the President, two Vice-Presidents, two Secretaries, two Counsellors, Treasurer, and six [now ten] other members, three of whom to go off at the meetings in the months called January and July. They shall visit the prisons at least once a month, inquire into the circumstances of the prisoners, and report such abuses as they shall discover to the proper officers appointed to remedy them. They shall examine the influence of confinement or punishment upon the morals of the prisoners. They may draw upon the Treasurer for such sums of money as may be necessary. They shall keep regular minutes of their proceedings, to be read at every quarterly meeting of the Society. This committee shall have the sole power of electing new members, but no member shall be admitted who has not been proposed at a previous meeting of the Society, nor shall an election for a member take place in less than one month after the time of his being proposed.

ARTICLE VI.--Every member who on his admission shall subscribe the constitution, and pay ten dollars, shall be a member for life, and every member who on his admission shall subscribe the constitution, and annually pay the sum of seven shillings and sixpence, shall be a member while he continues to contribute.[8]

ARTICLE VII.--Corresponding members may be elected, not resident in the city of Philadelphia, nor within ten miles thereof, who shall not be required to make pecuniary contributions to the funds of the Society, nor sign the constitution.

ARTICLE VIII.--The Society shall meet on the second Second-day, called Monday, in the months called January, April, July, and October, at such place as shall be agreed to by a majority of the Society.

ARTICLE IX.--No law or regulation shall contradict any part of the Constitution of the Society, nor shall any law or alteration of the Constitution be made without it be proposed at a previous meeting. All questions shall be decided, where there is a division, by a majority of votes; in those where the Society is equally divided, the presiding officer shall have a casting vote.

OFFICERS FOR 1849.

PRESIDENT--James J. Barclay. VICE-PRESIDENTS--Townsend Sharpless, Charles B. Trego. TREASURER--Edward Yarnall. SECRETARIES AND COMMITTEE OF CORRESPONDENCE-- William Parker Foulke, Charles D. Cleveland. COUNSELLORS--Job R. Tyson, William A. Porter.

ACTING COMMITTEE.

James J. Barclay, Townsend Sharpless, Charles B. Trego, Edward Yarnall, William Parker Foulke, Charles Dexter Cleveland, Job R. Tyson, William A. Porter, Frederick A. Packard, Jeremiah Hacker, William Shippen, John M. Whitall, Marmaduke Cooper Cope, Rene Guillou, Charles Ellis, Edward Townsend.

👉 QUARTERLY MEETING of the Society on the ninth day of April, inst.

NOTICE.

👉 Communications and orders for this work may be addressed “_Editors of the Journal of Prison Discipline_,” care of the publishers, No. 6, South Fifth Street, Philadelphia.