Part 1

[Transcribers' notes are placed after the text.]

VOL. VIII. TERMS:--ONE DOLLAR A YEAR IN ADVANCE. NO. II.

THE

PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL

OF

PRISON DISCIPLINE

AND

PHILANTHROPY.

PUBLISHED QUARTERLY

UNDER THE DIRECTION OF "THE PHILADELPHIA SOCIETY FOR ALLEVIATING THE MISERIES OF PUBLIC PRISONS," INSTITUTED 1787.

"The separation of one prisoner from another is the only sound basis on which a reformatory (prison) discipline can be established with any reasonable hope of success."--_Fifth Report of Inspectors of English Prisons._

APRIL, 1853.

PHILADELPHIA: E. C. AND J. BIDDLE, SOUTHWEST CORNER OF FIFTH AND MINOR STREETS.

LONDON: CHARLES GILPIN.

1853.

Isaac Ashmead, Printer.

CONTENTS OF NO. II.

Art. I.--Moral and Religious Instruction of Convicts, 53

II.--Report of the Discipline and Management of the 61 Convict-Prisons, and Disposal of Convicts, (England,)

III.--Sources and Checks of Juvenile Delinquency, 70

IV.--Pennsylvania Penitentiaries, 78

V.--Should Convicts be Received into the State Lunatic 82 Hospital at Harrisburg?

VI.--Report of the Condition of the New Jersey State Prison, 89

VII.--An Extraordinary Document, 93

VIII.--A Philanthropic Perplexity, 96

MISCELLANEOUS NOTICES.

Vagrant Children of New York, 98-99 Street Begging in New York, 99 New York Prison Association, 100 New York State Prisons, 100 Be beforehand with the Tempter, 101 New Penitentiary in Massachusetts, 101 State Prison at Charlestown (Mass.,) 101 Illinois Penitentiary, 102 New State Reform School, 102 Juvenile Offenders, 102 Singular Avocation and Mode of Life in London, 103 Death from Separation, 103 Murders in Philadelphia, 104 Missouri Insane Asylum, 104 Missouri Penitentiary, 104 Items of general Information, 105-107 Acknowledgments, 107 Premium for an Essay on Juvenile Delinquency, 108

NOTICE OF THIS JOURNAL.

"It embodies more information on the subject of prisons, arranged and expressed in the spirit of literature and science, than any other publication of our country and will compare with any Journal devoted to this department of knowledge in Europe."--_Hon. Charles Sumner's Speech, in debate on prison question in Boston, May, 1847._

RECENT NOTICES.

_From the North American and United States' Gazette._

We have received from Messrs. E. C. & J. Biddle the last number of the Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline, which is published quarterly, under the direction of the Philadelphia Society for alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons. A glance through its pages shows what is well understood--that it is a highly valuable periodical, communicating much and various important information upon the subject of which it treats. It is the only publication of the kind in the country, is certainly a very much needed one, and ought, therefore, to be well sustained by the public.

(See 3d page of Cover.)

THE

PENNSYLVANIA JOURNAL

OF

PRISON DISCIPLINE.

VOL. VIII.--APRIL, 1853--No. 2.

ART. I.--MORAL AND RELIGIOUS INSTRUCTION OF CONVICTS.

The readers of this Journal need not be told that we are not very sanguine in our expectations of the permanent reformation of the mass of convicts. There are doubtless instances enough of success in such efforts to warrant and encourage them, and we are not to suppose that they are ever wholly useless. The true position for us to take is this. The earlier we address ourselves to the cultivation of right principles and habits in a human being, the more hopeful is the prospect of success; but there is a power in truth and love, which has not seldom overcome the most sturdy depravity; and while we have the precept and example of Him who "came not to call the righteous but sinners to repentance," to prompt and stimulate our efforts in that direction, we have His promise too, that whatever is done in His name, and out of love to Him, shall in no wise lose its reward.

It is under the influence of these views that we have looked with interest and anxiety to the religious and moral influences which enter into the discipline of our penitentiaries. To no section of their annual reports, do we turn with more eagerness than to that from the chaplain or moral instructor; and though now and then a well-digested and satisfactory account is furnished, we are often compelled to be content with very vague generalities. A specimen of the religious discourses addressed to these unhappy congregations; a true sketch of a dialogue on some religious or moral topic held with one of them in his cell; a synopsis of a month's labors, showing the various methods employed, direct and incidental, to reach the sympathies, and awaken better motives and desires of the heart, or a brief analysis of those obstacles to moral and religious influences, which may be properly regarded as peculiar to prison life,--all these, or any of them would greatly relieve the monotony of the reports of chaplains and moral instructors, and would add materially to our means of judging of the fitness of their labors to the character and circumstances of those on whom they are bestowed. We are often favored with such specimens of the various methods in which instruction in secular knowledge is conveyed to the ignorant, and enabled to choose between them according to their apparent appropriateness. Why should not the like opportunity be afforded in respect to the more difficult and perplexing task of enlightening adult ignorance, counteracting deeply-depraved tendencies, and up-rooting established habits of evil?

It was with the hope of bringing this important department of our penitentiary discipline more distinctly to view, and of making its principles more practical and definite, that the Prison Society recently took the subject up, and referred it to a committee for consideration and report.

At the meeting in January last a full report was submitted, from which we make the following extracts:

It will be conceded on all hands, we presume, that moral instruction is an important element of every system of Prison Discipline. We are aware that in some of the largest prisons of Europe little, if any, importance is attached to it; but whenever there is any hope of reforming the character of a convict, or of establishing a permanent restraining principle, it must be founded on some improvement in his moral feelings and habits.

That peculiar difficulties and embarrassments should attend any approach to this unhappy class of our fellow beings, with a view to mould moral character, would seem very natural; but is it not possible that we exaggerate the difference between them and the mass of the world, in respect to their susceptibilities of good impressions? May we not easily forget that between a score of men in our prison cells, and twenty score of men that may be selected from society at large, the only difference is that the former are detected rogues, and the latter are (perhaps greater) rogues undetected? The _ins_ and the _outs_ are equally open to moral influences, and yet we should be very likely to think of the _ins_ as almost hopelessly beyond their reach, while the _outs_ might be esteemed fair subjects of them.

It is moreover surprising how much farther a conviction of crime goes to exclude men from the pale of sympathy and the offer of assistance, than crime itself. The guilt of hundreds of men at large is as fully established in the public mind, as that of any convict in our penitentiary; yet we do not regard it as at all impracticable to reach them with appropriate moral influences. We should not hesitate to commend books to their attention, to invite and urge them to attend some place of worship, nor to counsel them to abandon all evil courses. Why should we have less faith in the like means when employed upon no worse men, after their character has been defined by a judicial sentence? For though true it is that the presumption of innocence is only taken away by the proof of guilt, yet when looking at men as the subjects of moral influences and sympathies, the fact that one is in prison and another at large really makes much less difference than is generally supposed.

Thus much it seemed needful to say, by way of answer to those who distrust all efforts for the reformation of convicts, regarding them as visionary, if not Quixotic. It is to be regretted that such incredulity sometimes possesses the minds of those who have the chief oversight and direction of the discipline of our penal institutions. The deception, hypocrisy and treachery of convicts, which they so often witness, naturally confirms their distrust and may very easily excite prejudices against any attempt to improve their moral condition.

We are far from representing the moral and religious instruction of convicts as an easy task. It requires much patience, simplicity, tact and earnestness, a rare knowledge of human nature, and a combination of adjunct influences which are not always at command. We only mean to affirm that whatever force lies in the argument against efforts for the moral reformation of convicts, may be used against such efforts for any other class of men.

It would be a happy thing for our prisons, if the spirit of Christian benevolence were sufficiently awakened and active to ensure the needful measure of sympathy, instruction and moral culture from voluntary and unpaid service. But necessity seems to be laid upon us to provide a more permanent and reliable system of agencies and influences. One or more officers appointed to this specific work of giving instruction to the ignorant, and presenting motives and encouragements to a better life to those who are accustomed to do evil, seems to be indispensable to secure any thing like a proper attention to this important department. Hence the call for a chaplain or moral instructor.

In looking at the condition of our two Philadelphia prisons in respect to the provision for moral instruction, we are constrained to say, that it is not such either in efficiency or success, as we think desirable, attainable, and indeed absolutely necessary. Instead of bringing to view, however, what some of us might regard as grave defects in the present incumbents of the moral instructor's office, we will suggest what we cannot but regard as indispensable requisites in such a functionary, and leave those who have the appointing and removing power to exercise it at their discretion.

I. _A moral instructor should exemplify in the minutest particulars the moral principles he inculcates._--Any obvious neglect or evasion of duty, any appearance of hypocrisy or inconsistency, any sallies of ill-humour or fretfulness, any impatience of contradiction and unteachableness in his pupils, the most trivial breach of promise, or in a word, any departure from an upright, open and ingenuous deportment, will detract sensibly from his power to do good.

II. _He should possess the faculty of adapting himself to the various characters and temperaments of convicts._--We do not mean by this that he should have any other faculty than such as shrewd men of common sense ordinarily possess, and on which they depend for much of their success in business. But it is by no means a rare thing to find a prison chaplain, or moral instructor peculiarly deficient in this point, and there is nothing which is likely to strike the class of people with whom he has to deal more quickly or more unhappily than a weakness of this kind, especially in one who is set to be their teacher and guide.

III. _In such an office, the motive of benevolence and sympathy should be seen to have the predominance over the motive of self-interest._--The laborer in this department, as well as in all others, is worthy of his hire, but if those he would influence discover in the manner of doing his work, or in his general intercourse, that he acts the part of a mere functionary, having his beat like a police officer, and fulfilling an appointed task like a delver or ditcher, his usefulness will be greatly circumscribed. And this suggests

IV. A fourth quality in a chaplain or moral instructor, viz.: _a warm, glowing, personal, enthusiastic sympathy with the population of the prison_.--He is a physician among a company of diseased and dying patients. They are bidden to look to him for direction and to confide in his prescriptions, (though not in his power or skill,) for a cure of their maladies. If he has felt in his own person the presence of the same disease, (though perhaps in a less offensive and aggravated form,) and has known the value of a remedy, he will not look with indifference on their symptoms, nor hear unmoved their sighs and groans. He will have a tear of sympathy for the suffering; a helping hand for the weak and trembling, and will deal honestly but gently with the impatient and froward. They are guilty, and is he without sin? They are suffering the penalty of a wholesome law, and what but an unseen hand has restrained him from violating it? While therefore, he sets before them, honestly and faithfully, the evil of their ways, he will give power and persuasiveness to his words by the tender and sympathizing tones in which they are uttered. While he points them to a merciful and faithful high priest that has past into the heavens, and ever lives to make intercession for guilty, penitent men, he shows that, like that same high priest, he is touched with the feeling of their infirmities and sympathizes in their bondage.

V. A chaplain or moral instructor _should have good judgment in the selection of subjects of conversation and instruction, and in his methods of illustration_.--It is not unfrequently the case, that the most harsh and repulsive views of moral and religious truth are presented to those whose minds are already filled with prejudice and hostility, as if it were needful (as it is said to be in some bodily diseases) to make them worse before attempting to make them better. A man of ferocious temper is the last person to tame a wild beast; nor will a severe and offensive presentation of the most precious truth be likely to win an already alienated mind. To charge home their guilt on convicts, and make them feel that they have as good as they deserve, even if their situation were much worse than it is, will never pave the way for moral influences.

It requires good judgment to select topics for the moral and religious instruction of convicts, and much skill and tact to illustrate them. A false position on a moral subject will be quite as likely to strike a congregation of rogues as a congregation of honest men; and it is wonderful how the faith of a disciple is weakened by a single material error in a teacher. The moral instructor of prisoners, having nothing to do with points of polemic theology or subtle casuistry, has a plain and easy path if he is only willing to keep it. The elementary truths of religion and morality, which lie within the comprehension alike of a child and of an angel, and which are recognized by all sober-minded men as the basis and stamina of all true moral reformation, are to be explained and enforced, and their influence in promoting happiness, respectability and prosperity in this life and in preparing us for the future, is to be clearly exhibited.

In illustrating these truths, much depends on a seasonable reference to those things within the knowledge or present consciousness of the convicts. Incidents of daily observation--the familiar phenomena of nature, their own history in its social and moral relations, (with which the teacher is supposed to have made himself acquainted) will furnish topics appropriate in character and abundant in variety.

VI. _It is very important that a moral instructor should possess the faculty of casual teaching._--It is an easy thing to occupy ten or fifteen minutes in talking with a convict, but if he would leave something behind him for the man to ponder and reflect on when the cell-door closes again, the visitor or instructor must weigh well what he says, and seize the opportunity to drop a casual word of admonition, or encouragement, or intimidation, as the condition and habits of each individual may warrant.

These casual suggestions often have far more weight than a studied sermon, or an elaborate and earnest exhortation. The methods of exerting an influence over others, and especially over thoughtless and perverse persons, would be much more appropriate and effective were they governed less by the teacher's own state of mind, and more by the state of the mind which he wishes to change. Moral instructors of all grades are oftentimes in the dark respecting the mental condition and habits of their catechumens; and prison chaplains or instructors not unfrequently err in occupying so much of their interviews in expostulation, reproof and entreaty, as to leave no proper opportunity to hear, much less to draw out, an expression of the convict's own feelings. In such a case their labors, however well meant, lose much of their value, and are sometimes worse than wasted.

VII. _It is highly desirable that instruction in sound learning should be combined with instruction in religious and moral duties._--He who opens our minds to the apprehension of new and valuable ideas, gains an important ascendancy over us. The labors of a faithful and skilful teacher are always remembered with gratitude. Now there are a thousand opportunities in the course of ordinary instruction, even in the simple branches of reading and writing, to throw out suggestions of duty and interest, which a watchful teacher will eagerly improve. In the setting of a copy, in the reading of a paragraph, and even in the spelling of a word, such an opportunity may present itself. Powerful and lasting associations are often established in this way. The familiar sentence--

"_Evil communications corrupt good manners_,"

which has for a century perhaps, been used as a copy in writing-schools and classes, and which was originally selected, probably, because there is so large a proportion of letters of the simplest formation, has doubtless been fixed in the minds of thousands by the use of it in such a connection. When it is remembered how transient, uncertain and unfavorable is the opportunity to impress at all the minds of convicts, we may well insist upon the strictest economy in the use of such as we have.

VIII. As a library has become an almost indispensable appendage to our prisons, _the moral instructor should be competent, not only to select the most appropriate book for the use of the convicts, but also to distribute them with judgment when under his care_.--The most preposterous errors are often detected in some of our prisons on both these points. Where books are kindly given for such a purpose, reference is seldom had to the appropriateness of them. They are not wanted by the donor, and are therefore given to the prison. The moral instructor should be held responsible for every book that goes upon the shelves of the prison library, and he should be so familiar with the general character and design of each volume, as to determine as to its appropriateness to the condition, capacity and present habit of each prisoner's mind.

IX. _We are clear that the moral instructor should reside within the prison walls_, and be expected to have the same constancy in duties and responsibilities _as the warden_, or any other resident officer. There is no hour of the day in which he may not find or make an opportunity of doing good, and it is only by identifying himself with the daily routine of prison-duties, and with the interests of all concerned in their administration, that he can properly execute his work.

X. _The character and position of the moral instructor should be such as to command the respect and confidence of the officers and inspectors._--There is no such thing as hood-winking prisoners on such a subject as this. They soon discover how much respect the executive authorities feel for the man who is appointed to such an office, and it is vain to suppose their estimation of him by those within the cells will be any higher. The moral thermometer on the outside and the inside of the partition wall, will indicate a similar temperature on this, and on most other subjects. There are prison chaplains and moral instructors in the world, whose characters and opinions challenge the regard and respect not only of prison officers and visitors, but of the public at large; and such have uniformly exerted a most sensible and happy influence on the wretched congregations committed to their charge. If the moral instructors in our State and County prisons are of this stamp, we may well congratulate ourselves that so important a post is adequately filled. If they are not possessed, in some good degree, of the qualities which have been enumerated, the sooner they are removed the better shall we regard it for the prison and for the public, for we are clear that an incompetent incumbent of such an office is an instrument of more evil than good.

ART. II.--REPORT OF THE DISCIPLINE AND MANAGEMENT OF THE CONVICT PRISONS AND DISPOSAL OF CONVICTS, 1851-2, with notes on the Construction of Prisons, Treatment and Disposal of Juvenile Offenders, &c. By Lieutenant Colonel Jebb, Surveyor General of prisons of England, &c., pp. 218, with numerous plates.

This document is dated in June last, and came to hand since our January number was issued. In a cursory reading of it, we have noted several points of general interest, and without attempting a classification of the topics, we will imagine our readers to be looking over our shoulder as we rapidly turn the leaves, making now and then a brief comment or two.

In the ten prisons for separate confinement in England proper, there is room for 2,459 convicts, and 2,193 were in prison, leaving unoccupied accommodations for 266. In the three prisons for labor on the public works there were 1,931 confined, and only 17 more could have been received. In the hulks, there were 1,780 and only two vacancies; and in the Juvenile Prison at Parkhurst, there were 577 tenants and 29 vacancies. The total convict population of the year was 9,033, and there were 355 more on hand December 31, 1851, than at the same date in the previous year. Of the whole number, 13 were removed to Lunatic Asylums during the year, 147 were pardoned, (of whom 76 were on medical grounds,) and 111 died.

In the report of the Millbank prison, we have an incidental testimony from the chaplain to the moral advantages of separation, which we think valuable.