is a regular course of labor. All, except the sick, are obliged to work, and the hum of industry is heard at every hour of the day. The hatter, the carpenter, the shoemaker, the blacksmith, the brass-founder, the stone-cutter, all find enough to do. Lessons of industry are learned. Habits of constant activity are acquired, and the means of gaining an honest livelihood in after life are thus put in the hands of each. Still, while there is great good in all this, there are also accompanying dangers. Instead of the prisons being an expense to the State, they are becoming sources of income, and there appears to be a competition among the prisons, as to which will earn the most; so that many may think more of the daily earnings, than of the prisoner's reformation. There is great danger of this, and we are confident that some of our largest prisons have erred grievously in this respect.

In the New Hampshire prison, the prisoners work for contractors, who bind themselves to support the institution, on condition that they are to have all the remaining profits. Of this system, Mr. Pilsbury, who is high authority, says, “although I wish to hurt no one's feelings, it is the worst of all systems, and has a direct tendency to destroy all the good that is contemplated by the friends of prison discipline.". Report, 1838,

p. 31.

The State prison in Vermont has made a similar contract for three years. The new penitentiary in Tennessee has earned, during the last two years, with only one hundred and twentytwo prisoners, fourteen thousand four hundred and thirty dollars, above expenses. The committee of the legislature suggest the propriety of adding such surplus as may be in the hands of the keeper, from time to time, to the common-school funds. This they suggest, although, in the report for the last two years, not one word has been said about moral or religious instruction. We feel this to be a subject worthy of the greatest consideration. Convicts are placed in prisons to be punished and reclaimed, and not to earn money for the people. The revenue must be looked upon as a secondary matter. Money is as dust, compared to moral improvement. If, however, there are prisons where the productiveness of the labor is looked upon as the chief object, let it be so understood; though it were well to have it understood, at the same time, that it would not only be better, but cheaper for the State, annually to expend money, if, by so doing, the convicts could be reformed. The words of VOL. XXVI. 3D S. VOL. VIII. NO. I.

9

John Howard should never be forgotten. "To reform prisoners, or to make them better as to their morals, should always be the leading view in every house of correction, and their earnings should only be a secondary object. As rational and immortal beings, we owe this to them, nor can any criminality of theirs justify our neglect in this particular.”

Another subject of importance, connected with prisons, is punishment. The usual punishments under the Pennsylvania system are, being deprived of meals, put into a dark cell, and a straight jacket. There is also another mode, which is not a little remarkable; it is spoken of by Charles Robbins, Esq., and was told to him by an officer in the Pittsburg prison, and is inserted in the last Prison Discipline Report, p. 106. He says, they sometimes punish by putting the men "into a box, just large enough to hold one man; the box standing upon the end, and so fixed, that the inmate cannot lean one way or the other; while, to prevent kneeling down, there is a piece of hard wood or iron put through the box."

At the Sing-Sing prison they punish with whips. In the workshops, under the elevated seats where the keepers sit, may be seen these implements, which the keepers have power to use on the bare back, without reporting the case, and without a hearing for the prisoner. At the Auburn prison the officers use cowhides. They inflict puishments without consulting a higher officer, and report their doings about once a month. At the Charlestown prison no inferior officer can strike a convict, unless in self-defence. If a prisoner is careless, indolent, refractory, or even insolent, the turnkey or watchman can only report him to the warden, that he may punish him. At the South Boston prison, or house of correction, the most severe punishment is solitary confinement, without bed or blanket, with short allowance of food. Such are the principal modes of punishment; and it seems to us, that there is much that is wrong. The plan at Auburn and Sing-Sing is exceedingly bad, not only from the use of the whip, but from the freedom which is given to the under officers to use it at their own discretion. The whole method, we think, is calculated to do much harm. The plan at Charlestown is better; for the under officer can only report, while the prisoner has an opportunity to explain, and the punishment, if given, is inflicted by another. The plan at South Boston seems to us the best. There is something degrading and goading in the whip; something to

awaken feelings of hatred and revenge, to excite and exasperate the worst passions. There may be extreme cases where stripes are necessary, but we think every man, on reflection, must feel that the plan followed at Sing-Sing and some other prisons is a bad one, and cannot too soon be abolished. It has been stated that these prisons cannot be governed except in this way; and this is brought forward by Dr. Lieber, in his late pamphlet, as a strong argument against the whole system, and, if true, it would be against it. He says,

"We do not blame the keepers of the Auburn penitentiaries for using the whip-they must do it. Let us hear nothing about the possibility of carrying on these prisons without flogging on the spot. The respective wardens must know it best, and they all insist upon the necessity. Ask them if they would dare to remain warden one hour after the right of flogging had been taken from them. It is from this very necessity of the whip, that we declare the system objectionable.".

p. 88.

Now, while we censure the present use of the whip, we do not think, with Dr. Lieber, that it is a necessary part of the Auburn system. Indeed, we know it is not; for, at the South Boston prison, or house of correction, for four years, stripes have not been inflicted in a single instance. The superintendent

says,

"No corporeal pnnishment is, or ever has been, inflicted. Solitary confinement, without bed or blanket, with rations of bread and water, has never failed to produce the desired effect, even on the most refractory. For the less offences, the prisoner is punished by being deprived of certain meals, and kept at work, or by changing the situation, and placing him or her among those who are considered more degraded. The last has been found quite effectual with the junior part of the prisoners. By far a great majority of the punishments are among those committed for short periods. Those sentenced for years, it is seldom, with few exceptions, found necessary to punish or even reprimand.” — p. 74.

It may be said that as much severity may be used in this way as in any other; and this is true. Solitary confinement in a narrow and dark cell, without bed or blanket, and with nothing for food but bread and water, if continued for any length of time, may be made even more galling than the sting of the lash. Still, if this method is used with humanity and

proper discrimination, is it not, in general, better calculated to lead the mind to reflection?

We would not be over-sensitive on the subject of punishments; we are aware that many of these men are abandoned and desperate, that some of them need very severe restrictions to keep them in order. But still we are persuaded that much evil is done by the present method of punishing. Men are roused to hatred and an almost fiendish revenge. The man is not appealed to, but the brute. Punishment should be just, rational, calm. It should lead the person punished to feel wherein he has done wrong. There is a chord even in the most corrupt heart, that vibrates to kindness, and a sense of justice, which knows when it has been rightly dealt with. The modes of punishment in some of our prisons cannot too soon be changed.

Another important subject to consider is the character of officers. If there is a place in the world where care should be had in the choice of officers, it is here. Every officer should be temperate, pure, honest, humane. He should not only be free from mean vices, but have a manly integrity, and, shall we not add, Christian devotion? We have been in prisons where all looked well to the eye, and pride was felt in displaying improvements, while the very officers, who talked of reforming others, were themselves profane. It should be understood, that, though a prison were upon the very best plan, and were, avowedly, governed by the best rules, bad officers would render it a den of abominations. No intemperate, or profane, or immoral man, should be suffered to hold any office within the walls of a prison. Those, who are keepers of their fellow-men, should live in the fear of God. There has, no doubt, been a very great reformation in regard to officers; but there is, still, much to be done. In selections and removals, party views and prejudices should be laid aside. There are individuals, of a right description, who can be obtained; individuals, who will enter upon their work as a religious duty, and who will labor with true missionary patience and zeal.

The office of chaplain is one of great importance. Every prison should have a chaplain. This has been greatly neglected. The duty of giving proper religious instruction has been little thought of. In many of our smaller prisons there is a sad deficiency in this particular. And the same may be said of some of the largest. In the Sing-Sing prison, the most exten

sive in the country, where there are over eight hundred convicts, there is no resident chaplain. The person who officiates has the charge of a church in the village, and receives for his labors in the prison but five hundred dollars. Here are eight hundred men hardened in vice, guilty of crimes, which have subjected them to imprisonment, and the larger part of whom will soon be let loose again upon the community. Now these men require the constant ministrations of a most gifted mind; a man of great insight, true benevolence, sound judgment, sincere piety, and good common sense. In the last report from the inspectors of prisons, in the county of Suffolk, there are some valuable remarks on this subject.

"We wish to renew a suggestion," say they, "which we have formerly made to the mayor and aldermen, as to the expediency of employing a clergyman of respectability and experience as a resident chaplain, in a place where they have three large establishments, containing so many persons, and so immediately in the neighborhood of each other. The duties of a clergyman should exclude all other occupations, and employ all the powers of his mind, and be the constant and habitual employment of his time. His usefulness must depend almost entirely on this. One who is only in part devoted to the ministry, and in part to school keeping, or some other occupation, who has interfering thoughts and pursuits, and conflicting claims on his attention and interests, for some purposes is, practically, no minister at all. There are duties and occupations, on that spot of ground, more than enough for the whole time of any minister who ever lived. A particular kind of experience is necessary, and the appointment should be permanent. It would make a greater change in the habits and feelings of the place than anything else, and, if a proper person were obtained, it would prevent many from returning again, who will, otherwise, become the habitual inmates of prisons and houses of correction.". City Document. 1838. No. 21, p. 8.

But it is not enough simply to have a chaplain. There should be a person worthy of that office. We know not which is worst, a poor chaplain, or no chaplain at all. The duties of the office are arduous, and demand peculiar gifts. Too much care cannot be had, to engage the very best man that can be obtained. The penitentiaries of this country open a wide field for the philanthropist, and we see no reason why it is not as important a sphere of labor as that of foreign missions. Much has been done, but much more remains to be accomplished.