Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious ReflectionReynolds, John, of Vermont
History
Recollections of Windsor Prison;: Containing Sketches of its History and Discipline, with Appropriate Strictures and Moral and Religious Reflection
Reynolds, John, of Vermont
Vermont State Prison
"There have been other experiments made in this country, in many
Prisons, on individuals, in regard to this mode of punishment,
sometimes for misdemeanor, and sometimes for experiment merely. One
was mentioned in the last Report. 'A man in a narrow cell, which was
almost a dungeon, where he had been in heavy chains, on a small
allowance of food, three months, was asked whether he had rather
remain three months longer, in the same situation, than receive a
small number of stripes on his bare back. He said he had rather
remain.' It is not known, that this man had had any communication with
any one except his keeper, and his diet had been much more nutritious
than that used in Maine. In the mode in which he was treated, his
spirits appeared perfectly unsubdued, and his health and reason
unimpaired, and his disposition ready for mischief whenever he should
be released. There was nothing seen in him that looked like
contrition.
"There is another man, who has been in a solitary cell much of the
time for seventeen years, and _all the time_ for more than six of the
last years. He is still alive. He does not appear insane. His health
is feeble, and he has lost the use of his limbs, so that he uses
crutches. His disposition, however, remains the same as when he was
committed to the cell, more than six years ago. He had been previously
released, and put upon his honor for good behaviour. He almost
immediately procured a hatchet, and struck it into the neck of a
keeper, in such a manner as to endanger his life. He was again
committed to the cell, where he has remained ever since, with a
malignant, revengeful spirit; as is evident from the fact, that he
attempted to take the life, a few months since, of a keeper, who gave
him his food. His cell is gloomy and filthy. His food is coarse but
nutritious. His intercourse is in a great degree restrained.
"In regard to the effect of solitary confinement on the individuals
last mentioned, as well as on those who were subject to it in Maine,
New York, and New Jersey, it is true, that they were left to suffer
their punishment, during the whole period, _destitute, in a great
degree, of the means of grace_. In the new Prison in Philadelphia, in
which it is proposed to adopt this mode of punishment, and prevent
evil communication by solitary confinement day and night, it has been
said, by one of the Commissioners, that he should rather abandon the
system, and adopt that of solitary confinement at night, and hard
labor by day, than see the men confined in the cells day and night,
without the means of grace. We may hope, therefore, if the experiment
is again tried, it will not be done without adequate provision for
moral and religious instruction. How far it may be successful with
this variation cannot be told until the experiment has been made.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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