"Upon the subject of the general treatment of the convicts, and the discipline of the institution, we would remark that the State Prison _is designed to be_, and _emphatically is_, a place of PUNISHMENT. The feelings of _humanity_ and _mistaken mercy_ should not be suffered to interpose, _to disarm its punishment of that rigor due to justice and the violated laws of the land_. While a proper regard is had to the health of its inmates, their comfort should not be so far studied as to render it a desirable residence, even to those whose condition in society is attended with the _severest privations_. When this becomes the case, our criminal code becomes a bounty law for crime."--_Sixth Report, page 94._ This is throwing off the mask completely, and boldly declaring that "_punishment_," SEVERE punishment, a punishment in which there is no tincture of "_humanity_," is the _design_, and _emphatically_, the _discipline_, of that prison. The _comfort_ of the prisoner is not to be sought in any way inconsistent with _punishment without humanity_. His _reformation is not to be sought at all_. A more unsound and disgraceful principle of penitentiary discipline, was never avowed by any similar committee in this country before; but it is the _very one_ on which all American penitentiaries _are governed_. "That _rigor_ due to _Justice_ and the violated _laws_ of the land!" Yes; "Justice and the violated laws," demand "_rigor_." It is not enough to have the sinner _securely confined_--he must be _uncomfortable_. His _health_ must be attended to; let him live; but his cup of gall must be full and overflowing. Let him live--_not_ for _comfort_, but to _groan_ in the ear of _heaven_ the "_rigor_" of "_Justice_" and of the "_violated laws_." Punishment is God's "_strange work_," his "_strange act_," but it is the _common_ work of his creatures. According to _my_ views of a penitentiary, it is not _unqualifiedly_, a place of _punishment_, but a place of _reformation_, to be effected by the _mildest_ means, and to be under the constant direction of _humanity_. Cruelty never should enter its walls. Satan was no more out of his place in Eden, than is cruelty in a place of reformation. As to a criminal code's becoming "a bounty law for crime," when its discipline for prisons is such as to render them a desirable residence, to those who are suffering even the "_severest privations_" in society, that Committee need have no fears. There is no danger of any prisons ever becoming so mild as to be a _desirable_ residence for any one. Take the purest apartment in heaven, and confine a seraph there, and the simple fact that he was a prisoner would make his home a hell. The Devil himself would prefer liberty in the world of woe, to imprisonment even in Paradise--freedom with damnation, to salvation with restraint. THE MEANS OF EFFECTING A REFORMATION AMONG PRISONERS.