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
While a man is in health, he can endure hardship, and support himself
under the pressure of almost any calamity; but when his health fails,
he sinks down a nerveless victim, and lies exposed to the mercy of
those evils he can no longer resist. It is the sick that, of all the
sufferers in this world, most need the pity and compassion of their
fellow mortals, and whose neglect and sufferings cry the loudest to
heaven. To sickness, all are equally exposed, the high and the low,
the virtuous and the vicious, the saint and the sinner; and not to
compassionate and relieve them, is a crime which speaks the deep
depravity of the heart, and which will by no means pass unpunished.
But if the want of sympathy and tender feelings for the sick, is such
a crime, what must be said of that man, who can sport with their
misery, and take an infernal satisfaction in increasing it?
The sick in Windsor prison are considered as _criminal_ in their
sickness, and _punished_ rather than comforted. It is not often that a
prisoner can get into the place appointed for the sick, until his case
is hopeless, and not always then, for many die before they can
convince the keepers that they are sick. A very convenient excuse for
this neglect is, that many have pretended to be sick, and have been
treated as such, when they were perfectly well. This I know is true,
and such hypocrites cannot be too severely dealt with; but this is no
good reason why one who really needs attention, should be neglected.
It is, however, another instance of visiting all for the crime of one.
The By-Laws require that "some fit person shall be appointed as a
physician, whose duty shall be to visit the prison as often as once in
every week, and oftener, if found necessary, to inquire into the
health of the prisoners, to give directions relative to the conduct
and regimen of the sick, and admit such patients into the hospital as
he may judge necessary." Another regulation in the By-Laws, in respect
to the sick, is, that they shall take no medicine in any part of the
prison except the hospital, unless they are unable to be removed
thither; and the obvious meaning of the Laws is, that no medicine
shall be prescribed by any but the physician. It is equally obvious
that the physician is to be called upon whenever a serious complaint
is made by any of the prisoners. Nor is it less obviously implied,
that the sick shall be treated kindly. Such is the Law; let us see the
practice.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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