Your Committee, in arranging their schedule, have taken into consideration, that a sentence of equal length, under the system of separation, is a greater privation to the prisoner than under other systems; and therefore the scale of abridgment is more liberal, and particularly after the third year, and progressively so, according to the increased length of sentence. The advantages likely to result from the contemplated improvement, commend themselves so fully to our better feelings, that little need be said by way of illustration; but the expression of some views may perhaps be important. In the preamble to the resolution of our appointment, it is suggested that “_the hope of reward is to the human mind one of the strongest incentives to good conduct_;” and in the relation in which we are considering it, the principle may be applied with its fullest force; from the fact that prisoners are shut out from the ordinary sources of pleasurable influences. Everything, therefore, partaking of the character of a reward is received and dwelt upon by them with considerable interest. This, we think, must be evident to those accustomed to visiting prisoners, in a friendly and familiar manner. Many of them, who for the first time, find themselves within the limits of a cell, of which they are to be the inmates for a series of years, experience a shock, which operates with great force upon their feelings; and whatever may have been their previous condition in life, yet possessing the attributes and aspirations common to our nature, they may be acted upon by like influences. Separated from the world, and deprived of the enjoyments to which they may have been accustomed, a feeling of despondence often covers the mind; and the absence of the usual sympathies and incentives leads to great discouragement. Such of us as may have been deprived of our ordinary inducements to exertion, even for a short period, can in some degree feel for those, so completely shut out from such impulses. It is these influences that usually stimulate and control most of our pursuits in life; without them, existence to many would be a burthen. A long and dreary confinement is before the prisoner, and whether the sentence be for a greater or a less period, to his imagination it seems to be of almost interminable length; and under present circumstances, feeling that no effort on his part can diminish it, the future seems enveloped in a cloud. The prospect, therefore, of even a _brief abridgment of sentence_, would be looked forward to with great delight. It would serve as a kind of morning star in his horizon, the prospect of which would quicken the pulse and encourage to effort—or as an anchor to fall back upon, when clouds of depression overshadow the mind—or when a state of irritation or impatience, arising from nervousness, might, like a storm, overcome his better judgment, and drive him to some act of desperation.