PHILADELPHIA: HENRY B. ASHMEAD, BOOK AND JOB PRINTER, NOS. 1102 AND 1104 SANSOM STREET. 1863. ANNUAL REPORT. In accordance with the present arrangement which requires that an Annual Report should be prepared of the proceedings of “The Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons,” the “Acting Committee” now proceed to exhibit to the Seventy-Seventh Annual Meeting, such matters of interest as have resulted from the action of the Society, or have come under its notice during the year just past. _Law Shortening Sentences._--As the proceedings of the Society in procuring the passage of a Law shortening the sentences of prisoners for good conduct, occupied considerable space in connection with the last Report, which announced that the provisions of this Law had not then been carried out in the Eastern State Penitentiary, it seems proper that we should again advert to the subject, that those who feel an interest in it may understand its present position. As the authorities to whom the execution of the Law was delegated, declined acting under it, for reasons which they deemed sufficient, the Society, upon consultation with their counsel, concluded that the most amicable mode of proceeding for the purpose of testing its constitutionality, and the obligation resting upon these authorities to extend to the prisoners the proffered boon, would be by _Habeas Corpus_, they therefore had the cases of two prisoners believed by them to be entitled to their discharge under the Law, brought before the Judges of the Supreme Court. The decision was adverse, and the prisoners were remanded to serve out the entire term of their sentences. The ground taken by the Judges in their decision, was so broad as to make it very difficult to frame a modification of the Law which would not contravene the objections raised, and yet retain what were deemed to be some of its most valuable features. Under all the circumstances, it has been thought best to let the matter rest for the present. It is hoped, however, that by the joint action of the Prison Society, and the Inspectors of the Penitentiary, we may yet procure a Bill to be enacted into a Law, which shall be so framed as to enable us, in some measure at least, to effect our desired object. We should have freely acquiesced in some verbal amendments to the Law, but much regret that all of its provisions should thus have been rendered inoperative, as we feel assured that the _principle_ contended for is founded in justice, and that its practical effect on the prisoners would be salutary as a part of the Prison Discipline,--not only by way of prompting to obedience to the established rules, and to habitual good conduct while in confinement, but also in aiding to promote their actual and permanent reformation, by practically showing them, that as it is evidently to their interest to conduct well while there, it must doubtless be equally so when they are at large in the community; and