The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. IV, No. II, April 1849)Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
History
The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. IV, No. II, April 1849)
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
Charities -- Periodicals; Prisons -- Periodicals
The report of the warden concerning the twenty-seven who were (during
the year) pardoned, is very encouraging. “All but one are doing
well--are obtaining a livelihood by honest labor, and are becoming
respected citizens in the communities where they reside.” Forty volumes
have been purchased during the year for the use of the prisoners, among
which we notice the Autobiography of Goethe, Bushnell’s Christian
Nurture, and Vestiges of Natural History.
The warden is of opinion that the lives of the three prisoners who died
was prolonged by their imprisonment, as they had been long diseased!
The prison suffered a serious loss by fire during the year, and from
this and other causes the revenue of the institution is less than the
expenses by $4,242 79.
The physician’s report is a modest and sensible document, evidently
prepared with care. The sickness of the prison would be represented
by an average of four patients a day in the hospital. Four hundred
and twenty-five days of light labor were prescribed during the year,
and about the same number of changes of labor. The general average of
convicts during the year was 287; and Dr. Bemis thinks his report shows
“a fair average degree of health fully equal to that of the community
at large, and vastly superior to what would have been enjoyed by the
same class of men in pursuit of their usual modes of living when at
large.”--p. 21.
The three deaths were of consumption.
The following remarkable statement from the physician’s report, we
cannot refrain from transferring to our pages.
“The average period of imprisonment of all those sentenced for
life to the State Prison, since 1818, (amounting to 125,) has not
exceeded seven years. Nineteen of this number have died in the
Prison after an average confinement of seven years.”
The supply of a substantial suit of clothes and a sum of money, not
exceeding five dollars, to each discharged convict, occasioned an
expenditure last year of more than five hundred dollars. In consequence
of the frequent instances in which the money thus furnished is spent
indiscreetly, it has lately been proposed in the Legislature to entrust
the dispensation of this bounty to the “Boston Society for the relief
of discharged convicts,” and a bill was introduced for that purpose.
We have not learned its fate. From a cotemporary print we learn that,
in consequence of the great increase in the number of convicts at the
Charlestown prison, it has become necessary to use other accommodations
than those which belong to the prison proper.[4] The chief cause
assigned for this increase is intemperance.
_State Prison of Michigan._--It is said that 128 convicts are confined
in the Michigan State Prison, and that the annual deficiency in the
receipts ranges from $5,000 to $10,000. The Governor thinks that
this sum is not more than a reasonable profit upon convict-labor,
considering what is made in other State Penitentiaries within his
knowledge!
NOTICES.
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