The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. VIII, No. II, April 1853)Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
Religion
The Pennsylvania Journal of Prison Discipline and Philanthropy (Vol. VIII, No. II, April 1853)
Philadelphia Society for Alleviating the Miseries of Public Prisons
Charities -- Periodicals; Prisons -- Periodicals
We have made these suggestions with much freedom, and we hope without
offence. We have hearty, intelligent co-adjutors in Jersey, who are
aiming with us to establish the convict-discipline of the country on
a truly humane, efficient, philosophical and Christian basis. To this
end, we maintain that every prison or place of confinement for persons
charged with or convicted of crime, should furnish a suitable apartment
for each individual, separate from every other individual suspected
or convicted of crime. We have often cited the State prison at Trenton
as one of this class, and have uniformly espoused the views of the
Inspectors and principal officers, at times when they were opposed by
crotchety speculators within or without the prison; and we shall be
greatly disappointed, if means are not promptly used to conform the
discipline to the provisions of law.
ART. VII.--AN EXTRAORDINARY DOCUMENT.
We have before us a stitched pamphlet, entitled "Report on the Subject
of Prisons, by Rev. Alexander L. Hamilton, State Commissioner, to Hon.
Austin King, Governor of Missouri--Referred to the Committee on the
Penitentiary, and three thousand copies ordered to be printed, January
5, 1853," pp. 24.
The author of this report is, we doubt not, a very worthy and
intelligent gentleman, or he would not have been appointed by the
Executive of Missouri on so important an agency. That he has fulfilled
his mission to the best of his ability, we may also admit; but that
his report contains "such information as is necessary to present the
subject of Prison Discipline fully to the consideration of the next
general assembly of Missouri," we cannot believe. Indeed we do not
hesitate to say that it is entirely deficient in every point that a
report on such a subject, for such a purpose, should embrace.
Statements are made, which have been disproved over and over again,
until the repetition of them is loathsome to those who have been
familiar with the subject. Principles are set forth as of present
validity, which have been long ago abandoned even by those who once
advocated them. The most ultra partisan opinions and doctrines are
revived, with such an air of sincerity and confidence, as leads us
to believe that the Rev. Commissioner never saw or heard of the
oft-repeated refutation of them. He refers to those whose minds are
steeped in prejudice, as the most reliable and responsible sources of
information; and perhaps we cannot better describe the document, as
a whole, than by saying that it is a synopsis of the reports of the
Boston Prison Discipline Society and Mr. Gray's book, prepared and
printed at the expense of the State of Missouri.
We owe it to ourselves to cite a passage or two from the report, to
serve as an indication of the qualities we have mentioned.
As to its rhetoric and logic let the following suffice:
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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