Richmond.—From April, 1800, to October 1, 1819, nine hundred and nine were admitted, of whom forty had been convicted a second time, and five a third time.
The number of convicts received into the Baltimore penitentiary, since 1812, to April, 1820, amount to nine hundred and forty-three : of these, one hundred and six had been convicted either in Philadelphia, New York, Boston, or Baltimore, twice or thrice. Seventy-four were men, and thirty-two were women.
It will be seen by the quotations already given from the writings of the benevolent introducer of the mild penal code into the United States, that he cautioned legislators from falling into the error of pardoning criminals; but he did not contemplate the absolute necessity of such devia tion from his plan, in consequence of the causes I have mentioned, or anticipate its defeat, from the effects of evil communications among the prisoners, from their working in society during the day, or from their sleeping together at night. I am led to adopt this conclusion by reason of his not having noticed such an event in any pub lication, and from never hinting it in the views which I repeatedly heard him give on the subject ; but as the ope ration of the moral remedies has been found to fail in the manner they have been applied, after twenty-nine years experience in restraining crimes, and in producing the salutary moral change in the convicts, which was expected from them, it behoves us to consider what alteration in the system of their application can be made, so as to ren der them more powerful; or what measures ought to be substituted for them, so as to prevent the multiplication of crimes, and to secure the honest part of the commu nity from the future depredations of the vicious. I will now enter on the consideration of those subjects.
1. As the assemblage of a number of convicts at work in the same yard, or of smaller parties in rooms or work shops, during the day, has been found to defeat the effects of labour and confinement upon them ; and as the sleep ing of numbers in the same apartment, more especially, is injurious; it naturally follows, that measures should be taken to prevent this intercourse; and, indeed, to give the reforming system a fair trial, the seclusion of the pri soners ought to be complete, clay and night, during the whole period of their confinement; nor ought the smallest intercourse to take place with any other individuals than their keepers during the week, and the preacher of the gospel on Sunday.—From the place of worship on the sabbath, all the prisoners ought to be required to repair to their quarters, there to remain till the afternoon ser vice, to meditate upon the good advice they have heard, and to eat their plain fare in solitude. After the evening
service, they must again resume their cells. The general meeting of them before or after divine service, or at meals during the week, would defeat the whole plan, which ought to be, to oblige them " to work out their salvation in fear anti tremrling," " in tribulation and sorrow." If religious inlvice were given in the cells, without even a general meeting on Sundays, th system would approach nears: to perfection; and if kept in ignorance of the term to which they are sentenced, as urged by Dr. Rush, the salutary mental influence of confinement upon the crimi nals. will be greatly increased. Nothirg short of this will be likely to answer the object of their confinement, viz. their reformation ; and it is doing injustice to the cri minal, and trifling with the welfare of society, to attempt it in any other way. To continue the system at present adopted, is absurd in the extreme, and positively sinning against light ; having been found, after a long trial, most lamentably to fail in answering the end intended by it; nay, to produce effects never contemplated by its advo cates, viz. the increase of crimes. On the contrary, the system recommended, would cause the prisoner to pass his whole time in reflecting upon his situation ; and his thoughts, especially during the silent hours of the night, would be of such a nature, as not to be lost upon the most hardened criminal. Upon the young offender, committed for the first time, the effect of such a course of moral dis cipline, it may reasonably be supposed, will be great. Left to himself, his own reflections will be most melan choly and depressing; his evil propensities, instead of being confirmed by the unrestrained intercourse with his more wicked companions, will infallibly be checked ; the good advice he may have received from pious parents, will recur to his mind with a force it never possessed, and thus, instead of being more vicious, as at present, when emerg ing from prison, than when he entered it, he will be chas tened, and disposed to follow his trade, and to lead a re gular and sober life, I will venture to say, that one year passed in this way would have more effect upon crimi nals, than ten years passed in the continual society of nu merous fellow convicts, where reflection is prevented by the bustle of the work in the day, and drowned at night by idle or wicked conversation.—The penitentiary now building at Pittsburg, is upon the plan of individual and entire seclusion,* and it is of great importance that it be finished with all possible speed.