But it is not to convicts alone, that our attention should be directed. The situation of the untried prisoners is equally deplorable. In Philadelphia, between 100 and 200 are constantly confined in one yard, and upwards of 20 sleep in the same apartment. The sexes are indeed separated, but it is obvious that such an assemblage must infallibly give rise to great contamination, by the ex ample and precept of the hardened reprobate to the youth ful offender. To prevent it, to aid in the plan of reform, and to diminish crimes, solitary confinement is as neces sary for the class mentioned, as for those who are con demned to suffer the penalty of the laws ; and I am con vinced, if it be adopted, the number of petty crimes, at least, will be greatly diminished. Hitherto it has been the practice to employ the untried prisoners at some easy work, in order that by it they might contribute to their support ; but the amount of it is so trifling, and the sale of the articles so dull, as to be unworthy of consideration. Labour moreover is a source of enjoyment, and materially interfet es with the principle of deterring them from the commission of crimes ; for every one who has had any experience ence n the management of criminals knows, that they eagerly desire employment, that the certainty of being deprived of it in case of misbehaviour, is a great induce ment to propriety of conduct ; as, even when not aided by the additional charms of society and conversation, it pre vents those galling reflections which solitary inactivity in variably forces upon them. The prisoner, if acquitted, after having spent some weeks intirely secluded and idle, and returning to society with a broken down spirit, would be cautious how he committed a second offence, subject ing him to a repetition of his punishment; and when about to be discharged, his mind would be prepared for the re ception and operation of the good advice which should in variably be given to him by one of the inspectors of the prison, or by any other person gifted with talents for such an occasion. Experience has proved, that from such ad vice, and so given under the circumstance mentioned of the sufferers' mind, very beneficial results have followed, even with the most thoughtless or guilty. These remarks apply with equal force to prisoners confined for one month, or for shorter periods. It is to be hoped, therefore, when a new prison shall be built, they will be attended to.
2. I would strongly recommend the transportation of all persons, who shall be convicted of a second offence in Pennsylvania, or of a first offence therein, after having un dergone the discipline of a penitentiary in another state. I do not see that any other measure can be adopted, with the least degree of propriety, with such convicts. To try again the reforming influence of confinement and labour, would only perpetuate the evils we are striving to prevent. " It is indeed impossible to conceive any proceeding more derogatory to the character, and destructive of the benefit of these institutions, than those repeated and inefficient attempts. By the reception of a criminal for a second offence, who has already been discharged," after having undergone the discipline to which he was sentenced, as a satisfaction to the offended laws of the country, for the time which the judges thought sufficient to give him a chance of reforming, to atone for the injury done to the society by crime, and to make reparation to the injured party ; "the establishment confesses its own inutility, and is no longer a school of reformation, but a receptacle and shelter for acknowledged guilt. The prisoners confined under the expectation of being reclaimed, finding themselves intermixed with abandoned profligates, who have gone through the same process without effect, will despair of their own recovery, or be induced to relax in their efforts ; and finding that such criminals can again be received, will have no higher wish than to imitate their example. Nor
can it be contended, that there is any motive to operate upon the mind of the discharged criminal, with sufficient force to deter him from the perpetration of future offences, whilst he contemplates, as the worst consequence, his re commitment to a place with which he is already well ac quainted, and which, by long habit, he has learnt to render tolerable, if not agreeable. In fact, the readmission into a penitentiary of any person who has been discharged as reformed,} affixes a stigma upon the character of the esta blishment."1 Such offenders must therefore be considered as irreclaimable, and it may justly be deemed an act of great criminality, and an inexcusable breach of the confi dence reposed by the people in those appointed to admi nister the laws, to turn theM again loose to commit fresh depredations, however unexceptionable their conduct may have been during confinement, or upon any other conside ration ; nor do I think a legislature, acquainted with the fact of the confirmed wickedness of such characters, and of the certainty that they will again injure the property of the citizens, deprive them of it, or possibly of their lives, on being liberated ; can safely plead an excuse to their con stituents, or before a higher tribunal, for not providing effectual means against such an occurrence. A criminal, therefore, who has undergone the moral and mild disci pline, which the humanity of his country had devised for his reformation, and commits a second offence, shows that he is unworthy of future trials, to reclaim him from the paths of vice, and the first law of nature requires his being removed a community, whose laws he has so often outraged, and of which he is so dangerous a member. Transportation will relieve society from an incorrigible set of depraved persons, and the fear of it, as the penalty of a second offence, will have a much more powerful effect in restraining crimes, than the certainty of confinement in the prison at labour. This indeed, I repeat, has lost all influ ence on them. The vicious know, that, with the excep tion of their being permitted to wander about and in dulge their evil propensities, the condition of the priso ners is far from distressing. Their food is abundant, well cooked, and of the best quality ; they are well clothed ; the labour to which they are subjected, is even less fa tiguing than that of the labouring class of citizens, and a shower or fall of snow, which a common day labourer dis regards, is a pretext for the immediate cessation of their work.* In Philadelphia, they arc allowed the luxury of tobacco in its different forms. At night, after being locked up in their rooms, they enjoy the pleasure (and it is no small one) of free conversation ; and above all, as they almost weekly see pardons granted to those even more wicked than themselves, every one indulges the hope, that, by a similar good fortune, the period of his confinement will be shortened. While, on the contrary, the sensation caused by the march of the convicts from the prison to i the vessel intended to convey them to a very distant quar ter of the globe, whence there is no hope of return, if I am not greatly mistaken, will be such as to produce a speedy change in the moral state of the class of the com munity upon which it is intended to operate, the good con sequence of which cannot fail of being soon perceptible by the public at large.