America had its own originally the Simsbury Copper Mine. Abandoned as a copper mine it was used by the colony of Con necticut in 1773 as a permanent prison for Tor ies, and then by the State military authorities. In 1793 it was made the State prison and con tinued as such until 1827. Richard H. Phelps described this prison in the following language: " The appearance of this place forcibly reminds the observer of the walls. castles, and towers erected for the security of some haughty lordling of the feudal ages; while the gloomy dungeons within its walls call to remembrance a bastile or a prison of the Inquisition. Some rude buildings covering access to the caverns were constructed with an enclosure of half an acre or so built of planks with iron spikes upon the top. The passage down the shaft into the cavern was upon a ladder fastened upon one side and resting on the bottom. At the foot of this passage commences a gradual descent for a considerable distance, all around being solid rock or ore. The passages extend many rods in dif ferent directions, some of them even leading under the cellars of the dwellings of the neighborhood. . . . On the sides in the niches of the cavern. platforms were built of boards for the prisoners, on which straw was placed for their beds. The horrid gloom of this dungeon can scarcely be realized. . . . From thirty to one hundred were placed together through the night, solitary lodging as practised at Wethersfield afterwards being then regarded as a punish ment rather than a blessing to them. The punishments inflicted for prison offenses were flogging, confinement in stocks in the dungeons, being fed on bread and water during the time, double or treble sets of iron, hanging by the heels, etc. A bell summoning the prisoners to work brought them up from the cavern beneath through a trap-door, in irregular numbers, two or three together. and sometimes a single one alone, when under guard of armed soldiers they were con ducted across the yard to the smithy. The prisoners were heavily ironed and secured by fetters, and being therefore unable to walk, made their way by jumps and hops. On entering the smithy some went to the side of the forges. where collars dependent by iron chains from the roof were fastened around their necks, and others were chained in pairs to the wheelbarrows. The attendants delivered pickled pork to the prisoners for dinner at their forges, a piece for each thrown on the floor, and left to be washed and boiled in the water used for cooling the iron wrought at the forges. Meat was distributed in a similar manner for breakfast.' As stated, toward the close of the 18th cen tury the Quakers of Philadelphia determined to attempt to reform the offender instead of de stroying him or weakening him or mutilating his body. The agitations of John Howard and of the English reformers encouraged them in their activity. In 1796 Rev. Robert J. Turnbull visited the Philadelphia prison and commented upon the orderly condition of the prison as con trasted with public convict labor conditions then abolished. He said of the former conditions: " A grand and important defect, though not generally observed, appeared too plain to some of the promoters of the plan, to inspire them with sanguine expectations of its success. It was the inefficacy of the punishments of labor. mutilation, and whipping, inasmuch as they destroyed an important end of punishment, that of the criminal's reforma tion. . . The convicts who were sentenced to the wheel-barrow and dispersed along the streets and roads. exhibited, from the difficulty of superintending them, the most shameful scenes of drunkenness, indelicacy, and other excesses in vice. The inconvenience and mischievous of the punishment of public labor at length became so tolerable that it was regarded, and with much issuer, common nuisance." • Caleb Lownes, a leader in the reform move ment, thus described the effect of the improved discipline brought about following the changes introduced in 1790: " When the present plan was at last attempted, the prisoners were informed that the new system was now to be carried into full effect—that their treatment would de pend upon their conduct; and that those who evidenced a disposition that would afford encouragement to the in spectors to believe that they might be restored to their bl)erty, should be recommended to the governor for a pardon, as soon as circumstances would admit; but if they were con victed again, the law, in its fullest rigour, would be carried into effect against them. A change of conduct was early visible. They were encouraged to labour, and a number were employed at carrying stone, and other laborious work, at the building of the solitary cells. Their good conduct was remarked. Many were pardoned, and before one year was expired, their behaviour was, almost without exception. decent, orderly, and respectful. This fact is one of im portance, as it disproves an opinion, that has led to much distress and cruelty, and will. I hope, be an encouragement to those who can feel for this unhappy class of mankind. who have so long been victims to the sad effects of a contrary treatment." The note struck at the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia following 1790 began a new era in prison management and treatment which revolutionized prison management all over the world so that the principle of the iso lation of the prisoner in a single cell was widely adopted. This Walnut Street plan was later called the Separate or Pennsylvania Sys tem as contrasted with the Silent or Auburn System. The Separate System was actually originated contemporaneously in 1790 in the Walnut Street Prison in Philadelphia and in the county gaol at Gloucester, England, but re ceived its full development in the construction of the Eastern Penitentiary of Pennsylvania, autho rized by the legislature of that State by a law o f 20 March 1821 and erected between 1821 and 1829 according to plans drawn by John Haviland. New Jersey adopted the Pennsyl vania system and erected an addition to its prison which was completed in 1820.
Under the Separate or Pennsylvania Sys tem, each man was placed in a large cell of solid masonry, closed save for one small open ing facing the inside corridor through which the prisoner crawled when he entered his cell, and save for a slit in the upper part of the outer wall far above his head, which provided the only natural light the poor creature had. The cell usually consisted of two rooms, one for the prisoner's bed and the other for his workroom. Each had a very high ceiling. When the heavy, massive wooden door closed over the small hole behind the prisoner who crawled into his cell; when he began his sentence, he was left in solitude to consult his Bible, his work and his own past. He never came out until he died or until his sentence expired. He was occa sionally observed by his keeper through a hole in the bottom of the door, and sometimes vis ited by the prison chaplain. Except for this, he was left to his awful loneliness and solitude.
The Silent or Auburn System provides for the confinement of each prisoner in a single ell by night and for work in silence in a wor p by day. These cells were built of solid ma
I in rows, tier upon tier and back to back tZ door openings on outside corridors. The ells were in effect caverns of uniform siz igh enough for a man to stand in, long enoi$h for him to lie in and about twice as wide Is his body when he lay on his back. They were called cell blocks and were enclosed in a build ing with massive side and end walls in which tiny windows were placed in such a position that the prisoner could never see through them to observe the sky or the earth. These side and end walls were placed far enough away from fronts of the cells and ends of the cell blocks so as to provide a wide corridor on either side of and a wide area at the ends of the cell block and were covered with a solid roof, usually without openings.
The Auburn State Prison was authorized in accordance with this plan in 1816. In 1825 Sing Sing, another New York prison of the same type, was authorized by the legislature. This type of prison architecture, with few changes, has dominated prison construction down to the present day, almost without any exception. The reasons for its continuance have been undoubtedly its flexibility, its simplic ity, its low cost of supervision and mainte nance and its security. Most of these prisons were furnished with dungeons or sections built like the Pennsylvania system cells except that they were usually dark and were used for the confinement in isolation of those undergoing punishment for infraction of the rules of the prison. With these exceptions, the Silent or Auburn System has predominated in America, but in Europe the Separate System has been more popular. New York allowed separate con finement in 17%, but abandoned it following 1821. Maryland introduced this system in 1809 and terminated its existence in 1838. In Massa chusetts separate imprisonment was utilized to some extent from 1811 to 1829. Maine epcperi mented with it for only three years (1824-27). New Jersey introduced it in 1820 and abandoned it in 1828, only to reintroduce it in 1836 and utilize it until 1858. Virginia accepted the Pennsylvania system in 1824 and legislated it out of existence in 1850. Rhode Island found this system a failure after a trial from 1838 to 1844. In Pennsylvania the Separate System was abandoned in the Western Penitentiary in 1869 and legally terminated in the Eastern Peniten tiary in 1913, long after it had ceased to exist as a practical fact. With these more or less temporary exceptions the Auburn System was adopted in the prison architecture and administration of the United States.
The strongest argument in favor of the Separate or Pennsylvania System is probably that found in the report of the Eastern Penn sylvania Penitentiary inspectors to the legis lature in 1830, 40 years after the establishment of the system, which reads in part as follows: " Intemperance and thoughtless folly are the parents of crime, and the walls of a prison are generally peopled by those who have seldom seriously reflected; hence the first object of the officers of this institution is to turn the thoughts of the convict inwards upon himself, and to teach him to think; in this. solitude is a powerful aid. Hence this mode of punish ment, bearing as it does with great severity upon the hardened and impenitent felon, is eminently calculated to break down his obdurate spirit; and when that important object of penitentiary discipline has been gained (and in any prison it frequently is), hen experienced o pies . of comf this institution on e , relieved bylas mental and livest his so of all its horrors, and of much of 'ty. The impression t cad ofbei ed .by the sneers of ru a fixed officers of the prison." e aps Ole most ar ent defense of the 94 Auburn or Silent System is the following de cription of this system by Louis Dwight, who did more than' any other person to secure the almost universal introduction of the Auburn System throughout the United States. Writing in 1826 he said: " At Auburn we have a more beautiful example still, of what may be done with proper discipline, in a prison well constructed. It is not possible to describe the pleasure, which we feel in contemplating this noble institution, after wading through the fraud and material and moral filth of many prisons. We regard it as a model worthy of the world's imitation. We do not mean that there is nothing in this institution, which admits of improvement; for there have been a few cases of unjustifiable severity of punish ment; but, on the whole, the institution is immensely elevated above the old penitentiaries. The whole establishment from the gate to the sewer, is a specimen of neatness. The unremitted industry, the entire subordination, and subdued feeling of the convicts, has probably no parallel among an equal number of convicts. In their solitary cells they spend the night with no other book but the Bible. From one end of the shops to the other, it is the testimony of many witnesses, that they have passed more than 300 convicts, without seeing one leave his work or turn his head to gaze at them. There is the most perfect attention to business from morning till night, interrupted only by the time neces sary to dine. Under these circumstances they are provided with the word of God, by a law of the state which requires that every cell shall be supplied with a Bible or Testament. They also receive the undivided attention of a most wise and faithful religious teacher, who spends all his time in the prison visiting the sick; teaching those who cannot read; preaching in the chapel on the Sabbath the unsearchable riches of Christ,• and afterwards in going from cell to cell, to administer the reproof and consolation of religion, to individuals. The influence of the chaplain, according to the testimony of all the officers, is most salutary and power ful; and the various expressions of confidence and affection exhibited towards him by the convicts, is most cheering to himself. It is hardly necessary to add that at Auburn there is an exclusion of all the positive evils of the old system. which arise from crowded night rooms, evil communication, instruction in all the arts of pick pockets, thieves, incendiaries. and counterfeiters; and, above all from the existence of a crime, which is not fit to be named among Christians. These great ends are gained, partly by discipline and partly by construction." • Captain Basil Hall of the English royal navy visted America in 1827 and observed these two systems in operation, which he de scribed in the following language: " The Auburn plan . . . consists in the strictest solitary confinement at night — in hard labor, but in rigid silence, by day, and always in company, though under constant superintendence,• in solitary meals, under lock and key; in regulated marchings to and from their workshops; in subjecting the prisoners to stripes for infractions of the prison rules, and in their never being placed in absolute solitary confinement, except as a punishment of a temporary nature; in having prayers morning and evening said regularly by a resident clergyman, with whom alone the prisoners are allowed to converse, and that only on Sundays.