" The Philadelphia plan is widely different from this. It is intended that the prisoners shall be subjected. during the day as well as night, to separate confinement, either in solitary idleness or in solitary labour; along with which they are to be allowed no more exercise than what themselves choose to take in their little courts. The keeper is the only person, besides the clergyman, who is ever to see them, and a Bible is to be placed in each cell. By these means it is expected that, while many of the prisoners will be reformed, a salutary terror will be spread over the evil spirits of the State, and crime will thus be doubly prevented." The captain in condemning the Philadelphia System said: " As far as I have been able to learn, all the experiments which have been tried in America on solitary confinement have proved its inefficiency for any purpose of reformation; while there is abundant reason to suppose that in very many cases — I believe a majority .s.- it leads to insanity or to suicide. It is difficult, inde14, to see Inni good can spring out of compulsory idleness in o,. %On the whole analogy of exte . e proves it t parent of mischief. It o ays to be - mmd, also, that it is no part of of prison d ire to torture the punishment his offenses independently of i • • n example to ty. IS-Other.
of course, should ; • made• a place of amusnmer,t It ought certainl) t be rendered exceedinglv liklerit to culprit; but, as far as he is concerned. its bodily and mental, should not be more severe than will make him fully sensible to the folly of his past ways. In order to accomplish this at the least expense of permanent human suffering, the criminal should, if possible, be so treated that when he gets out again, and starts afresh in the world, be should be less inclined to do mischief than he was before. The only serious doubt is, whether there is much chance ci amendment taking place in a vicious and ill-regulated mind, if left to commune exclusively with its own thoughts, in solitude, with or without labour, but deprived of every ray of cheerfulness to lend efficiency and confidence to virtuous resolutions. The occasional visits of the clergyman may certainly relieve the fearful misery of absolute solitude; but unless the prisoner's mind be more or less habitually enlivened, even these lessons will fall on a soil unprepared to give them efficacy." Charles Dickens, the novelist, who visited America in 1843, was shocked by the Eastern Pennsylvania Penitentiary, which he described in his Notes) as follows: " Standing at the central point, and looking down these dreary passages, the dull repose and quiet that prevails is awful. Occasionally there is a drowsy sound from some
lone weaver's shuttle, or some shoemaker's last, but it is stifled by the thick walls and heavy dungeon door, and only serves to make the general stillness more profound. Over the head and face of every who comes into this dark, melancholy house a black hood is drawn; and in this dark shroud, an emblem of the curtain dropped between him and the living world, he is lead to the cell from which he never comes forth until his whole term of imprisonment has expired. He never hears of wife or children_; home or friends; the life or death of any single creature. He sees the prison officers, but with that exception he never looks upon a human countenance or hears a human voice. He is a man buried alive, to be dug out in the slow round of yearsi and in the meantime dead to everything but torturing anxieties and horrible despair. . . .
" Every cell has double doors; the outer of sturdy oak. the other of grated iron, wherein there is a trap through which his food is banded. He has a Bible, a slate and a' pencil, and under certain restrictions, has sometimes other books, provided for the purpose, and pen and ink and paw. His razor, plate and can, and basin hang upon the wall or shine upon the little shelf. Fresh water is let on in every cell, and he can draw it at his pleasure. During the day his bedstead turns up against the wall and leaves more Rpm for him to work in. His loom or bench, or wheel is there and there he labours, sleeps and wakes, and counts the seasons as they change and grow old." William Crawford (who hadlinvestigated American prisons in 1832) and Whitworth Rus sell, prison inspectors of the Home District of London, were sent to America in 1837 to re port upon these two systems. They disagreed entirely with the Archives of Hall and Dickens. They felt that the ease of communication be tween prisoners under the Silent or Auburn System was a grievous source of contamination which was inherent in that system. They rec ommended the Pennsylvania or Separate Sys tem for use in England, because they believed the Separate System of confinement would com pensate for the necessary mistakes of the law and the requirements of economy in classify ing and in housing prisoners, and also because they erroneously (believed it advisable or possi ble for human beings to be housed under the same roof without communicating with one another. Fortunately, however, their recom mendations were never carried out, for the at tention of the people of England and of Europe was then directed for a time to the problem of prison administration and away from plans of Filson construction.