PENITENT.IARY. A prison for the pun ishment of convicts.
A prison or place of punishment. The place of punishment in which convicts, sen tenced to confinement and hard labor, are confined by the authority of the Mil lar v. State, 2 Kan. 174; State v. Nolan, 48 Kan. 723, 29 Pac. 568, 30 Pac. 486.
There are two systems of penitentiaries in the United States, each of which is claim ed to be the best by its nartisans,—the Penn sylvania system' and the New York system. By the former, convicts are lodged in sepa rate, well-lighted, and well-ventilated cells, where they are required to work during stat ed hours. During the whole time of their confinement they are never permitted to see or speak with each other. Their usual em ployments are shoemaking, weaving, wind ing yarn, picking wool, and such like busi ness. The only punishments to which con victs are subject are the privation of food for short periods, and confinement without labor in dark but well-aired cells: this disci pline has been found sufficient to keep per fect order; the whip and all other corporal punishments are prohibited. The advantages of the plan are numerous. Men cannot long remain in solitude without labor; convicts, when deprived of it, ask it as a favor, and, in order to retain it, use, generally, their best exertions to do their work well; being entirely secluded, they are of course un known to their fellow-prisoners, and can form no combination to escape while in pris on, or associations to prey upon society when they are out; being treated with kindness, and afforded books for their instruction and amusement, they become satisfied that socie ty does not make war upon them, and more disposed to return to it, which they are not prevented from doing by the exposure of their fellow-prisoners when in a strange place; the labor of the convicts tends great ly to defray the expenses of the prison. The disadvantages which were anticipated have been found to be groundless. Among these were that the prisoners would be unhealthy; experience has proved the contrary: that they would become insane; this has also been found to be otherwise: that solitude is incompatible with the performance of busi ness: that obedience to the discipline of the prison could not be enforced. These, and all
other objections to this system, are by its friends believed to be without force.
The New York system, adopted at Auburn, which was probably copied from the peniten tiary at Ghent, in the Netherlands, called La Matson de Force, is founded on the sys tem of isolation and separation, as well as that of Pennsylvania, but with this differ ence, that in the former the prisoners are confined to their separate cells during the night only ; during the working-hours in the daytime they labor together in workshops appropriated to their use. They eat their meals together, but in such a manner as not to be able to speak with each other. Silence is also imposed upon them at their labor. They perform the labor of carpenters, black smiths, weavers, shoemakers, tailors, coopers, gardeners, woodsawyers, etc. The discipline of the prison is enforced by stripes inflicted by the assistant keepers, on the backs of the prisoners; though this punishment is rarely exercised. The advantages of this plan are that the convicts are in solitary confinement during the night: that their labor, by being joint, is more productive; that, inasmuch as a clergyman is employed to preach to the prisoners, the system affords an opportunity for mental and moral improvements. Among the objections made to it are that the prison ers have opportunities of •communicating with each other and of forming plans of es cape, and, when they are out of prison, of associating together in consequence of their previous acquaintance, to the detriment of those who wish to return to virtue, and to danger of the public; that the discipline Is degrading, and that it engenders bitter re sentment in the mind of the convict.