REPORT, &c.

A detailed statement of the government, discipline,

&c. of the New-York State Prison at Mount Plea- . sant, as now in practice; together with a brief review of the penitentiary system of the United States, &c. &c.

Early History of our Prisons. The great importance which the penitentiary system of the United States is acquiring throughout the civilized world, is perhaps unparalleled in the annals of time. Commissioners from various parts of the globe, accredited by their respective ga vernments, have visited and are constantly visiting the different States of the Union, for the purpose of acquiring information in the system of penitentiary government; who speak in the highest terms of approbation of that system of discipline which has been adopted at Auburn and Sing-Sing, and other parts of the United States, and forcibly contrast it with the “bad system of imprisonment,” as it exists upon the European continent.

Previous to the year 1786, the different States of this Union were governed by the sanguinary laws which the colonies inherited from their English ancestors; most if not all the crimes which are now punished with imprisonment for life, were then punished with death; and many of the crimes which are now punished with imprisonment for a term of years, were then punished with death for the first offence; all felonies above the degree of petit larceny, on the first offence, were punished by fine, imprisonment, or corporeal punishment at the public whipping post, in the pillory, or in the stocks; and for the second offence with death.

The effect of this system was, that a large proportion of the guilty escaped all punishment; jurors would not convict on the ordi

And the slightest excuse. And even the judges, who were compelled to administer a sanguinary code of laws, against which their feelings of humanity revolted, would, from a defect of form or otherwise, find some excuse to save the life of the prisoner. And when the law and evidence were such that conviction must follow, and there being no other punishment for capital offences but death, the sympathies of community would obtain an execu tive pardon, and set the offender free to renew his depredations. apon society,

Crimes continued to increase, and the vicious, instead of being restrained from the commission of crime, were the more encou raged to plunge deeper in their villanies, under the conviction that the threatened punishment would never be executed.

In this state of things, the society of friends in Pennsylvania, who had always protested against the barbarous laws of the colonies, succeeded, through their Legislature in 1786, in abolishing the punishment of death, except in cases of murder. Mutilation and corporeal punishment were also soon stricken from their penal eode. Imprisonment was substituted for corporeal punishment, and the courts were authorized by law to inflict solitary confinement, during day and night, upon those convicted of capital of fences.

The State of New-York was the first who followed the example of Pennsylvania, and in 1797 she adopted new penal laws, and a new prison system. A State Prison was erected in the city of New-York, (known as Newgate,) and the Pennsylvania system of discipline introduced. Those criminals, who before the reform of the penal laws would have been sentenced to death, were now sentenced to perpetual solitary confinement, without labor, for the term of their natural lives. Those who were guilty of minor of fences were thrown indiscriminately together in the prison, and were to work during the day. The only punishment which their keepers had a right to inflict for violations of the discipline was solitary confinement with bread and water.

This system of imprisonment, upon which the philanthropist had built his most sanguine hopes, was no where crowned with suc cess. It was in general ruinous to the public treasury, nor did it ever effect the reformation of the prisoners. It was considered as

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a home by a large proportion of its inmates; they had been better clothed and better fed while in prison than when at liberty. They found their daily task of labor less than that of our ordinary meehanics; and relieved from all the cares of providing for himself, the hardened offender found full leisure to concert, with his companions in iniquity, new schemes of villany, and still further to corrupt the minds of those who were but novices in guilt. The expiration of sentences, and the exercise of the pardoning power, almost daily turned loose upon society, a gang of desperate and hardened villains, who had been properly instructed and fully quahified in this school of vice, to become master spirits in their infamous pursuits.

It was soon found that the State Prison had lost all its terrors; it afforded no adequate punishment for the guilty, nor did it restrain them from the commission of crime. Liberated felons jeered at the State Prison, and denominated it their college. The number of convicts and the expenses of the institution were rapidly increasing, and many committed crimes for the express purpose of getting back again, to enjoy the comforts of a home, and the society of their companions in infamy. It gave so much satisfaction to rogues, as to iuduce them to try it for the second and third time, for the purpose, as they said, of finishing their education.

For several years after establishing this prison, about one-fifth of its receipts were those who had once been discharged. In some years forty-five old offenders had been returned. For several years previous to the erection of the Auburn prison, it was found necessary, from the great increase of convicts, to pardon annually a large number, in order to make room for new commitments, owing to the crowded state of the prison and a want of sufficient room to accommodate the whole; in 1816 and '17, 573 convicts were pardoned. This necessity of pardoning so great a number of villains, who by their constant and free association together while in prison, had become accomplished in the art of villany, had a more powerful tendency towards the commission and increase of crime than perhaps any other cause. The rogues thus pardoned not only resorted to their former practices, but by their representations of the comfortable manner in which they passed their time while in prison, many were induced to embark in the same pursuits, who if not honest, might have been deterred from the commission of crime,

State Prison possess no terrors, and it has no restraining influence; reverse it, and it has.

Still it was believed that the whole evils of this system resulted from the small number of cells, and the crowding of the convicts together, and that if some new buildings were added to the prison, it would produce more happy results. Upon this hypothesis was the Auburn prison commenced in 1816. In 1818 the south wing of this prison was completed; it contained sixty-one cells, destined to receive two convicts each, and twenty-eight rooms, each of which was to contain from eight to twelve. This plan was soon found to be so essentially injurious, that it would have been much better to throw fifty criminals together in the same room, than to divide them in small numbers. To remedy this inconvenience, the Legislature in 1819, ordered the erection of the north wing, in order to increase the number of cells for solitary confinement.

On the second day of April, 1821, the Legislature charged the Agent of the prison, to select a number of the most hardened criminals, and to lock them up in solitary cells, night and day, without interruption, and without labor. In December, 1821, a sufficient number of cells was completed, and eighty criminals were placed in them. From this experiment results the very reverse of those which had been anticipated, was produced; five of those who had been subjected to this confinement, died within a year, one of them had become insane, and another, watching an opportunity when his keeper brought him something, in a fit of despair precipitated himself from the gallery, running the almost certain chance of destruction by the fall; the rest fell into a state of such deep depression, that their lives must have been sacrificed, had they remained longer in this situation. Under these circumstances, the Governor pardoned twenty-six, and the remainder were allowed to leave their cells during the day, and work in the shops of the prison. From this period, 1823, this system of uninterrupted solitude was abandoned at the Auburn prison.

This system, which had been so fatal to the health of the criminals, proved likewise inefficient in producing reform. Out of the twenty-six pardoned by the Governor, fourteen were soon returned for new offences.

The failure of this experiment in solitary confinement, endangered the success of the whole penitentiary system. The ardent