
PENITENTIARY. A prison for the punishment of convicts.

3.
The New York system, adopted at Auburn, which was probably copied from
the penitentiary at Ghent, in the Netherlands, called La Maison de
Force, is founded on the system of isolation and separation, as well as
that of Pennsylvania, but with this difference, that in the former the
prisoners are confined to their separate cells during the night only;
during the working hours in the day time they labor together in work
shops appropriated to their use. They cat 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, blacksmiths, weavers, shoemakers, tailors, coopers,
gardeners, wood sawyers, &c. 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 prisoners
have opportunities of communicating with each other, and of forming
plans of escape, 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 the danger of the public;
that the discipline is degrading, and that it engenders bitter
resentment in the mind of the convict. Vide, generally, on the subject
of penitentiaries, Report of the Commissioners (Messrs. King, Shaler,
and Wharton,) on the Penal Code of Pennsylvania; De Beaumont and De
Toqueville, on the Penitentiary System of the United States; Mease on
the Penitentiary System of Pennsylvania; Carey on ditto; Reports of the
Boston Prison Discipline Society; Livingston's excellent Introductory
Report to the Code of Reform and Prison Discipline, prepared for the
state of Louisiana; Encycl. Americ. art. Prison Discipline; De. I'Etat
Actuel des Prisons en France, par L. M. More au Christophe; Dalloz,
Dict. mot Peine, §1, n. 3, and Supplem. mots Prisons et Bagnes.
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