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PENITENTIARY. A prison for the punishment of convicts.
2.
There are two systems of penitentiaries in the United States, each of
which is claimed to be the best by its partizans: the Pennsylvauia
system and the New York system. By the former, convicts are lodged in
separate, well lighted, and well ventilated cells, where they are
required to work, during stated hours. During the whole time of their
confinement, they are never permitted to see or speak with each other.
Their usual employments are shoemaking, weaving, winding yarn, picking
wool, and such like business. The only punishments to which convicts are
subject, are the privation of food for short periods, and confinement
without labor in dark, but well aired cells; this discipline has been
found sufficient to keep perfect order; the whip ana 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 unknown to their fellow prisoners, and can form no
combination to escape while in prison, 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
society 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
greatly 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
business; 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.
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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