Solitary confinement.

Date:
[1829]
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Solitary confinement. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the National Library of Medicine (U.S.), through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the National Library of Medicine (U.S.)

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    V ' From U, U.i'cd 8,:,.e, (!.,,,,„ Ftb. 25 1829. g,arf,<afy, „ccpt sorfle whnse scntencw Wo,,ld soon expire, and a few others to be put to la- SOLITAKY CONFINEMENT. Un„r ^.^ m ,.„ . *' bour. I hese measures were adopted for two In your Gazette of Friday last, Hamilton reasons, 1st, that their punishment was changed, Says, »olita;y confinement without labour, has and increased beyond their sentence. 2nd, that 'bad a complete trial at Auburn, and the result the health and constitutions of those surviving ?has been decisive as to its utter inexpedience, convicts, had become alarmingly impaired. It ■as regards health, intellect, reformation and must also be evident to all,that if any good effects 'expense. Facts would lead us to believe, had been produced on the convicts, by their so- vtJ;at the experiment of solitary confinement in litary confinement, their unexpected relief from Auburn prison, was made under circumstances tnat punishment, would have done them away; much more calculated to defeat it, than to give but ll was tne mode of that relief, which caused lt a fair trial. the chief part of the mischief, viz. by pardon. | 1. In the year 1821 the legislature of New The high state of mental excitement thereby York ordered that some of the oldest and most occasioned, would inevitably induce a state of IfteaiiMtMconvicts should be put in the cells: 80 feeling totally incompatible with remorse, for „' them were accordingly selected for that pur- their former evil deeds, and would embolden i.iose in December, of that year, and the agent them to a repetition of their crimes, under the 'if the prison, thought proper to increase the well grounded expectation of enjoying asimilar j'liiishmentjby 'preventing them from lying down favour, upon another committal to prison. I'n the daytime- whether they were obliged to The consequence was, that many of them, I'tand up all day, is not mentioned, but the pre- even those who had been longest in confine- iiumption is, that they were, and not even per- ment, returned to prison, in three, four,and eight bitted to sit on the floor, or on the frames of months.* Mr.Powers adds, that twelve have iheir hammocks, for these are turned up edge- neen reconvicted; one committed a burglary in Uiseduring the day. Powers Report, P. 44. the vicinity, the very first night after having I 2. The cells were designed merely to sleep Deen released from a long confinement, and In,and are entirely too small for the long confine- some others are known to be a terror In their nent of convicts, being only seven feet long, neighbourhoods.! iicven feet high and three and a half feet wide- Tr ^ , , o t, •, , , 4, :. Governor Yates had not interfered with the 3. I ne interrupt.on of the experiment by cro- ., *...', c . vn()i. Vates } b wjabes of ihe Legislature, and had permitted a ti i • u in.- i. <;* <• , t!'ose convicts who were well, to continue in the 4. The pardoning by that officer, of those ,, .. . . . , subjected to it. t,mes had exPired» the presump- „„„., ., . ,. , ., , . . M tto» is, that they would not soon, if ever, have It must be evident that the class of convicts . . , , ' 1<iyc „\^> i r *i . i ,• i- « subjected themselves to a repetition of the nun. elected for the trial of solitary confinement, . . .. ' «»iiuepun- ,.,,,., „. , , , ishineut. This conclusion is strene-thenerl hw Kis such as did not afford the greatest hopes . , , sutngcuenea Dy ,f ;.„ ,i i .. .-. ,lie >act, that, in the New Jersey nrison. where n i's success; nevertheless, Mr. Pt vvers says, y lJM0U> wnerc ..80, for a considerable time we had great ' * 1** C°ViC,S WeFe f°rCed t0 serve out onfidenceinthe success of this cxpenmem, thcr times, of 77 who had been confined, one lr three years and six months, only one had re- nt, «'m the summer of 182^, Gov. Yates visit- , „ J turned, i d the prison, personally examined the solitary onvicts, and after consulting with the inspec- Thus wc see that the chance of reforma- jrs and agent, determined to pen-don them all tion, against which Hamilton says the Auburn * Report to the Legislature of New York, January, 1825.—quoted in Dr. Mease's essay li the penal code, p. 72. f Power's report, p. 83. t Let terto Dr. Mease- Essay, p. 72, .he 27th of September, and, on the same day, adjourned to lor*, V met on the 30th, and remained until the latter part of June, in