A popular essay on subjects of penal law, and on uninterrupted solitary confinement at labor, as contradistinguished to solitary confinement at night and joint labor by day, in a letter to John Bacon / by Francis Lieber.

  • Lieber, Francis, 1800-1872.
Date:
1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A popular essay on subjects of penal law, and on uninterrupted solitary confinement at labor, as contradistinguished to solitary confinement at night and joint labor by day, in a letter to John Bacon / by Francis Lieber. 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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    In the great assembly, the tear of penitence and the sigh of a broken heart are suppressed by the reproachful frown or the contemptuous sneer of others. But the prisoner in his solitude feels no such restraint. His thoughts are undistracted by the presence of others. He will gain nothing by the de- mure look or the forced tear of the hypocrite, and the moment the voice of instruction dies upon his ear, he is alone with God, and every thing invites to the posture and the language of the returning prodigal. For ourselves, we can testify from the experience of many years in this particular department of religious instruction, that the system of discipline adopted in the Eastern penitentiary in Philadelphia, is decidedly more favorable, on the whole, to the religious education of the prisoners, than that of any prison on the Auburn plan north of the Potomac. I have not seen a specific charge against our system on the ground of promoting, more than other systems, a vice of pecu- liar vileness. In old prisons it is acknowledged to be one of the most frightful evils. It exists likewise in our penitentia- ries, both on the Auburn and Pennsylvania plan. It cannot be otherwise, if we consider the debauched life which most convicts have led; nor is it a subject on which we can possibly have very distinct data. Certain it seems to me that the vice exists to no greater extent in our penitentiaries than in the Auburn institutions, and, I am inclined to believe, less so. The convict with us can easier be reasoned with, because the warden or minister can converse witli him entirely separate from all others; he has always his labor with him and is not idle, and he knows that at any moment the keeper may see him. At any rate, insulation, whether on the Auburn or Pennsylvania plan, prevents a still more disgusting and un- natural vice. The charge of great expense, I have already met, and nothing more remains now than to give our reasons against the Auburn system, which I shall endeavor to do as briefly as I possibly can, seeing to what extent my letter has already grown. The advocates of uninterrupted confinement at labor, ready