Remarks on cellular separation : Read by appointment of the American association for the improvement of penal and reformatory institutions, at the annual meeting in New York, November 29, 1860 / by William Parker Foulke.

  • Foulke, William Parker.
Date:
1861
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Remarks on cellular separation : Read by appointment of the American association for the improvement of penal and reformatory institutions, at the annual meeting in New York, November 29, 1860 / by William Parker Foulke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, through the Medical Heritage Library. The original may be consulted at the Francis A. Countway Library of Medicine, Harvard Medical School.

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    little trouble. It has become a trite saying in Euro- pean as well as American penitentiaries, that the worst criminals make the best prisoners. It is ob- vious that, in the face of a large company of con- victs, every violation of discipline, even angry or sulky acts or words, must be in some way noticed. The keeper cannot temporize, nor frame excuses for the offenders; whereas in the separate cell.all the modifications which prudence and humane consi- deration may sanction are practicable in any case, because custody and discipline are not thereby put in jeopardy in other cases. This is a very import- ant consideration. It is too obvious to require comment, that in the congregate rooms are occasioned some of the incite- ments which lead to breaches of disciplinary rules; the convicts are stimulated to intercourse, and to devise modes of escaping the vigilance of the officers. You will observe, too, that as the professed object of all parties to this controversy about systems is, both to remove impediments to moral improvement, and to encourage spontaneous efforts at self-reforma- tion, we accomplish the latter purpose in a large mea- sure by the success which our plan secures for the former. Whatever there is of susceptibility to good recollections, to those of early years, of home, of kin- dred, of the lessons of any former period, we do not be- numb by hourly companionship with depraved men, who revive only evil thoughts, the reminiscences of a vicious life, and of the incitements and the enjoy- ments of its unbridled license. Every man may be