among us to unfold the abuses of State Prisons, urged this subject upon the Legislature with great force. A new State Prison we believe, is erecting at Pittsburgh, Penn. which will admit of solitary confinement by night. But the Auburn State Prison, just mentioned, is on a construction so novel and approved that it may perhaps serve as a model, not only for us, but for our European brethren. It surpasses the celebrated Bridewell at Edinburgh, and its plan unites so much simplicity and excellence, that we shall offer a description of it to our readers. It secures a complete separation of the prisoners, admits sufficient light, and affords thorough ventilation. Any communication between its inmates, or any attempt to escape is rendered impossible. The plan is as follows. The prison is 206 feet long, 46 feet wide, three stories high. Two rows of cells, built end to end, run the whole length of the building. An external area, or piazza, runs around the edifice, ten feet wide, with galleries of three feet in width to each story. We copy a more particular account of it from a circular addressed to the members of the Massachusetts Legislature, during the session of last winter, by the gentleman above alluded to.

The security is fourfold; for the Prisoner must first escape from his cell; then avoid the sentinel, in the open area, who has every advantage for seeing him; then force the external wall; and after all he is in the yard. The security is such, that during two years, in which the men have been confined at night in these cells at Auburn, no breach has been made upon one of them. The economy is great in regard to the space occupied, and also in heating, lighting, and guarding. Four hundred cells will cover only 206 by 46 feet of ground. At Auburn, five small stoves and six large and twelve small lamps, placed in the open area in front of the cells beyond the reach of the prisoners, afford heat and light for five hundred and fiftyfive cells; and one sentinel is found sufficient to guard four hundred prisoners, and cut off all communication between them. The space in front of the cells, is a perfect sounding gallery; so that a sentinel in the open area, on the ground, can hear a whisper from a distant cell, in the upper story.-This experiment has been tried again and again, in the presence of the person furnishing this description. A building in which these important advantages are secured, with so much economy, is great gain.'

We consider this plan far preferable to any that has been presented to the public. Immense sums have been hastily

expended in erecting prisons, now known to be of exceedingly bad construction. This useless expenditure has, more than any other cause, disheartened the public, and brought Penitentiaries into disrepute. In order to secure perfect inspection and economy, it is important that prison architecture should be studied, and conformed to approved principles. The semicircular, or crescent plan, was for a time, highly approved in England. But this affords a facility of communication between the prisoners, and renders constant and secret inspection impracticable. The radiating principle, as it is called, is also highly approved in England. The overseer's office is placed in the centre, and the converging form of the cells possesses the advantage of facilitating the conveyance of sounds. have no doubt, however, that the plan of the Auburn prison will be adopted in England, when it shall be known, as it evidently excels, in security and economy of government, any that has been there proposed.

We

We earnestly hope, that when our new prison shall be completed, an entire new system of discipline will be introduced. Let the prison be exclusively for adults of the male sex only. Let there be solitary confinement by night; absolute silence among the culprits at all times; no visible weapons of defence, nor a military guard; no disgraceful badge or costume; discreet and humane keepers; moral and religious instruction; no pardons, but in cases of erroneous judgments, ascertained by new evidence'; hard labor in its proper meaning; payment of extra labor; and a board of unpaid visiters regularly to inspect every part of the prison, and exert themselves for the moral, intellectual, and religious good of the prisoners. If the prison be so constructed and governed, that escapes shall be impracticable, the irritating custom of having a visible armed guard, and keepers wearing cutlasses, might be dispensed with. This very day, at the State Prison at Charlestown, we saw a gang of convicts in their disgraceful uniform, working on the granite from the canal boats, with four men over them, armed with guns and bayonets; and that too, in sight of the public road! We can scarcely suppress our indignation at this inhuman, impolitic, useless custom. To see fellow men in this republican, christian land, thus driven like beasts of burden, to labor perchance on the very stone that is to constitute a monument of our triumph over vindicitive and tyrannical power,

is insufferable.

In a moral view, it would be insane to look for compunction or desire of reformation in a human being, from such treatment. "Of both prisoner and guard,

it hardens a' within,

And petrifies the feeling!'

Such a uniformity of dress as would excite a laudable pride in preserving cleanliness, there might perhaps well be; but a degrading uniform or badge sours the temper, and debases the

mind.

A chaplain and instructer should reside at the prison. Sundays should be devoted to mental improvement, to supplying the deficiencies of early education, and to religious instruction of a familiar and attractive kind. The earnings of the prisoners beyond their tasks, should be credited to them, half to be paid in decent apparel, tools, &c. at their discharge, and the remainder on receiving evidence of good conduct, a year afterwards. Nothing will create in them a stronger love of labor, than the knowledge that it will bring them a pe cuniary recompense. The habits of industry thus acquired may continue after their discharge, when the visiters, or a benevolent association, might aid them in procuring employment. Females ought not to be sentenced to the same prison with men; but always, in a more secluded situation, be placed under keepers and visiters of their own sex, by whom they should be instructed in appropriate labor, and moral duties. We are persuaded that it is improper for any but persons of an official character to visit the prisons. Convicts should work in seclusion. A solemn stillness should reign in their abodes, and idle, curious, or thoughtless visiters should not be suffered to promenade through these receptacles, to interrupt and mortify the unhappy culprits.

We are satisfied, that a board of visiters, who should perform their service from philanthropic motive's only, would be more efficient than one of men who are paid for it, or who perhaps seek their offices for mere political reasons. It is very proper that the general concerns of these institutions should be under the management of commissioners, appointed by the state or city governments. These persons ought to receive a compensation for their services, which are arduous and responsible. But there should also be a board of visiters, approved by the public authorities, of enlightened and benevolent indi

viduals, who should gratuitously labor for the moral and religious improvement of the prisoners. Both boards should act in concert, and make annual reports. If these, and such like improvements, were once adopted, and vigorously acted upon by firm and enlightened keepers and superintendents, the condition of our Penitentiaries would, we are persuaded, soon show itself more worthy of a patriotic and liberal commonwealth, and of a moral and christian people.

Our County Gaols, which differ but little from each other in construction, arrangement, or discipline, are in many respects worse than State Prisons. They are not so convenient for separating the prisoners, nor do they admit of giving them employment. The evils most obvious are their crowded state, their idleness, and the association of the young with the old. To shut up, as has been done in Boston, ablebodied men, youth, and females, during the heat of summer or at other seasons, to the number of from six to eight in one small room imperfectly ventilated, where they lie half the day in bed, play cards, smoke, relate stories of vice and villany, or contrive plans of depredation or revenge, is an evil that deserves the reprobation of every good citizen, and the earnest expostulations of all christians. With the exception of the House of Correction at Worcester, and of the Boston Gaol where a portion of the criminals have been set to breaking granite for the repairs of roads, we do not know of a single instance in which employment has been given to the convicts in any county prison in this state. In that part of the Boston Gaol, temporarily used as a House of Correction, all the females were confined together in a passage between the ranges of cells. The wife of a laborer, with an infant at her breast, waiting trial for the breach of the peace, or sentenced to a month's imprisonment for intemperance, has been associated with the most abandoned of her sex. A young female convicted upon three indictments for larceny to the amount in all of not more than one dollar and fifty cents, pronounced 'a notorious thief,' and sentenced to three years imprisonment, the shortest term the law prescribed for her case. But during this whole period, she was liable to be shut up with women of the most profligate and shameless characters. The instances have been frequent, in which young persons, on conviction for first offences, have been confined in apartments with experi

was

enced criminals. We are happy to state, that many improvements in relation to classification, employment, &c. have recently been made in this prison by the exertions of the Directors of the House of Correction. But in the gaol not long since demolished, the abuses we have mentioned were notorious, and reflected great disgrace upon the county. Even the new, costly, and elegant prison erected in its. stead, is so constructed as not to admit of a proper separation of its inmates. And we are sorry to be informed, that the substantial and spacious edifices recently built at South Boston, one of which is to be appropriated as a House of Refuge, do not allow of separate confinement on any extensive scale. We look upon the evil of the indiscriminate association of criminals. of different ages, as the worst feature, by far, in the present prison system. Legislators, the guardians of the people's welfare; magistrates and judges, the dispensers of justice, instead of nipping crime in the bud, and watching with paternal solicitude over the waywardness of inexperience, have doomed the offending child and youth to a rendezvous of depravity, at the contemplation of which the mind sickens.

Even in a County Gaol, or House of Correction, idleness ought not to be tolerated, and we know of no labor, combining the advantages of punishment and utility, comparable to that of the treadmill. But it is proper for males only. For them, no injury to health need be apprehended. Although it has excited warm opposition, as a species of prison discipline, the London committee, after great experience and extensive inquiry, are fully satisfied that the objections made to it are unfounded. Eminent physicians also have testified to the same fact. The Sixth Report, the title of which stands at the head of this article, says, that

The various statements in the Appendix will show the great extent, to which the labor of the tread-wheel has been introduced into the houses of correction of the several counties. If it be inquired upon what grounds the Committee continue to advocate this description of prison labor, they reply, because it possesses, in their opinion, many of the primary requisites of efficacious punishment. It is corrective; it is exemplary; its application is not inconsistent with humane feeling, and interferes in no way with the inculcation of moral and religious impres