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Untitled Article
are of the actual state of out criminal policy ; and such of them as are practised in tracing institutions to their princi p les must be loudly called upon to apply their philosophy where it has never yet been applied by more than a few individuals , who , groaning in spirit , have taken upon themselves as much as individuals might bear of the responsibilities of a nation . It is not enough to carry
on Howard ' s department of the work , or even to perpetuate the labours of Romilly ; for , like all other moral labours , this grows upon the hands . It is not enough ( though , alas ! it is still much wanted ) to go into our prisons and see that the inmates have air , and light , and food , and water . It is not enough , though it is much , to see that they are not confined month after ~ month 5 year after year , before there is so much as an attempt to prove a charge
against them . It is not enough , though it is much , to strive to free our penal code from the barbarities and absurdities of former ages , Further than this , it ought to be , it must be , ascertained what constitutes crime in the present age ; how society may be best guarded from its aggressions ; and whether that kind of punishment which consists in the arbitrary infliction of suffering serves the purpose of security , or any other purpose ; and whether , therefore , such infliction is authorized .
It is clearly the duty of a government to protect its subjects from the aggressions of crime , and , in consequence , to seclude or otherwise render powerless its criminal members . This appears to us to be the limit of its authority , in the first instance . This should be the object , not only in the process of arrest and custody
previous to trial , but after conviction . We cannot discern whence is given the power to inflict arbitrary suffering in the case of guilt more than in any other case . A just direction of natural consequences answers all the good purposes ever contemplated in the institution of arbitrary punishments , and refers the responsibility whither it ought to rest , —on that Providence which has ordained
misery to be the natural consequence of guilt , A man breaks into his neighbour ' s dwelling to steal his goods : we punish him with death . This certainly secures society from his future trespasses ; but it does much more , —much more , that we can perceive no warrant for our doing . It destroys a life which we recognize no commission to take , and which , for aught we know , might be made useful to the community and happy to the individual : it perplexes the notions of moral cause and effect , right and wrong , duty and
Providence , in the minds of multitudes ; and excites tumults of angry passions : thus demoralizing instead of warning , and tending to the propagation instead of the repression of evil . How different are the effects of punishment by natural consequence ! The man has done his neighbour wrong , and must therefore be secluded that he may not again do an injury . This is the reason of hi * imprisonment , which is longer or shorter in proportion to the apparent probabilities of his repeating the offence , ^
Untitled Article
578 Prtson Discipline .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 578, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/2/
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