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Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
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Untitled Article
thingJirts of late been done , and more is , we trust , in the way to be dottS towards rectifying the inequality of the law under which a prisoner belonging to a certain cckmty may be kept in prison a year before trial , while the perpetrator of a similar offence in London is tried in six weeks : but , in the meanwhile , incalculable
injury has been and continues to be done to the safety of society by the congregation of numbers , of whom such as are not guilty are exasperated , and therefore prepared for guilt , and all of whom are suffering gross injustice . , Magna Charta was framed with a view . to-other results than this : it provided that justice should not be delayed , any more than denied or sold . It is evident that these grievances , which affect the security of society , have an immediate bearing on the moral state of the
offender . As long as-they exist , the reformation of the criminal cannot be looked for . It is plain that , previous to trial , before he is subjected to any other infliction than the loss of liberty , every precaution should be taken to avoid his sustaining any kind of injury . He should have means to pursue his own employments ; instruction should be within his reach ; and he should have
liberty to decline society which he dislikes . None of these dues are afforded in any fair proportion to the untried inmates of our jails . After sentence , the infliction ( as long as the right of infliction is recognized and acted upon ) should be arranged with a view to a higher object still , —that the criminal should leave the prison a better man than he entered it . That this object may be ^ and therefore ought universally to be , attained under the present
law , is proved by the degree of success of which the Penitentiary atMillbank has been productive , though more animating examples are before us in other directions . That which , through lapse of time , may be best depended on , is at Auburn , in the state of New York , a brief summary of the plans and results of which is found at page 7 of this Report , conveying as much valuable fact as the more copious details which may be met with elsewhere : —
< At sunrise , the convicts proceed in regular order to the several workshops , where they remain under vigilant superintendence until the hour of breakfast , when they repair to the common hall . When at their meals , the prisoners are seated at table in single rows , with their backs towards the centre , so that there can be no interchange of signs . From one end of the work-rooms to the other , upwards of five hundred convicts may be seen without a
single individual being observed to turn his head towards a visitor . Not a whisper is heard throughout the apartments . At the close of day , labour is suspended , add the prisoners return in military order to their solitary cells : there they have the opportunity or reading the Scriptures , and of reflecting in silence on their past lives . The chaplain occasionally visits the cells , instructing the ignorant , and administering the reproofs and consolations of religion . The '
Untitled Article
Ptimtik Discipline . 583
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1832, page 583, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1820/page/7/
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