The Express.
London, England, 1847-09-23 00:00:00

este system in the United States may be attributed Ms
dames. In the first place many sulightmerel mem
ha" vs• that the state of ftismylvimis, in essinatlag
its penitentiary, began at the mai 11114ettliegeorl leader ;
that the separate system elute imglied, is to those
prisons with which penal begins, bare bsdng ap-
plied to those in which It timbales. Did the various
counties of the different dates paled prisons similar to the
yew 1114i40•3 d'arret in Feuds, te the bosses of detention in
Holland, and to those recommended, in the Livingston code,
then the early corruption of the primer might be avoided,
did the opportunity for his reform, presented by the separate
discipline of the penitentiaries, be rendered profitable;
meanwhile, the attempt at refers:saes Y useless. Such is
the argument of some ; and it is to be hoped that they may
soon be met by the fact of the continued construction of
separate prisons for those waiting trial. This, however,
depends very much upon the resolution of county magistrates,
wee of whom, neither from taste nor from early habit, nor
previous study,are much disposed to examine seriously the
great questions of penal reform. Attention is, however,
awakening to this subject, and the county magistrates of the
United States, like those of England, are bring ng to it a spirit
0( investigation and of inquiry which angers well for the
eeture. When on the point of embarking two days since
for Ostend, the chairman of the sessions of Surrey informed
Col. Jebh, our vice-president, by whose side I then stood,
that that important county had just determined to build a
prison on the separate system, thus adding one more to the
number already announced for England. The difficulties
which have been surmounted there will not, I believe, prove
strong. enough to resist the action of philanthropic men in
America ; and we may fairly hope that the next year will
show an augmentation or the number of .eparate prisons for
houses of detention. Another cause of the slow progress of
the separate system in the United States is, that the cat of
construction is greater than for the Auburn prisons • and
while the question of comparative merit remains undecided,
the tendency of all gond taxpayers was to support the
cheapest. Another cause may also be found in the habitual
oppoeition made to the Philadelphia prison, during a long
series of years, by the Prison Discipline Society of Baton.
The reports of this society have exercised a strong influence
upon public opinion, due, in a great measure, to the imposing
array of nausea which it has presented as its presidents, vice-
presidents, and managers. Any one who paid a subscription
of ten francs could become a member ; but recent discussions
hove shown that the number of those, both among its vice-
presidents and its members who have occupied themselves
seriously with the study of the penal law and re-
form, and who have penonaliy examined the practical ap-
plication of various systems of imprisonment, was very small
—that the control of theseciety—as is so often the case with
public charities—had remained for many years in the bands
of a few persons, and that the preparation of its reports had
been left almost entirely to its secretary. The seal which
this gentleman displayed in defence of what he believed to
be the truth, led him, perhaps, sometimes to hazardous at-
tacks upon others, and to a willing blindness to the defects of
the Auburn system ; but I take this public occasion to repel,
most explicitly, the opinion expressed by many conscientious
perrons, some of wham are now present, and who have ex-
amined his reports with care, that there is in them a dispoei-
ton to wilfully misrepresent and falsify facts. Several years
ago the Boston Prison Society declared that the Auburn
prison was a model for Europe and for America. That de-
claration has never been retracted, and the members of that.
society stand at present linked to a system, the d. structive in-
fluence of which upon the self-respect of the convict, stronger
sometimes even than religion, as the basis of reform in his ohs
racier, and the cruel punishment of which, have been so
justly. censured by their sister society of New York, and by
the civilised world. I depose these various documents on
the table, and, in conclusion, beg to observe that I cannot
regard the fad of the building one or more separate pd.
am in this or that state, as being one of paramount import-
ance. With the Hon. M. De Beaumont, I must consider
the awakening of public attention to this subject, and the
attrecting to it the labour of enlightened minds, as the im-
portant and cheerier fact for us. May the labours of this
congress be fruitful in good, and may they tend net merely !
to determine questions of architectural construction, but to
stimulate the conviction in all minds that it is not alone the
punishment but the reformation also of the pi Leaner which
uto be cared for ! Public opinion in Almeria is awakened
to this. The conviction of the infallibility of the Auburn
system is destroyed. Humanity must gain. (The speaker
sat down amidst loud and long continued cheers.)
SECOND DAY.
BRUSSELS, SEPT. 21.—The minutes of the preceding meet-
ing having been read,
14. Dread-mu x (secretary) dated that there were alto.
gather 252 members ache congress, and that amongst the
' arrivals on the previous day were Mr. Stewart, M.P., and Sir
James Serling. The secretary also announced that numerous
*mks, &c., had been received from various gentlemen.
Mr. /lore's, magistrate of Middlesex, read a report from a
society in New York, calling a congress of prissy reformers
at that city, and inviting the Congress of Brussels to attend.
Dr. Je tics, of Berlin, dated that the people of America,
the country in which the penitentiary system was first esta-
blished, had followed
soh x let at Frankfurt, and had
convened congress, which was to take place on the 27th
inst. at New York, and where questions similar to these now
under discussion would be examined. (Cheers.)
M. SERINGAR entered into some details to show the per-
versity of many. young delinquents. There were two large
establishments in Holland where -prisoners lived in com-
mon, and he regretted to say, that during two or three years,
the number of young female prisoners in one of them had
increased fourfold, and the number of boys double. Ito
was quite in favour of houses of refuge, such as he had seen
in London ; of placing children out in the country ; and the
establishment of societies of patrons. A. German gentleman
had drawn genealogical tables of 100 persons of ill fame.
He had also made up a table of that kind, copies of which
he would give to the meeting. Such statistical details were,
he thought, useful, inasmuch as means might be taken for
redeeming certain bad families, and to lay the foundation of
better ones. (Cheers.)
Dr. CRABBINAT, • medical gentleman attested to
office of the minister of the interior in Paris, did that he
was a partisan of cellular imprisonment for men, for women,
and even for political prisoners, but not for children. He
objected to that plan (so far as children were concerned)
not only as a medical man, but as a friend of humanity.
The speaker entered into several statistical details, in order
to show that there was a far greater mortality, and a far
greater amount of illness, in establishments where children
were subjected to solitary imprisonment, than in prisons
conducted on other systems. At La Roquette, which was
founded in 1837, imprisonment in common formerly elided,
but in 1839 the cellular system was established—a system
which exists till the present day. What were the results ?
He was sorry to say, that with respect to the number of deaths,
and the amount of llama, the statistical details he would give'!
were quite unfavourable to the adoption of the cellular sys-
tem. Be referred to the tables drawn up by M. Montfer-
rand. In the free population of France, the number of
deaths amongst youths of 14 years of age was 1 in 200.
During three years at La Rowlett., the average number of
deaths was 12.50 per cent. It might be objected that the
elms of young prisoners at La Roquette was generally com-
posed of boys from large cities, who tad not Om robusticon-
etitutions which the youth of the agricultural districts pos-
sessed. Bat allowing that the average number of deaths
amongst the free youths was 1 in 100, still the immense differ-
ent! between 1 and 12.50 per cent., must strike everyone. He
should now compare the average number of deaths at La
Roquette with the +noisome centraks of France. Before the
introduction of the silent system into the latter establish-
ments, the average number was 4.10 per cent. ; after the in-
troduction of that system, 5.72 per cent. Taking even the
higher number, it was clear that the La Roquette system
was a more fatal one. The bagnes, those receptacles of the
most depraved of mankind, showed only an average morta-
lity of 3 per 100. The average age in the bagnes was rather
more than 17. Now, the population of the bagnes was con-
siderably worse treated than that 01 the establishment at La
Roquette, but, on the other hand, it had the enjoyment of
the light and of the air and good exercise. The speaker next
entered into a variety of details in order to show that chronic
diseases were far more more prevalent in La Roquette than
in other prisons. Now, what must be done with children
Should they be placed to agricultural colonies ? He could
slat* that in the one at Mettrai, the average number of
deaths was 20 in 1,000. Since 1643, agricultural colonies
had been attached to the ',miaow centraks at Clairvaux
Fontevrault, Loos, and Chinon, colonies in which the hardest
labour was endured by the prisoners. The orator contended,
in conclusion, that merely accused children should not be
plated in cells ; and that condemned criminate should only
be confined in them during six months, or, at most, twelve.
HORACE SLY observed that, to form a right judgment
of the value of the statistical details given by the preceding
eribker, it was necessary to inquire into the mortality at La
th uette beforee cellular system was introduced into that
este lishment. In the year 1838, not less than forty children'
were sent out of the prison, in order to be taken care of, as
their health war delicate ; in 1546, after the introduction of
the cellular system, only thirteen left the establishment on
that account, and only one during the first eight months of
the current ear. The average rate of mortality, so far from
increasing since the introduction of the cellular system, had
been constantly diminishing; in the year 1839, the deaths
were thirteen per cent , and in 1846 only four per cent.
(Cheers.) At Mettrai, there were establishments where
youths belonging to towns could be taught various trades.
He esntended that the beet plan was to confine youths in
the cells till they showed signs of amelioration, and then to
send them to agricultural colonies.
Dr. FOURCAVET of Paris, expressed his conviction that
the mortality at La Roquette, which was so much greater
than that of the free population was not caused by constitu-
tional defects, but by the bad air of that prison.
M.O ear IlLea observed, that prisoners might be divided into
two classes ; the very bad, and those who had yet within them
some germs of virtue. He was in favour of the all but total
exclusion of the former. Now, in agricultural colonies, the
work was done in common; and the great danger that
existed there was, the impossibility of effecting a perfect sur-
veillance of those who took part in it. The French law en-
couraged the double system of solitary confinement and of
ecempatisa in agricultural colonies, or in apprendesehip in
. Neer we Africa. Patronising societies which mold look
. Air the minima, on the expiration of their pedal of el.-
. talks were also very Rood, but he ConMerser Meg eellast
was the basis of every goosinteme
Maims remarked, that Mal colonise
amid be eleees of reward for Improve behaviour and
not
PUNS ripailmeat. He eesdiaded by making the follow-
ing eseMeal--
That speehiateellieseelsel eareetheel elheariere be cesietree-
i.4 for Twee wpm eweioned te tweetelemert t rles
diane bream the imams ef Nosh retsidelteerea matt sub-
beard eeleheef tie reeserme el iallviead te
ay sm. demons dame. al Oak et the woe shade he
elee ant te eali Wear. or ta wasept
swam ar team% vtattee amperetion of retradebr eaddlea
Mr. Tamer awl eassaial the mime, lad is the
CM. of a been spar% fate peed with Preach phrases,
vuloghal the altliertiele of the French penal code, which'
drat a dhlinetion between elilldren acting with dbeammr:enf
and them who did sot, and provided different peideramoda.