The British Press; or, Morning Literary Advertiser.
London, England, 1818-08-18 00:00:00

PRISON DISCIPLINE.

REPORT or THE COMMITTEB OF THE SOCIETY
FOE THE IMPROVEMENT OF PRISON DISCIP-
LINE, AND FOR THE lEFUEMATION OF JUVE-
NILE OFFENDERS.

(Conthesed frets our Paper of Friday loaf.)
LONDON. MAY 16, 1818.

The lamentable depravity which, for the last
few years, has 'hewn itself so conspictionsly amongst
the youth of both sexes, in the Metropolis and its
environs, oceasioned the formation of a Society fur
investigating the causes of the increase of Juvenile
Delinquency. It regime:l no depth of penetration
to foresee, that persons. early inured to (011ie,
would, if no means of correction or prev,•ntion
were employed, sink deeper in the abyss of lice ;
accumulating on society all the evils or the deepest
crimitiality, infectiiig all those whom accident or
design might render their associates, anti I.llviiig
almost beyond the reach of hope all prosm-ct
their own amendment. The morel cat ditto' i of a
human beirig is seldom, if ever, statimary ; lie
must improve in virtue, or become hardened in
vice ; the guilty youth of this Metropolis will
hot become in manhood ordinary members of
the community ; he who !pilfers in his early
flays, who has so far lost his arose of to ctittile
and s'arine its boyhood, will oat pass through life
without still more flagrant violations of ht. date ;
and all the known principles by which the
human mind is governed and directed, teach
us to expect the inevitable conseqiiencts—cons
sequences which religion, litimainty, rwlfspro.
tectimi, and sell-interest equally shud per at. In
this melancholy catalogue, we must include mur-
der, rapine, theft, every b peeler of delitirineucy
which exposes life and property to danger; which
debases and pollutes the moral character, insures
misery in this world, and darkens the hope of
mercy in the next. All these most lamentable re-
bolts must ensue, if (Tune he suffered to lily waste
the youthful population of the laud, unchecked
and unrestrained. More truly powerful incentives
to human action the wit of man cannot devise ; but
if these did not suffice, others are not wanting.
Every vicious person ought to he the aubj,-ct of
commiseration with every Christian, with every
urea who believes in a future state of rewards and
p 'sinews; for a guilty conscience is the sure
accompaniment of crime, and misery us certainly
the consequence of guilt. ‘Ve slew the misfor-
tunes of this life with an eye of pity ; but what are
they ise comparison with vice ? What calamity can
produce misery like a sense of depravity, the inward
conviction of having forfeited the litotes:lion of that
liring, who alone can console us in the hour of
trouble, iti the shadow of death ? Again, therefore,
and boldly be it avowed, that the guilty are proper
objects of our pity—vice of our horror nod detests-
riot'. Let no one suppose, that these observations
tend to excite undue ((((( mitieratian for the offender,
or to loosen the great hoods by which pile and pro-
perty are to he protected. Jo-tree, morality, policy,
all require the offeoce to be repressed ; punishment
is our great means to attain that end ; it should
br certain, uud, es far as the imperfection of lintc,an
ordinances ' •Is, proportiusinte to the gudt ;
but rellgiwi and hootanity require, that the r.
strand or crime should not he the titter destruction
of the offender : his reformation and future hap-
piness, it is erioninal to abandon.

If then we should commiserate the condition of
the most hardened prcfl:g de, how much stronger is
the call upon our hum n v, where the criminal is
of tender years, open to every temptation, null, us
has most frequently occurred, trattied not in virtue
and morslity, brit habitually instructed from his
'oiliest days in vice and or compelled by
dire necessity to earn a miserable subsistence by
dishonest practices?
Instigated by these various considerations, the
ciety in 1315 commenced its lalmtirs; and, seer-
'tilde that an . emirate knowledge wit. first indespeits-
:slily requitoie, spared no pants to procure the best
information. For this purpose, the Committee ar-
ranged their numbers into Ault-divisions, who vi.
sited the carious prisons in London and its neigh-
bourhood; examined the boys apart, pursued their
inquirres amongst their parents, friends, or asso-
ciates; kept a journal of many hundred cases, in
which all perticolars deserving of consideration
were carefully recorded and preserved; and, in
short, adopted mrry possible measure to acquire
au accurate knowledge of the extent of juvenile de-
linquency, and the principal causes that occasion-
ed its extraordinary and still advancing increase.
Experience has shewn, that the information thus
obtained was generally correct, though, of course,
incorrect statements and erroneous accounts were
at times received. The Committee, however, are
patialied, that they have prosecuted the investiga-
tion successfully ; the general results of their ta-
bours have already beers submitted to the public in
a short Report.
It is necessary here shortly to advert to some
facts which appear uudottltied, and some princiitles
which are deemed incontrovertible, as to juvenile
delinquency, its causes, and those remedial mea-
sores whirls are considered most efficacious in pre-
venting its future increase, rend restritinitig it with-
in narrow limit.. The records of all the Police
Offices; the eon tttt &oleo's, trials, and convictions
at Nett/gate and other gaols; ill the information,
howsoever acquired, ureter in demonstrating the
lamentable fact, that juvenile delinquency has of
Imre ve;r:s increased to an mtprecedertterl extent,
and is still rapidly awl progressively increasing;
that the crimes c tied by the youthful of.
fenders :Ire often of the worst descript ins, ; and that
an organised stem for instriretiou in vice, and
the encouragement of depravity, is regularly main-
tained*.