Star.
London, England, 1818-03-23 00:00:00

ON PRISON DISCIPLINE.

(Continued from the STAR of '.►larch 13.)

Let us now follow a prisoner from his first c=-
raiment, always remembering that as yet his, guilt
is unproved. You have no right to march him along.
the streets in chains, or to make him a spectacle of
public ignominy, perhaps on the very spot, and
amongst the very people with whom he has hitherto
held a fair character. Infamy may be the penalty
for crime, but it should never be the consequence of
suspicion : you shouli, therefore, conduct him to his
jail with every possible attention to his feelings--
with decency and secrecy. When he is entered within
its walls, you have no right to load him with irons ;
you have no right to subject him to bodily pain from
their weight, or to that agony of mind, which must
result from such symbols of degradation to a man of
yet unblunted feelings; and you have no right to
conclude that he is not such. And here I must ob-
serve in the language of Blackstone, " The law will
not justify jailers in fettering a prisoner, unless
where he is unruly, or has attempted an escape."---6
It would be tedious to the generality of my readers
to confirm so high an opinion by additional autho-
rities: it is sufficient to say that such are to be found
in the Myrror, in Coke, and in Bracton ; the latter,
indeed, goes so far as to intimate, that a sentence
condemning a man to be confined in irons, is illegal.
Lord Chief Justice King replied to those who
urged that irons were necessary for safe custody,
" that they might build their walls higher." The ne-
glect of this legal precaution is no excuse for the in-
fliction ofany legal punishment : nor will it, I presume,
be contended, that when Magi strates neglect their duty,
prisoners should suffer for it. The truth is, a man
i s very rarely ironed for his own misdeeds, but very
frequently for those of others ; additional irons on
his person are cheaper titan additional elevation to
the walls. Thus we cover our own negligence, by
increased severity to our captives.
You have no right to abridge him c.£ pure air,
wholesome and sufficient food, and opportunities of
exercise. You have no right to debar hint from the
craft on which his family depends, if it can be exer-
cised in prison. You have no right to subject him
to suffering from cold, by want of bed-clothing by
night, or firing by day ; and the reason is plain—you
have torn him from his home, and have deprived him
of the means of providing himself with the necessa li
-
ries or comforts of life, and therefore you are bound'
to furnish him with moderate, indeed, but suitable
accommodation.

You have for the same reason no right to ruin his
habits, by compelling him to be idle ; his morals, by
compelling him to mix with a promiscuous assem-
blage of hardened and convicted criminals ; or his
health, by forcing him at night into a damp unven-
tilated cell, with such crowds of companions, as
very speedily to render the air foul and putrid ; or
to make him sleep in close contact with the victims
of contagious and loathsome disease, or amidst the
noxious effluvia of dirt and corruption. In short,
attention to his feelings mental and bodily, a supply
of every necessary, abstraction from evil society, the
conservation of his health and industrious habits, are
the clear, evident, undeniable rights of an uncon-
vicjed prisoner.
He should be brought to his trial as speedily as
possible, for every hour of unnecessary delay in fur-
nishing him with the opportunity of proving his in-
nocence, is, at least may be, an hour of unjust im-
prisonment.

At his trial, either he is acquitted—in which case
the least you can do, is to replace him in the situa-
tion you found him, to pay his expenses home, and
to furnish him with sufficient to support him till he
has had an opportunity of looking out for work ; or
he is convicted—and then it is for the law to appoint
the punishment which is to follow his offence. That
punishment must be inflicted, but you must carefully
guard that it be not aggravated, and that circum-
stances of severity are not found in his treatment,
which are not found in his sentence. Now no Judge
ever condemned a man to be half starved with cold
by day, or half suffocated with heat by night ; who
ever heard of a criminal being sentenced to catch
the rheumatism or the typhus fever ? Corruption of
morals and contamination of mind, are not the re-
medies which the law in its wisdom has thought p=p-
per to adopt. We should remember, to use the words
of a former writer on the subject, " that disease,
cold, famine, nakedness, a contagious and polluted
air, are not lawful punishments in the hands of the
Civil Magistrate ; nor has he a right to poison or
starve his fellow-creature, though the greatest of
criminals."

The convicted delinquent then has his rights. All
measures and practices in prison, which may injure
him in any way, are illegal, because they are not spe-
cified in his sentence—he is, therefore, entitled to a
wholesome atmosphere, decent clothing and bedding,
and a diet sufficient to support him.
But besides the rights of the individual, there are
duties to the commttnity :—Parunt est improbos coer-
cere pond, nisi probos c/j7cias disciplind.—One of the
most important of these duties is, that you should
not send forth the man committed to your tuition,
in any respect a worse man, a less industrious, or a
less sober, or a less competent Shan than when. he
entered your walls. Good policy requires that, if
possible, you should dismiss him improved.
For the improvement of the unconvicted prisoner,
you should labour, as a recompense for his confine-
ment before trial—that thus you may convert the
suspicion of crime into its prevention in future—that
thus you may addict him to such habits, and instil
such principles, and impart such instruction as may
repair the damage you have done him ; and that he,
being amerced of one period of his life, may be enabled
to spend the remainder more respectably.
For the improvement of the debtor you should la-
bour, because the grand causes of debt are sickness,
idleness, or intemperance :—you must therefore, pro-
, vide against its recurrence by those measures which
may secure the health, the industry, and the sobriety
of your prisoners. The convicted criminal is also en-
titled to your care. Our law is not, in its true spirit,
whatever it may be in its modern execution, a system
of bloody vengeance ; it does not say, so much evil
is repaired by so much misery inflicted. A merciful
and enlightened jurisprudence, like the Author of
all that is merciful and wise, does not rejoice in the,
death of a sinner ; but rather, that he should turn
' from his wickedness and live. Punishments are in-