The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-11-15

Naples for mitigation or reversal Of his punish
ment. The judge has no discretion, - in England,
.sn shnss DAYS sp sss The
quence is that nearly ell the prisoners appeal,
especially those who are condemned for life |; and
az the courts are now overburdened with busi-
five or six months longer residence in this pleasant
prison, instead OF being dispatched to hard labor
at once. Another evil IL obvious. So crowded ID
the jail that II 10 imposaibie to carry ont any sys
kept in compartments devoted to special crimes.
Consequently the greatest villain imaginable may
be in the same room with young men who are
comparatively innocent.
At the present time there is within the walls Of
the prison perfect monster of iniquity, and yet
he is ct large In o room with some fifty or sixty
other prisoners. This man Is an assassin BY trade
and it IL believed that he has taken life from more
than fifty human beings, and ell for pay. He has
escaped justice altogether hitherto, and even now
the director of the prison says he does not think
they will be able 10 collect sufficient evidence
TO convict him; and so, at the age Of sixty.
seven, he may again be turned loose upon 90.
ciety. However right juries may be In not con.
victing him without sufficient evidence, it Ger.
tainly does seem desirable to keep such q wretch
in solitary confinement till the day Of his trial,
and so prevent him from communicating others.
The very fact of living and sleeping 10 the same
room with such man week after week, especially
as there Is nothing obviously repusive about him,
must blunt the feelings Of his fellow.prisoners to
the enormity OF his crimes. Another question
which naturally occurs to an Englshman is this:
Why are not all these brigands and murderers
hung! In the first place, hundreds Of the former
have already been shot. Number how many is
not known-have been shot in pursuit; and when
the military tribunals we're sitting short work was
made with them. They were condemned quickly,
and shot twenty -four hours after their condemna-
tion. But the time for that is past. Brigandage is
nearly vanquished, and neighborhoods which for
years had been unsafe are now perfectly secure.
Now that they are tried before the civil powers,
they naturally have all the advantage of the pro-
cess and though n is often easy to prove that man
is brigaud, it is difficult to prove any particular
murder against him. The Italians make great
difference between murders which are com.
mitted in anger and those committed in cold
blood. In the former case, juries always
find mitigating circumstances in the latter,
they are severe and there are now in
the prison two men who have been condemned to
death accordingly. 1t must also be added that
the prison authorities know the evil of keeping so
many prisoners together, but declare that at
present it is physical necessity. The activity Of
the present government in putting down brigsnd
age has crowded the prisons, and If the prisoners
are to be kept alive they must be placed together.
The Italian plan Of treating prisoners with con.
sideration before they are tried, and when it is
certainly not fair TO presume them guilty, con-
trasts very favoraby with the way in which such
prisoners are treated In English and Irish jails
even in the cells Of the metropolitan police courts.