The Portland daily press., 1869-03-03
The Irish Prison system.

The following abstract from paper read by
Rev. DIR. Hines, Secretary OF the New YORK
Prison Association, at the late Social Science
Meeting at Albany, will be read with interest
There are large number of persons VINO en-
certain views on the subject OF punlshmens
that are assuredly wrong and which have
tendency to keep up the recruiting OF the
criminal ranks from each successive genera
ton. Gideon Haynes, the intelligent Warden
OF he Charlestown State Prison, bears testimo-
ny to the fact that imprisonment may be re-
formatory by saying: 81 have no doubt that
at least eighty per cent. of all convicted Of
crime may be reclaimed and made useful
members of society by proper discipline. 1t
cannot be accomplished by rash or cruel treat
ment or any other process which has tenden-
cy to crush out and destroy self-respect The
true theory is to fam into blaze the smallest
spark of manhood they may bring with them
into the prison; they must be assisted and en-
couraged in every possible way; an opportuni-
ty must be afforded them to work out their
own redemption-to do something for them
selves"
The success. of the Irish system described by
DIR. Wines shows that Mr.. Haynes theory
may be adopted with the best results:
DR.. Wines alluded to the difficulties attend
ing prison discipline, and said that Sir Walter
Crotton had come nearer to a solution of the
problem, in his Irish convict system than apy
one else had done. He cited the opinion of
many authorities in its favor, among them
Count Cavour, who, after examination, warm
ly favored it. 1t maybe defined in operation
as an adult reformatory, where the aim is to
tram the prisoner in such way that, ON his
liberation, he would be able to resist tempta-
ton, and willing to lead worthy life. This is
done by placing the prisoners fate in his own
hands, enabling him to raise himself step by
step to greater freedom, privilege and comfort
by good conduct, and keeping him back if his
conduct is bad. There are three stages of inn
prisonment, and fourth stage when he is out
of prison on ticket of leave. The first is in
tensely penal, involving separate confne-
ment; the second is that OF progressive class
ifcation, adopting the mark system of Captain
Mahconochie TThis stage contains four classes
and given number of marks must be attain
ed to allow prisoner to pass from one stage
to the next. The third stage is the intermedi-
ate prison which stands midway between an
Imprisonment strictly penal and condition of
unrestricted liberty. There are two of these
in ireland, one at Lusk and one in Dublin, of
which the first is a farm The prisoners in
Dublin work at mechanical, those at Lusk at
farm labor. They are trusted, without hesita-
ton, to 60 anywhere in the city and country
1HelT euuCdLlOu Is cOnLuu6Q ana greatly eX-
tended by daily lectures on practical and sci
entific subjects. They were now, for the first
time, permitted to spend a small part of their
gratuities from earnings in procuring personal
comforts, yet even this was generally saved.
Indeed, the main design of the permission
was to cultivate habits of providence and
thrift. The fourth stage was that in which the
prisoner was released on ticket-of-leave. In
ireland contrary to what happened in Eng
land, bona fde police supervision was kept
upon the prisoner, which was found as useful
to him as it was to the community. The re-
suit was that whereas when this system was
first put into operation, it was with the great
est difficulty that employment could be OBJ
tained for any of the discharged convicts, now
that dificulfy was. reversed, so that it was
harder for an employer to procure a liberated
convict than it was for the convict to fnd an
employer. Upon the whole, the speaker said
that for ireland the vexed problem, "What
shall we do with our criminals?" which had
been for ages cruz terribilis to the nations,
seemed to have had a satisfactory. solution.