PHILOSOPHY OF IMPRISONMENT.

Nelson Examiner and New Zealand Chronicle, Volume II, Issue 69, 1 July 1843, Page 276

PHILOSOPHY OF IMPRISONMENT.

The State prison at Sing-Sing, in the State of New York, is an establishment adapted for the confinement of one thousand male convicts. It is situated en the back of the Hudson river, and' is well constructed of a coarse grey marble or limestone. Every prisoner is lodged at night in a separate cell, well ventilated, lighted, and warmed in winter by means of heated air. The cells are so constructed, that a whole row of from ten to fifteen are locked and bolted by the turning of one key; thus to save labour and prevent mistakes, .Whatever may, have been the previous condition in life of the convicts, the moment they enter the prison they are all clothed, lodged, and fed alike. Abundance of everything is supplied, and all the means of cleanliness and medical attendance; but nothing* is wasted. It may be supposed that the building, and its maintenance, must have caused a very heavy expense. No such thing ! At its first origin some hundred convicts were located in wooden huts, on the site of the prison, under the care of a few soldiers. Some directors gave them instructions for the quarrying and cutting of stone; the other materials were brought to the spot, and the convicts built their own prison j* learning a new trade while so doing. \ Compare, this fact with the building of the' new Custom House and Buckingham Palace. There are at present, in the Sing-Sing prison, from six.to seven hundred convicts, most of them Negjroes and Irishmen, as the books shew; and many of the others are criminals from the better classes of society. Ten sentinels only patrol the prison at night, every cell being open to their inspection, through a grating, on which the light of gas is thrown. By day the convicts are all turned out at liberty, within the walls of the enclosure ; which is formed on the site from which the stone was originally taken. They then pursue their various trades of stone-sawing and cutting, carpentry, shoe-making, cabinetwork, smiths-work, engraving, tailoring, and numerous other branches of art. Thay manufacture all their own necessaries, and supply the public with a great quantity in addition; in fact, it is a trading concern, producing some profit to the government. During their work, the convicts ÜBe all kinds of tools, but their only guards are some twenty men, armed with musket and bayonet, and a few overseers of the works, whose business it is to see tbat they do not speak to each other, a matter altogether prohibited ; their communication being only through the overseers. This is strictly enforced ; and though they work on the water's edge, and many of them are quarrying beyond the prison walls, an attempt to escape is of rare occurrence, though surrounded by a woodland country. The reason is, that the people at large are interested in the public security, and they could scarcely meet with an individual to connive at their escape. The public are admitted at all times to survey the prison, on the payment of one shilling sterling, as a fee, the only -fee ever permitted, and that only to prevent the influx of people from idie curiosity. When a convict is discharged, he has no fees to pay ; but in the dusk of the evening he resumes the habiliments in which he first entered, and with a few dollars in his pocket, sets forth to some distant f lace, to resume his duties as a free member of society. Let the comparison be made with the prisons of England ! But this was not my object in stating it. 1 would simply ask, why English paupers cannot be made to do all that is done by American convicts. The government works of England are at present miserably executed, and though higher paid for, considerably beloiv the average of those belonging to individuals ; and a government dockyard is the last place that any new invention reaches, unless perchance it be some contrivance for the destruction of human life, or infliction of human misery. Congreve rockets met with ready attention ; but the inventor of the tube-con-structed vessels, for preventing a ship from sinking, is altogether neglected. It was not till every petty ship-chandler possessed a share in a steam-boat, for the purposes of profit, that steam-boats were patronised by the government. Why is this ? The nation's hirelings are the creatures of interested appointment. A responsible government, really working for the nation's good, would take the lead in arts and science. A. school of invention would be established, and new sources of industry struck out, conducing to the increase of the national stock of happiness. — Rights of Morality, by Junius Redivivus.

A Wis« Man's Revenge. — Lycurgus, when they had abandoned to his revenge him trho had put out his eye, took him home, and the punishment he inflicted was sedulous instructions to virtue ; after which, the offender being restored to his people, was by them, from a rash and injurious, found become a good, honest, and modest, citizen. — Dv VaLv.