SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

Westport Times, Volume V, Issue 825, 15 June 1871, Page 3

SOLITARY CONFINEMENT.

(From the "Australasian.") The case of Ernest Somervillo, alias John Edwards, alias Phillips, a prisoner in Pentridge Stockade undergoing a sentence of eight years, i-* one likely to arrest the public attention. Wo do not mean to say that there is anything in his particular instance to excite especial commiseration, but the fact that ho was driven to attempt suicide as a relief from the horrors by which he found himself surrounded, is sufficient to make us pause and consider whether, after all, our " model " systems of prison discipline are quite so perfect in their operations or results as we are led to suppose. As many may be aware, one month for every year of a sentence has to be passedin solitary confinement, amounting in Somerville's case to eight months, to which an additional four were added in consequence of previous convictions. It is very easy to talk about solitary coniinement as being a most efficacious mode of confinement, but the question is whether it is not too awful a penalty to inflict on any human being ? Let each man for himself endeavour to realise what it means. Imagine yourself occupying a cell for twenty-three weary hours at a stretch, the remaining one of each day being devoted to taking exercise in a closed yard. The prisoner never sees anyone but the warder, and occasionally the chaplain or the visiting migistrate, and never attends even Divine Worship without having a canvas mask over his head. Such a life would be unendurable, one would think, if only lasting for a week. What must it be, then, when continued for months or years 1 Can we wonder at a man's brain giving way—the active-minded going raving mad, or seeking relief in death before quite bereft of their senses, and the more animal natures lapsing into idiotcy Y Without being in any way supporters of the ultra-humanitarian system of treating prisoners, we cannot think that society has any right to inflict a punishment which may result in mental incapacity. Solitary confinement for a few days as a means of punishment —for breaches of discipline, &c, or one week out of every month as a part ot a sentence —may have many things to recommend it, but to continue it uninterruptedly for a year or more savours very much of cruelty. It appears to us that no man can undergo such an ordeal without permanent injury to his mental faculties ; and, consequently, his chance of obtaining an honest livelihood on his release are thereby lessened. This is not only contrary to humanity, but also to justice and public policy. Let us not be misunderstood. We are perfectly free from that maudlin sentimentality which leads some people to see in every criminal an object of interest and a fit subject for compassion. If we had our way a prisoner would learn to look on a gaol as anything but a pleasant place of abode — he should earn his own living and something over, and work considerably longer and harder than the honest labourer ; or we should see whether the "cat " could not persuade him to exert himself; but we must say we shrink from applying a punishment which, even in a few cases, may chance to goad a man on to appear unsummoned in the presence of his Maker with all his imperfections on his head ; or, in the event of his resisting the temptation to rid himself of the intolerable burden of life, may return him to the world less fit to fight its battles than when the State took him in charge.