Philadelphia, and its solitary prison:
"In the outskirts, stands a great prison, called the Eastern Penitentiary: conducted on a plan
peculiar to the state of Pennsylvani. The system here, is rigid, strict, and hopeless solitary confinement. It believe it, in its
effects, to be cruel and wrong.
In its intention, I am well convinced that it is kind, humane, and meant for reformation; but I am
persuaded that those who devised this system of Prison Discipline, and those benevolent gentle men who carry it into execution, do
not know what it is that they they are doing. I believe that very few men are capable of estimating the immense amount of torture
and agony which this dreadful punishment, prolonged for years, inflicts upon the sufferers; and in guessing at it myself, and in reasoning
from what I have seen written upon their faces, and what to my certain knowledge they feel within, I am only the more convinced that
thre is a depth of terrible endurance in it which none but the sufferers themselves can fathom, and which no man has a right to inflict
upon his fellow creature. I hold this slow and daily tampering with the mysteries of the brain, to be immeasurably worse than any
tortue of the body: and because its ghastly signs and tokns are not so palpable to the eye and sense of touch as scars upon the flesh;
because its wounds are not upon the surface, and it extorts few cries that human ears can hear; therefore I the more denounce it,
as a secret punishment which slumbering humanity is not roused up to stay. I hesitated once, debating with myself, whether, if I had
the power of saying "yes" or "No," I would allow it to be tried in certain cases, where the terms of imprisonment were short; but
now, I solemnly declare, that with no rewards or honours could I walk a happy man beneath the open sky by day or lie me down upon
my bed at night, with the consciousness that one huan creature, for any length of time, no matter what, lay suffering this unknown
punishment in his silent cell, and I the cause, or I consenting to it in the least degree.
I was accompanied to this prison by two
gentlemen officially connected with its management, and passed the day in going from cell to cell, and talking with the inmates. Every
facility was afforded me, that the utmost courtesy could suggest. Nothing was concealed or hidden from my view, and every piece of
information that I sought, was openly and frankly given. The perfect order of the building cannot be praised too highly, and of the
excellent motives of all who are immediately concerned in the administration of the system, there can be no kind of question.
Between
the body of the prison and the outer wall, there is a spacious garden. Entering it, by a wicket in the massive gate, we pursued the
path before us to its other temination, and passed into a large chamber, from which seven long passages radiate. On either side of
each, is a long, long row of low cell doors, with a certain number over every one. ............. continue to the full text
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