“As the indisposition to which I have referred attacked
me at a time when I was engaged in a debate with some of your countrymen on the
subject of prison discipline, my medical friends advised me, for a time, not to
enter again upon that subject; and it is only of late that I have been able to
say that I have had the satisfaction of hearing of the system of discipline
recently established in Pennsylvania; where, for many years, I have been led to
expect the adoption of the horrid punishment of solitary confinement, without
permitting the convicts to labour, with which view the legislature has erected
two large and expensive prisons, intended to confine the prisoners in such a
manner, that they should be separated not only by night but by day, and should
be deprived of the liberty of working lest it should be an alleviation of their
sufferings. Against this inhuman and unchristian like system, my humble voice
has been raised, amongst those of many others of more importance, for several
years past; but it is only a few weeks since that I have learnt, by a
communication of authentic documents from Philadelphia, that the legislature
have at length given way to the feelings of humanity, and have determined that
the convicts shall be allowed to labour in the day, and shall be instructed for
that purpose, as well as in whatever else may be requisite for their
reformation. The
| LIFE OF WILLIAM ROSCOE. | 239 |
“By this decision I conceive the great question of prison discipline, as far as regards the United States, is finally settled; every other place, except Philadelphia, having already adopted that plan, thereby making crime to counteract itself, and repair, as far as possible, the evils it has occasioned. In no country has this principle been so well understood, or carried so far as in your own; and the relinquishment of it for the Bastille system of solitary confinement would have grieved me more than I can express; but, thank God! my dread of that is over. I shall now die in peace, convinced that the time will arrive when my own country will follow the example.”
