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a distance, and the flour cannot be delivered for consumption in the neighborhood, and where, from the manner in which the number of prisoners must fluctuate, the labor in the prison cannot be depended upon for a regular and steady produce; but if the consideration of profit should be abandoned, hard labor may easily be introduced, and the expense of instruction and task-masters saved into the bargain. There can be no difficulty in the invention of machines which shall turn with difficulty, and without producing any other effect than hard labor and good exercise in the open air, in which most of the persons committed to houses of correction should be employed, in arcades, or under sheds.

In my opinion we should act much more judiciously in providing the means of labor without any attempt at profit, in prisons of this description, than in carrying on works of trade and manufacture in the manner, and upon the principles, now pursued in many of our most celebrated prisons: I do not mean to say, that profit is to be intentionally rejected, and that if the power of a machine moved by prisoners can be made to effect a valuable purpose, it should not be so applied; but I contend, that a pecuniary gain should be taken as an accidental advantage to be accepted if it presents itself, and not as an essential to be required in a scheme for setting such offenders to work, as are by the law committed to hard labor. If prisoners so sentenced, instead of being employed in works of trade and manufacture, were put to turn wheels, which should in the first instance be used in raising water and grinding corn for the prison, but from which, whenever the reservoirs of water were filled, and corn enough were ground, the machinery producing those effects should be disconnected, such weights being hung on in its stead as should occasion the wheels to move with the same difficulty as before, I believe that in most prisons the counties would be no losers by the change; for I am much inclined to think, that except in a few manufacturing districts, where master-manufacturers may find it convenient to send their raw materials to be worked up, and to fetch them away again, paying for the work done, it will rarely happen that manufactures can be carried on in a prison to any considerable extent, without positive loss, the whole earnings of the workman being insufficient to counterbalance the disadvantage at which the raw materials must be purchased, added to the want of opportunities of getting rid of the manufactured articles except at a reduced price, not to mention occasional losses by inferior workmanship, and now and then a bad debt.

The approbation, which has been so liberally bestowed upon the gaols, in which the prisoner has been excited to work by indulgence, appears to me to be owing in a great measure to the circumstance of their having been viewed in comparison only with

prisons in which offenders have been allowed to pass their time in idleness, there being hardly any place of confinement to be met with, in which it has been attempted to give higher motives to diligence, or to form a disposition to be orderly as well as industrious, on the basis of repentance.

It is surprising what little account has hitherto been made of religion, as a motive of human actions, in the prisons of this country. In the inquiry which took place concerning gaols two years ago, before a committee of the House of Commons, an inquiry directed particularly to the moral state and condition of the prisoners, and to the effect of different systems and courses of discipline upon their conduct and characters, we examined visiting Magistrates, and keepers of gaols, and those who from humanity had looked into places in which offenders were confined; but no person ever thought of applying for information, to the chaplain of any gaol, upon these subjects; nor indeed did the province of that officer in any of the prisons which engaged our attention, appear to be such as to warrant us in expecting to receive any material lights from that quarter.

In general, the chaplain is not required, by the rules of the prison, to do more than read prayers and preach on a Sunday, and read prayers once or twice besides in the course of the week. Where religious books are furnished, he is not always the channel through which they pass: if instruction be given in reading or writing, the school is generally under the management of the keeper, (or perhaps, in case of boys, under that of the keeper's wife,) the chaplain does not interfere, he is not consulted in the arrangements made for that purpose, he has no voice in the selection of him who is to teach, and knows nothing of the proficiency of those who are taught; he is generally expected to visit the sick, and sometimes it is mentioned in his instructions that he shall attend the summons of a prisoner who may send for him; but there are few prisons in which it is made a part of his duty to communicate at other times with the prisoners, except one or two, of which the rules are copied from those of the gaol at Gloucester; and even there, the rule which directs the chaplain to attend such prisoners as may stand in need of his spiritual assistance, (expressions which seem to imply that all are not considered as having occasion for any assistance of that kind,) contains a proviso, "that such attendance shall not interfere with the stated hours of labor."

And yet, unless the world has been in error for many ages, religion is the most powerful engine that can be applied to the human mind; and surely if there be any spot upon this earth, in which more than in any other it may expect attention, that spot is within the walls of a prison; if there be any season in which

an offender is peculiarly in a state to derive benefit from the advice which a christian minister has to offer to him, it is when he is tasting, for the first time, the bitter fruits of his follies and vices, when he is just beginning to find, to his cost, whither lead, (even in this world,) the paths in which he has trod; when the arguments of the teacher are confirmed by his own experience, and repeated to him by the voice of conscience, no longer drowned amidst the noise of intemperance, or repressed by the ridicule of dissolute companions. No doubt there will be criminals so hardened that no impression can be made upon them, but even of the most hardened we have no right to despair in the first instance; in bodily diseases we act upon a different principle: the physician says "while there is life there is hope," and we should justly be blamed if we were to abandon the sick man while the pulse continued to beat, and the vital heat yet lingered in any part of the animal frame; much less can the clergyman, who has the promise of God's blessing on his endeavours, be justified in considering any human beings, who retain their natural faculties and the use of reason, as so dead in sin that he may turn from them without any effort for their preservation; we are not warranted in treating any class of offenders, however profligate may have been their former course of life, as if they were so changed and brutalized by vice, that they had no longer understandings to be convinced, but could henceforward be acted upon only through their appetites.

The chaplain of a large gaol in a populous city should attend the prison daily, and ought to spend a considerable portion of his time among the prisoners. He should see every convicted prisoner immediately after his sentence, without waiting to be sent for, and should endeavour to obtain his confidence. It can hardly be expected, that those who are only charged with offences, should be unreserved in their communications to him before their trials; but if prisoners of this description should be inclined to receive his spiritual assistance, there can be no reason for withholding it. He should take care that the prisoners are supplied with proper books and tracts, and should see that suitable arrangements are made for their instruction in their several wards, selecting the fittest among them for instructors. It may be a question of some nicety, in what cases prisoners of one class might be allowed to act as teachers to those belonging to another. There seems to be no objection to the employment of untried prisoners for that purpose in any part of the prison, if we can depend on their confining their communications to the object for which they shall be sent; but they ought not to be continued in that capacity, after they shall have been convicted of disgraceful offences; and I own I cannot concur in the propriety of appointing a felon to act as schoolmaster to the boys

confined in a gaol, although I see that practice resorted to in one of those which is entitled to great credit for its general management. I believe that a large discretion is sometimes exercised by gaolers, in regard to the part of their prison in which particular prisoners should be placed. In some gaols, if a person be committed for a simple misdemeanor, who has previously been convicted of a felony, or who has a very bad character, the keeper takes it upon himself to confine him among those charged with felony, as being unfit to associate with the prisoners of his proper class: and this practice seems to be approved of. It appears to me, I own, to be likely to lead to great abuse, and to furnish an excuse for many irregularities; and it is, moreover, if I am not mistaken, as the law now stands, illegal. If any latitude be allowed upon this subject, it should be authorized by Parliament, and should be extended no further than to those particular cases in which the visiting Magistrates of the prison should see occasion to give a special order in writing for such departure from their general rules.

The chaplain should also read all letters to and from prisoners convicted of felony or committed to hard labor; nor should such prisoners be allowed to carry on any correspondence, or see any of their friends, without his approbation. The friends and connections of prisoners should indeed engage a large share of the chaplain's attention, as the knowledge of them would frequently enable him to confer upon the prisoners the most essential benefits. How often might it be in his power to obtain forgiveness for a criminal from an injured master, who might take the prisoner back into his service on his discharge? to reconcile the offender to friends whose regard he had alienated? to make his peace with relations, who had thrown him off in consequence of his vices, but who might be induced, by the mediation of a respectable clergyman, to receive him again among them, or to furnish him with the means of beginning life anew at a distance from the scene of his disgrace? I believe that much good has been done in this way, and in procuring employment for discharged prisoners, by benevolent gaolers, who have taken an interest in the future fate of those whom they have sent out from their prisons; but much more might of course be effected by the exertions of men, whose better education and higher rank in society must give them greater weight and more extensive influence, and who could devote more time to these objects than can be bestowed upon them by a person who has the general concerns of a large gaol to attend to.

In giving efficiency to the chaplain we must take care to avoid all collision of authority between him and the gaoler, or governor of the prison: all direct power must continue in the hands of the latter, in whom alone rests all responsibility for the safe keeping

of his prisoners; the chaplain can only act, either upon officers or prisoners by advice; even if he were insulted in the prison, it is not his province to order punishment, but all possible means should be taken to uphold his character and consequence: the governor should be particularly required to take care that he is treated. on all occasions, and by all persons within the walls of the prison, with proper respect; to report to him all such punishments as he may be called upon to inflict for breaches of prison discipline, and generally to consult with him on all points connected with the moral state and condition of the prison: nor do I conceive that the attention of the chaplain ought to be confined to matters purely of a moral or religious nature he is by his profession the friend and guardian of the distressed, and if he should think fit, at any time, to make a representation to the keeper of the prison, upon any subject which has no reference to religion or morals, either in consequence of his own observation, or of a complaint made to him by a prisoner, he ought not to be treated as an officious meddler with what did not concern him, but his application, even if the keeper did not see occasion to comply with it, should be patiently and respectfully received; it should be the primary object of the attention of the visiting Magistrates of every gaol, to see that the chaplain did not assume too much, and that he was not on the other hand overlooked as a person of no consequence in the prison; and wherever the duties of that officer were correctly performed, I am mistaken if these Magistrates would not soon feel that they derived much assistance from him in their superintendence.

The amount of the annual salary which the justices may appoint to the chaplain of a gaol, by the 55th Geo. III. cap. 48, is 100l.; for the duty done in the house of correction they may give 50%. but where the same person is to attend both gaol and house of correction, (which is often found convenient, the latter being often under the same roof with the former) the salary for the double duty is not to exceed 120l. In small houses of correction, calculated for the reception of a few prisoners, where there may sometimes be only two or three persons in confinement, and sometimes none at all, it is not necessary to go as far as the sum to which the justices are limited; such prisons must be attended by some clergyman who has other occupations in the neighbourhood,

At Gloucester the chaplain signs his approbation of every punishment in the book in which it is registered; but the propriety of this practice is very questionable: that the chaplain should formally sanction proceedings of this kind seems equally inconsistent with the relation in which he stands towards the prisoners, and with a due regard to the consequence and authority of the governor.

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