JB/116/604/002

Click Here To Edit

Letter 3d

is among the observations made by the intelligents professors
and practitioners in moral therapeutics in Philadelphia
, that among those to whose eyes the prospect
of imprisonment under the penitentiary form include every
thing that is most terrible, the prospect of imprisonment
in the ordinary form is a matter of comparative indifference.
In the unimproved prisons the loss of the liberty of
loco-motion is almost made up for by the absence of labour,
joined to the constant opportunity of congenial conversation,
sweetened by the occasional enjoyment of the means of drunkenness.

On the grounds of reformation, the publication of Mr
Neild, Account of the Society for the discharge of male debt, 1802 just fallen into my hands, offers a comparison not
quite so much much to the advantage of England as could
be wished. In Philadelphia, back sliders not more than 5
in 100 in the course of 5 years, even including the pardoned,
on whom the discipline with its benefits had not been tried.
From Dorchester in 14 years ending with 1807, out of 393 of
both sexes, 242 only stated as being "reclaimed" Neild 98 This is the whole
remainder were supported to be unreclaimed would give more
than 39 in the hundred backsliders. Five in the hundred in
5 years is is each year one: 39 in 14 years is in each year
almost 3. "Found reclaimed" however is the word: & it can namely
be supposed but that some may have been really reclaimed without
having been found to be so: death or change of place might be
alike productive of this effect. Want of agreement in respect of the
number of years, takes from the commensurability of that two
cares. The comparative view this given of them is not so accur accur
accurate as it might be: but to vender it so would require more words
than would be paid for by the result. In this English account this persevering
goal which would not only institute but keep on foot no troublesome a course of
investigation & the candour that laid the result before the public eye are alike
conspicuous. Of the difference as between the English discipline & the Philadelphia
in respect of the felicity of the result, no cause more probable upon the face
of it can, it should seem, be assigned, than the alternation of promiscuous
association with seclusion in the one case, contracted with the unremitted
exertions made in the other case to keep inviolate such degree of separation
as the architecture of the prison, unaided by the central inspection principle,
admitted of.

Identifier: | JB/116/604/002 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 116.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	116	Main Headings	panopticon versus new south wales
Folio number	604	Info in main headings field	letter 3d
Image	002	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	2
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	e1 / e2
Penner	john herbert koe	Watermarks	1800
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year	1800
Notes public	letter was never sent; see note 8 to letter 1747, vol. 7	ID Number	38137
Box Contents