JB/119/183/001

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Escape.
Observations with Answers
Panopticon Bill.

Observations on a passage or two in the Panopticon Bill, by a friend.

Sect. XI. Escape.

Art. 6. This is most outrageously severe: and it seems contrary to all principles of Justice
to leave it in the power of the prosecutor, that is of any body, to make the punishment greater or
less for the same Crime according to the mode of punishment which he chooses to adopt.

Answer

1. As to the quantum —

The true measure of punishment is, not the degree of resentment excited by the Offence in
the mind of any one who thinks of it, but the demand for punishment for the purpose of prevention.

A case can severely be conceived in which, in this point of view, the demand for punishment
can be greater. The punishment provided for the favouring escape in the instance
of a single prisoner, has not been objected to as "outrageously severe" indeed it is less so than
under the law as it stands at present. But the mischief in this case may be a thousand
times as great as in that: since from an act of real or pretended negligence on the part of a
Watchman of this sort, may result the escape of the whole number of prisoners at once; thence
the desolation of the neighbourhood by all sorts of crimes, &c.

I say pretended negligence: for if a Watchman, or a number of the Watchmen, were
to intend to facilitate the escape of the prisoners in general, either for the sake of the prisoners
in general, or what is more natural, for the sake of some one prisoner or some small knot of prisoners,
on whose behalf they had been bribed by some rich accomplice &c, what could be a more
feasible mode of executing such intention, than the being or pretending to be asleep or drunk,
when any attempt, either from within the prison or from without, was intended to be made?

The prisoners will be so numerous, their connections of all sorts consequently so numerous,
and in some instances (such as those of Receivers of stolen goods, Smugglers and Dealers
with Smugglers, Forgers, Coiners &c) may be so opulent, that if the punishment were for
a limited time, a purse might be collected, such as might make it worth the while of a
Watchman to undergo not only the chance but even the Certainty of incurring it.

This is exactly the same sort of offence, for which in the case where the mischief apprehended
is destructive to an army from a foreign enemy, the punishment is death:
There the enemy may be in any number, great or small, here the enemy is never in
less force than a thousand, and as there is no army to oppose them, the country would
lie at their mercy, till a little army could be collected.

2. As to the discretion left to the Prosecutor—
The

Identifier: | JB/119/183/001 "JB/" can not be assigned to a declared number type with value 119.
Date_1		Marginal Summary Numbering
Box	119	Main Headings	panopticon
Folio number	183	Info in main headings field	panopticon bill
Image	001	Titles
Category	copy/fair copy sheet	Number of Pages	4
Recto/Verso	recto	Page Numbering	d1 f1 / f2 / f3 / f4
Penner		Watermarks
Marginals		Paper Producer
Corrections		Paper Produced in Year
Notes public		ID Number	39694
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